Rear Window ***1/2

Directed by Alfred Hithcock.
Released 1954.
Based on short story by Cornell Woolrich - "It Had to be Murder".
Screenplay by John Michael Harps.
With James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter and Raymund Burr.
Seen in theater.


I haven't seen this film for over 20 years, and when I did, I believe I saw it on video. It was nice to see the camera work on the big screen with its vivid colors of the bulildings and gardens, etc.

Most people already know this film, but this might provide a reminder about what a great film this was. For that reason, I 'll keep the summary short.

A photographer and adventurer, James Stewart, is stuck in his apartmant all day becasue he has a broken leg. He spends all day watching his neighbors through the rear window of his apertment. Meanwhile Grace Kelly's character, an upscale high falutin' fashion executive, is trying to convince him to marry. The photographer is not so sure since he's a rough and ready adventurer after all.

While looking at his neighbors, he starts to invent narratives for them and watches them to see if his invented narratives come true. Eventiually, he begins to think that in one of the house holds something very fishy is going on. He's convinced that the husband, played by Raymond Burr, has killed his invalid wife and disposed of her in a particularly gruesome way. He becomes an amateur sleuth to get to the bottom of the mystery.

One minor complaint I have with the film is that it is kind of slow moving. It almost has to be becasue the narrative and the character development of the neighbors is almost played out in pantomime, like a silent film. So things take a while to develope. It's quite an inventive film technique that Hitchcock uses and there is no way that a film, with this pacing, could be made comercailly in these days. It's both intrigueing and a little slow at the same time. I admired it for this, but I was simultaneously getting antsy, and like i've said in a recent past blog entry, I feel my patience for films is way above the average film goer of today.

There are also some inetersting moral themes being discussed and presented. The whole concept of privacy is an issue. It's funny to me that it seems that the characters don't think that it's bad to spy on their neighbors. Stewart's character makes no bones about his spying, though he doesn't want to get caught, and is quite obvious about it. Grace kelly's character only seems bothered by it, becasue it makes her boyfriend distracted. The characters do discuss th eissue of privacy briefly, but seem to laugh it off.

But... this spying on the neighbors leads Stewart to make some judgements and conclusions about his neighbors based on sparse and imcomplete evidence that he has garnered from his watching. The privacy of the neighbors is being invaded and they are being judged on how they behave in certain contexts. I think that this is the moral of the story. Remember, this was also around the time of Jospeph McCarthy. I don't know if privacy was one of the issues at the time, there might have ben more immediate threats to people's civil rights, but i I would bet that the accused communists were not too thrilled to have their private lives and values exposed to the nation.