A Film by Alfred Hitchcock
My Personal Take
. This is probably my favorite Hitchcock film. In this film, Hitchcock restrains himself. He does a perfect job at timing the events, revealing just enough information at just the right time, and building to a suspenseful finale. This is an intellectual edge-of-your-seat suspense film.
. Hitchcock, with this film, has set the tone for using the motion picture medium to comment on voyeurism. It has been often imitated since. As we watch James Stewart watching his neighbors, we realize that we, too, are as voyeuristic as he. Hitchcock makes us realize that viewing movies satisfies the same human instinct to spy on our neighbors... watching movies is simply more polite.
. Hitchcock, proving once again that he is a filmmaking genius, has shot nearly every scene of this movie from either inside Stewarts apartment, or from the point of view of the apartment window... and he has managed to keep it interesting! Not a single shot of this movie exists outside the apartment complex set.
. As a final footnote, The Simpsons did an excellent all-out parody of this movie. In their episode, the family gets a swimming pool. Bart breaks his leg horse-playing in the pool, and is forced to go pool-less all summer. When Lisa let's him borrow her telescope, Bart soon suspects his neighbor Ned Flanders has killed his wife, Maude. Very funny episode, and wonderful homage to Hitchcock.
Special Feature
I have a short clip from Rear Window. To view it, enter the Rear Window Screening Room.
