Rear Window

 

Rear Window was released in 1954 by Alfred Hitchcock, the film is a thriller/murder mystery. In the film we see a husband and wife (Mr. and Mrs. Thorwald) continuously argue. This is all seen from Jeff’s (our main characters) point of view. We notice that Mrs. Thorwald disappears, and Mr. Thorwald starts to act peculiar. Mr. Thorwald proceeds to pack up, getting ready to leave, Jeff then takes notice and raises awareness to this. Lisa(the woman who wants to marry Jeff) proceeds to help Jeff catch Mr. Thorwald, because Jeff is in a full leg cast and can't stand up. Lisa puts herself in danger, almost gets killed by Mr. Thorwald but he is eventually caught trying to kill Jeff. It's a big thriller with a huge ending that makes us sit on the edge of our seats. 

One thing that really stood out to me in this film is the cultural significance it had. It takes a girl like Lisa, who is a very proper woman, and likes to dress all fancy, and makes her a thrill seeker. She is the one who runs over and tries to dig up the flowers to find a dead body, she is putting herself in danger. This breaks down the stereotypes we see in this time period, she is doing dangerous acts on her own accord. She also does this when she sneaks into Thorwald's apartment when he is gone. She knows there is a possibility of him coming back, and her being stuck in the apartment. She does it with no hesitation and puts herself right in the danger, making her seem fearless. Along with the stereotypes being broken by Lisa, we also see other negative cultural ideologies as well. Doyle makes some very sexist remarks about females and women as a whole when he talks with Jeff. Along with that, we see when we are looking out the window in a scene, that a man was forcing himself onto Miss Lonelyheart. This was “common” back then for a man to do something so heinous, so it wasn’t focused on much in the film after it was shown. 

Moving on, the most interesting thing for me about this film was the cinematic aspect of it. Hitchcock used a few special techniques to show different emotions and feelings for the audience. The first technique I wanted to point out was the prolonged pan at the beginning of the film. For the first minute and thirty seconds there are no cuts at all, just one long pan showing the entire set. Now this is important because it introduces us to the neighborhood, the setting as a whole, and the point of view we will have the entire film. Along with that, the point of view makes us feel hopeless in certain situations. We are seeing everything from Jeff's point of view when we look out the window. We can't leave similarly to how he cant leave, it makes us feel like we are as hopeless and stuck as he is. Now when looking into different windows the sound is a big part, especially with couples. When looking into couples windows we hear sirens, making it seem like a bad thing to be married. This helps us see Jeff's reasoning on why he doesn't want to be married, it seems like a bad scary thing to do. Finally the most important thing I noticed is that each window is a different life. You have the life of the young ballet dancer all happy and full of energy. Then you have the sad life of the musician and Miss Lonely heart, failed love and work going bad. We also see the main life we look in on, Thorwald's home and the terror that ensues in it. Each window is a look into everyone's struggles and lives they live everyday in the neighborhood. All and all, Hitchcock uses many techniques to make the film thrilling and intense, making it a great watch.