We explore Hitchcock’s concept of the MacGuffin and how it lives on in movies today.
Additional sources:
* French Moviegoer (Jun 23, 2016). “Hitchcock-Truffaut Episode 10: The MacGuffin.” YouTube.
* iconic (Dec 8, 2010). “Alfred Hitchcock talking about fear.” YouTube.
* cavettbiter (Oct 22, 2007). “Alfred Hitchcock was confused by a laxative commercial”. YouTube.
* Truffaut, François (1983). Hitchcock/Truffaut. Google Books. Simon & Schuster
* Mogg, Ken (May 12, 2006). “Frequently asked questions on Hitchcock”. labyrinth.net.au.
* “MacGuffin.” Merriam-Webster. Accessed Oct 10, 2017.
* IGN Staff (May 20, 2008). “Top 10 Movie MacGuffins.” IGN.
* Springer, Mike (Jul 9, 2013). “Alfred Hitchcock Explains the Plot Device He Called the ‘MacGuffin.’” Open Culture.
* “Definitive List of Hitchcock McGuffins.” Borgus.com. Dec 2010.
* Dollman, Darla Sue (Feb 24, 2013). “Alfred Hitchcock and The MacGuffin Plot Device.” Alfred Hitchcock: Everything Alfred. Blogspot.
* Canjin, Gloria (Apr 27, 2012). “List of MacGuffins in Hithcock’s films (b).” Gloriacanjin. WordPress.
* Zou, David (Nov 29, 2012). “8 Trademarks of Hitchcock Movies.” Taste of Cinema.
* Saba, Michael (Jul 21, 2010). “The Nine Best Movie MacGuffins.” Paste Magazine.
* Marshall, Rick (Jun 5, 2016). “10 Best Movie MacGuffins of All Time”. Digital Trends.
* Windolf, Jim (Jan 2, 2008). “Keys to the Kingdom.” Vanity Fair.
* Commentary soundtrack to the 2004 DVD release of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
00:03
we must have a talk about the MacGuffin
00:07
it’s in almost every movie but no one
00:09
bothers to explain why it’s there you
00:12
might not pay it much attention
00:13
it’s the briefcase from pulp fiction the
00:16
tesseract from The Avengers and Monty
00:19
Python’s Holy Grail so what’s a
00:22
MacGuffin the MacGuffin is a term coined
00:25
by Alfred Hitchcock for a classic plot
00:27
device it’s an object or objective
00:29
driving the action of a movie which by
00:31
apt three fades and importance the thing
00:34
itself doesn’t mean much to the audience
00:35
but it matters greatly to the characters
00:38
within the story it’s always called the
00:41
thing that the characters on the screen
00:44
worry about but the audience don’t care
00:47
even before Hitchcock named it the plot
00:49
device was a cornerstone of dramatic
00:51
storytelling with The Maltese Falcon
00:53
from 1941 probably being the most iconic
00:56
in Hitchcock’s Psycho the MacGuffin is
01:00
the $40,000 that Marion crane steals
01:02
from her boss leading her to run away
01:04
and check in for her ill-fated stay at
01:06
the Bates Motel the money was the
01:08
catalyst for the early events of the
01:10
film but by the time Marion’s killed not
01:12
even halfway through the story we have
01:14
other things on our minds like homicidal
01:16
creeps who dress up as their mothers and
01:18
the MacGuffin the $40,000 seems almost
01:20
irrelevant Hitchcock first popularized
01:24
the term MacGuffin with his 1935 film
01:26
the 39 steps which is about an innocent
01:28
man who gets caught up in the world of
01:30
British military secrets surrounding the
01:32
mysterious 39 steps even most of the
01:35
film’s characters don’t know what the
01:37
thirty-nine steps means they and the
01:38
audience just know that it’s important
01:41
other MacGuffins and Hitchcock films
01:43
include the government secrets and North
01:45
by
01:45
northwest the uranium sand hidden in the
01:48
wine bottles in notorious Harry’s true
01:51
cause of death in the trouble with Harry
01:53
and the mysterious reason that the birds
01:55
are attacking in the birds a MacGuffin
01:58
you see in most films about spies it is
02:03
a thing that the spies are half done
02:06
outside of Hitchcock some examples of
02:09
pure MacGuffins the kind that Hitchcock
02:10
would approve of include the letters of
02:12
transit that the characters seek in
02:14
Casablanca the unobtanium the government
02:16
wants an avatar and the rabbit’s foot
02:18
the arms dealer pursues in Mission
02:20
