Talk:MacGuffin

It would be good if someone added the list of films as to which the spoiler warning pertains.

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I have removed:

Another famous MacGuffin (used by someone other than Hitchcock) is the word "Rosebud" in the Orson Welles film Citizen Kane. The reporter spends the entire movie searching for the meaning of the word, and during the course of the film he (and the audience) learns all about Kane's life. But the true meaning of "Rosebud" is not revealed until the final shot of the film.

from the page, because it is incorrect. That "Rosebud" refers to the toy sled the young Kane had when he was a child has a particular importance; broadly speaking, it is a (slightly melodramatic) way of showing that the power and money Kane possesses have limits and cannot purchase what is lost to time. (The sled does still exist, of course, but Kane himself has changed -- he wants not only the sled, but to be the child who once owned it.)

In other words, "Rosebud" is not a MacGuffin. It could not be replaced by any arbitrary object of great desirability; it is important that the object be something Kane owned as a child and that he has a particular (though vague) memory of. The radioactive diamonds could become the secret microfilm, but the sled could not. It is revelatory when we discover that "Rosebud" refers, e.g., not to a woman, or a painting, but instead to a part of Kane's childhood.

Here is Hitchcock on it: the MacGuffin is:

"the device, the gimmick, if you will, or the papers the spies are after... The only thing that really matters is that in the picture the plans, documents or secrets must seem to be of vital importance to the characters. To me, the narrator, they're of no importance whatsoever."

Hitchcock or general plot-device as primary meaning?

Recent edits suggest disagreement over whether the word MacGuffin is primarily used as a Hitchcock reference or as a general term for the plot device. I believe the Hitchcock-specific sense is still primary. A quick Google search using "a macguffin" -cipher -wikipedia (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22a+macguffin%22+-cipher+-wikipedia) ("a macguffin" to remove most proper-name uses) yields 3,820 hits, while adding -hitchcock (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22a+macguffin%22+-cipher+-wikipedia+-hitchcock) pares it down to 759. This back-of-the-envelope usage study suggests to me that Hitchcock-related uses outnumber general ones by 3 or 4 to 1. Therefore I am reintroducing the Hitchcock reference as the primary sense in the intro; but disagreement and even reverting is welcome if others feel strongly about this. -- Rbellin|Talk 05:00, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Possibly that 3 to 1 is accurate, but remember that Hitchcock invented the word, so he's very likely to be mentioned in many articles that use the word. "MacGuffin = mainly Hitchcock" may be no more accurate from that point of view that say "cricket = mainly England", which any Australian, Indian, or Pakistani will tell you is rubbish. I know from my time peripherally involved in the theatre that the term has widespread use in non-Hitchcock film and theatre, even though Hitchcock is clearly understood to have coined the term. Grutness|^hello? Missing image
Grutness.jpg


11:30, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Zizek

I removed the Zizek quote for several reasons. It was too long, it only marginally addressed the alleged MacGuffin status of the Iraqi WMDs, and it is available elsewhere (I did not delete the link.)

Also, Zizek's phrase "radioactive diamonds" is imprecise. It may have been a facetious reference to a different MacGuffin that had been considered for Notorious or it may have been Zizek's mistake. (In the movie the substance is uranium ore.) -- FC 10:43, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)

DegreeAbsolute

I must say, I have serious doubts about the premise that the non-existent secret agent George Kaplan in North by Northwest qualifies as a Macguffin, since Kaplan is not something you could "replace with anything else" without altering the story. He's merely, as Leo G. Carroll's Professor character says, "an elaborate ruse." Besides, I think it's generally understood that the MacGuffin in North by Northwest was, in fact, the microfilm inside the pottery sculpture, which actually fits the definition. If I recall correctly, Hitchcock admitted as much during his extended interview with Francois Truffaut. Can anyone confirm this?--DegreeAbsolute 14:54, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)