Dear Alfred Hitchcock, please forgive me.
But when I last saw the masterpiece Vertigo, I noticed some similarities to the young adult vampire franchise, Twilight.
(I just shuddered writing that.)
If you look at the characters of Judy Barton (Kim Novak) and Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), they seem to have similar goals. They want to be "changed" by their lovers, Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) respectively, as a way to fully get acceptance and affection. Judy lets herself be transformed into Madeleine and Bella begs Edward to change her into a vampire. These women believe the transformations will be the final step to uniting them with their male counterparts.
Feminist critics probably read Judy and Bella the same way; they both lack a personality of their own (Judy abandons hers for Scottie's memory of Madeleine while Bells never really had one to begin with). Neither character is really a healthy role model for children of any age. But there's a reason why I would happily let my kids watch Vertigo while I cringe at my mind's image of future kids viewing/reading the Twilight series.
And the reason lies in the characters of Scottie and Edward (and Jacob Black by extension) themselves.
While Judy is a weak character, it must be remembered that Scottie too is a weak character. Their bizarre, psychosexual relationship is toxic on both ends. Scottie is so crazy that he cannot see Judy for herself but only as Madeleine. His labored attempts to change Judy into Madeleine (when buying for Judy the grey suit that Madeleine wore, the sales clerk mentions twice that he "really knows what he wants") can be seen as him indulging in his deranged love for Madeleine.
In the famous scene where Judy emerges, metamorphosis complete, from the bathroom as Madeleine, it's not entirely sure if Scottie (and the audience also) is seeing Judy-as-Madeleine or Madeleine herself. The foggy air and ethereal music suggest a ghostly presence. When Scottie kisses Judy in that beautifully-filmed rotation kiss, does he even know he's kissing "another woman" or in his mind, is he actually kissing Madeleine?
Even before Judy comes into the picture, Scottie is far from a masculine ideal. For one thing, Scottie is a boy's name, not something you would call a grown man. Also, in the scene where Scottie tries to overcome his vertigo in Midge's apartment with a step-stool, he very effeminately faints into Midge's arms:
In the trial scene after Madeleine's death, Scottie is rather mercilessly emasculated by the judge. He is constantly reminded of his own weakness and failure to save Madeleine. In one scene, Madeleine jumps into the bay in a trance, Scottie saves her. Madeleine then tells Scottie, "The whole thing must have been rather embarrassing for you." Well, that line applies to the entire movie.
By contrast, Edward Cullen is depicted as a masculine ideal. He's handsome and strong and "dazzling." Bella seems him as an ideal romantic partner and her attempts to be changed by him are an attempt to be completely loved by him (like Judy). But the problem is, the audience too is expected to see Edward as Bella does. The audience knows that Judy and Scottie should stay away from each other and their onscreen love is twisted and paranoid.
But the Edward-Bella love story is free of any such psychodrama. Bella is a pretty normal high school girl (as normal as any high school kid can be) and Edward (and his isolationist lifestyle) is a ticket away from all that. That's what makes Twilight so scary; this sort of idealized romance suggests that the couple hide from the world. That's not exactly something I want my fourteen-year-old daughter or son to be thinking.
I know some Twilight fans don't see Edward as the perfect mate. But don't even get me started on Jacob Black. While Bella is described as delicate and is consistently infantilized (sitting on laps, piggy back rides, etc.), Jacob is a gigantic pile of brutish masculinity. Impossibly muscular and impulsively hot-headed, Jacob is basically Stanley Kowalski.
But without Tennessee Williams' words and Marlon Brando's talent. And Stanley is not seen as an ideal love interest.
While Twilight and Vertigo have similar female characters, their male characters are protrayed differently. Vertigo is a psychodramatic love story which should be populated by weak and twisted characters. But Twilight doesn't ever reach the suspenseful heights that Vertigo does. I don't even think it wants to. But its somewhat normalcy is what makes it such a dangerous pop culture enterprise.
