‘Rope’? Talk about awkward. Vertigo was actually badly received by American critics and audiences at the time. It was revived by the next generation of American critics taking their cue from the French. Spileberg had made films with similar themes but those came before E.T. as well. WOTW was as good a depiction of escalating dread as any American film has presented in a long time. A friend of mine took his 10 year old daughter who loves gory horror movies and is quite jaded...and it disturbed her as other films had not. Nobody knows hot to build suspense like that anymore. And it was a much better 9/11 film then ‘World Trade Center’.
Rope is awkward, a definite example of an experimental technique getting in the way of the story. But it’s a good story. Vertigo got some Oscar nominations so somebody must have liked it when it came out, but I hate the movie.
Problem with WOTW is that there is no escalating dread because the plot is so laughable. The only escalating dread I got during that movie was the dread at what stupid thing would happen next. just because WTC was lame doesn’t make WOTW watchable.