Obsession is a 1976 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Brian De Palma, starring Cliff Robertson, Geneviève Bujold, and John Lithgow.

Both De Palma and Schrader have pointed to Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) as the major inspiration for Obsession's narrative and thematic concerns.

Schrader's script was extensively rewritten and pared down by De Palma before shooting, causing the screenwriter to proclaim a complete lack of interest in the film's subsequent production and release.

Completed in 1975, Columbia Pictures picked up the distribution rights but demanded that minor changes be made to reduce potentially controversial aspects of the plot.

When finally released in the late summer of 1976, it became De Palma's first substantial box-office success and received mixed reviews from critics.

Sixteen years later, Courtland is obsessed with his late wife and often visits a monument he has had built in her memory, a replica of the church (the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte) in Florence, Italy, where the two of them first met.

This time, Courtland decides to deliver the ransom though it will drive him to ruin, withdrawing massive amounts from his accounts and holdings and signing over his interest in the real estate business to LaSalle.

Sandra, who has come to love Courtland, writes a note to her father and takes a pair of cuticle scissors to the washroom and slits her wrists, attempting suicide.

The plane returns to the airport, intercutting between Courtland, striding toward the gate, and Sandra, wrists bound, being pushed along the concourse to the terminal by an attendant.

"[1] Bernard Herrmann, the film's composer, agreed that the original ending should be jettisoned, telling De Palma after reading Schrader's version "Get rid of it — that'll never work".

[2] Schrader remained resentful of De Palma's rewrite for years and claimed to have lost all interest in the project once the change was made.

De Palma was effusive in his praise of Bujold who he felt had the more difficult role, which she played admirably, giving the film the emotional resonance needed for the project.

Obsession had managed to obtain enough positive critical notices to spark interest, and it earned the distributor over $4 million in domestic (U.S. and Canada) rentals.

"[9] Variety's review described it as "an excellent romantic and non-violent suspense drama...Paul Schrader's script...is a complex but comprehensible mix of treachery, torment and selfishness..."[10] In Time, Richard Schickel called the film "...exquisite entertainment...The film also throws into high melodramatic relief certain recognizable human truths: the shock of sudden loss, the panic of the effort to recoup, the mourning and guilt that blind the protagonist to a multitude of suspicious signs as he seeks expiation and a chance to relive his life.

The site's consensus reads: "Obsession suffers in comparison to the Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece that it mirrors, but director Brian De Palma's unique preoccupations give this thriller its own compulsive, twisted fingerprint".