James Stewart, Robert Mitchum: The Two Faces of America (2017 TV Movie)

Leo Braudy: Self - Cultural Historian

Quotes 

• Self - Cultural Historian : You can see Mitchum and Stewart as complimentary. And that Stewart is a kind of hero, in that way, whereas, Mitchum is almost always the anti-hero. So, between the two of them, they correspond to the opposite ends of the American idea of what a hero is, you know. Is a hero somebody who has to stand for something, who has to run something, who has to be a leader? Or, is the hero somebody who is true to himself?

• Self - Cultural Historian : So many of Hitchcock's films, in general, but particularly after the war and with characters sometimes played by Jimmy Stewart, are about the innocent bystander who gets drawn into a criminal situation. And part of being drawn into that, it turns out that, in fact, the bystander is not so innocent. So, it's by the bystander's own guilt, the subterranean guilt, that pulls them in. Now, if you look at the progression of the kinds of roles that Stewart plays in those Hitchcock films, he starts out separate. In "Rope" he is the lawyer who, you know, can understand that - he's sort of detached from it - he discovers that what's actually going on there. With "Rear Window" he's trying to be detached. Right, he's sitting there, has the camera and everything, but he get pulled into it. I mean, once again he gets pulled into, you know, there's this kind of whirlpool of crime that you're pulled into, in fact, because you're somewhat guilty yourself. And then, of course, by the time of "Vertigo," he is the one who manipulates the whole situation. He's the one who sets it all up. If you want to put it under a large umbrella, it's again a kind of what's become the consciousness because of the war - and the capability of normal people, let's say, to kill. You know, even in your head. So, to discover that potential in yourself, I think is reflected in some of the themes of these Hitchcock films.