Impossible 3 in Hitchcock’s view the
02:23
best MacGuffin is as vague and almost
02:24
meaningless as possible but in the years
02:26
since Hitchcock some have reinterpreted
02:28
the MacGuffin George Lucas has said he
02:31
considers r2d2 or more specifically the
02:33
Death Star plans that r2d2 has a
02:35
MacGuffin the modern MacGuffin as
02:37
described by Lucas works better when
02:39
it’s so powerful that the audience cares
02:41
about it almost as much as the
02:43
characters on screen this way we get
02:45
wrapped up in the characters quest even
02:47
though in the end the MacGuffin still
02:49
turns out to be a plot driver that
02:51
wasn’t ultimately of the most central
02:52
importance to the heart of the story
02:54
even characters can be MacGuffins
02:57
Apocalypse Now is Colonel Kurtz Saving
03:00
Private Ryan Private Ryan and a third
03:02
man Terry Lyme are all people who exist
03:04
off screen for the first act of the film
03:06
as ideas that drive the plot when we
03:09
meet each of these characters the idea
03:11
we had is undermined and our focus
03:13
shifts to a larger mission or new
03:15
objective between the Hitchcock camp and
03:17
the Lucas camp the modern understanding
03:19
of the MacGuffin is so complex that it
03:21
can be debatable whether the label fits
03:23
thank the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry
03:25
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone this is
03:27
arguably a true MacGuffin because it
03:29
could be replaced by another plot driver
03:31
and our investment in the story would
03:33
still be the same the one ring in Lord
03:35
of the Rings is also sometimes called a
03:37
MacGuffin as it drives the plot and
03:39
motivates the characters but the ring
03:41
carries solid importance throughout the
03:43
story we care very much whether it’s
03:45
destroyed so it could be too important
03:47
to be a MacGuffin
03:50
rosebud in Citizen Kane can be called a
03:52
MacGuffin because the mystery of what
03:54
rosebud means is the big question
03:55
driving the story in the end it’s far
03:58
from unimportant the symbol of Kane’s
04:01
lost childhood is a crucial thumb attic
04:03
reveal but its significance shifts from
04:06
what we previously thought
04:07
all of these supposed MacGuffins are
04:09
important to the audience and thus don’t
04:11
fit perfectly into Hitchcock’s
04:12
definition but like a traditional
04:14
MacGuffin they drive the plot into the
04:16
third act when the primary focus of the
04:18
story changes on a narrative level a
04:20
good MacGuffin keeps us grounded in the
04:22
immediate action of the story on a
04:24
deeper level the unimportance of the
04:26
MacGuffin reminds us to shift our focus
04:27
in life as in the movie away from small
04:31
particulars to a wider view when
04:33
watching a film most viewers care more
04:35
about the big picture than the little
04:37
nothings or details the MacGuffins but
04:40
our day-to-day lives revolve around
04:41
preoccupations that at the time seem
04:43
momentous like stressful conversations
04:46
commuting finances symbolically the
04:49
triviality of the MacGuffin represents
04:51
to us that like life imitating art we
04:54
spend a great deal of our time worrying
04:55
about the wrong things so where does the
04:59
name MacGuffin come from fittingly the
05:01
words origin is itself kind of a
05:03
MacGuffin because it has no intrinsic
05:05
meaning it’s a placeholder
05:07
what matters is its function giving the
05:09
characters purpose and driving the story
05:13
without the MacGuffin or whatever you
05:15
call it the most beloved plots in movies
05:18
would never exist is it what is a
05:22
MacGuffin is it well it’s an apparatus
05:25
for trapping lions in the Scottish
05:30
Highlands when super there are no lines
05:33
in the Scottish islands it’s a then
05:36
that’s no MacGuffin
05:40
I’m thank you for clearing that up for
05:43
it
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video
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