Rear Window

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Rear Window

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Rear Window

Grace Kelly, James Stewart, Raymond Burr, Thelma Ritter, Wendell Corey

A wheelchair bound photographer spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

Id: 10902978

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Recent Reviews

Rear Window Recent Reviews
  • mrpopcorn
    August 20, 2009
    mrpopcorn
    "Through his rear window and the eye of his powerful camera he watched a great city tell on itself, expose its cheating ways...and Murder!"

    A wheelchair bound photographer spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed mu...( read more)rder.

    REVIEW

    "Rear Window" represents Alfred Hitchcock at his most playful. This is Hitchcock's most fully realized comment about the obsession with voyeurism that reared its head repeatedly throughout his ouvre, an obsession not only of his, but one shared by the characters in his films and the audience watching them -- for without the delight that comes in watching other people, who would filmmakers be making films for?

    "Rear Window" is a nearly perfect movie: perfectly plotted, perfectly directed, perfectly acted. James Stewart could play characters like this in his sleep, but that fact does not make his performance any less entertaining. Some of the ice melts off of Grace Kelly's facade, and she gives the wittiest and sexiest performance of her career. And who can say enough about Thelma Ritter? A truly unique character actor in the history of cinema, Ritter always played the audience's id, thinking and saying all of the things all of the other characters in the film were too polite or nervous to think and say themselves. She could recite a weather forecast in that sardonic, world-weary monotone of hers, and it would still be funny. Hitchcock was always able to blend suspense, romance and social commentary to varying degrees of success, but almost always better than most other directors could manage. "Rear Window" stands as an example of what happened when he struck a perfect balance between all three.
  • MovieGeek13
    January 16, 2009
    MovieGeek13
    Hitchcock's masterpiece. Efficient, full of humourous and romantic moments, and downright suspenseful. They just don't make them like this anymore.
  • sononothing
    January 6, 2009
    sononothing
    Alfred Hitchcock was used to doing films on small set pieces. Rope was a series of continuous takes shot in one apartment. Dial M For Murder was more of the same, also being shot in on apartment set. With Rear Window you can almost call it the biggest small set movie ever made- m...( read more)ost of the film takes place in L.B. Jeffrie's (Jimmy Stewart) apartment but it looks out onto a magnificent New York apartment courtyard set.

    The story follows a wheelchair confined Stewart going crazy in his small New York apartment in the middle of a heat wave. Now this was before DVD players and Ipods, so all poor Jeff has to do is stare out the window and watch his neighbors as they exist in the courtyard. It's while he's passing the time that he thinks he says a neighbor (Raymond Burr) across the way murder his wife.It becomes an obsession with Jeff and his uptown girlfriend (the beautiful Grace Kelly) to prove that the wife was killed before he skips town.

    Such a simple premise, yet Hitchcock weaves a film that has more layers then you go in expecting. Take the relationship between Jeff and Lisa (Kelly). Lisa is practically throwing herself at him, trying to get him to settle down and he seems totally against the idea, even to the point of making comments leading the viewer to believe that she's too perfect. But as the film rolls along and she starts getting more adventurous in the endeavor he looks at her with an admiration that was lacking earlier in the film. There's more personality in this film than is on the surface.

    For more personality just look at the courtyard and the other neighbors that aren't butchering their spouses. They all have a different personality and no two are alike. The musician, the spinster, the easy girl, the newlyweds, etc, etc, etc.

    Hitchcock's real triumph is the way he makes you feel like you're a peeping tom. The way he cuts from what Stewart is looking at to Stewart's reaction makes you feel what he's feeling, be it shame, humor, or disgust. And when the killer's staring at you down the lens you get a start, even though you're just a casual visitor in Hitchcock's New York world.

    Rear Window is a masterpiece from the master. It is a film that is re-watchable and like most great films, doesn't age to terribly. Rear Window is one of the best.
  • stopitgoaway
    December 14, 2008
    stopitgoaway
    Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, wittily written by John Michael Hayes, is one of his many films I think of as much of a technical exercise as anything else. It is in this sense like his silent The Lodger, the static, confined Lifeboat, and the cut-less, one set Rope. Considered i...( read more)n this light it is a cold masterpiece, playing more with the audience's thoughts and fears than with its softer, more personal emotions. As such, it is a very cerebral and satisfying piece of work. The plot is deceptively simple: a photographer (James Stewart) is stuck indoors with his leg in a cast during a hot New York summer. His socialite girl-friend (Grace Kelly) is eager to marry him but Stewart has his doubts, since he lives a wandering life and is from a different social class. He spends most of his time idling about and playing with his camera. In time he becomes a voyeur (which he probably already is, to a degree) and begins to observe his neighbors' private lives, as he views them through his lens in the courtyard. He develops attitudes toward each of them, ranging from mild amusement to empathy to sexual interest, depending on who he's looking at. Without realizing it he is really looking at different aspects of either himself or his relationship with Kelly. The courtyard is a kind of mirror of his soul. These people and their predicaments represent different sides of his (and to a lesser extent Miss Kelly's) personality, offering glimpses of potential past, present and future selves; and it is not always a flattering picture. The newlyweds are continually having sex; Miss Torso is a beautiful young woman who entertains many suitors; there is a childless, somewhat pathetic-seeming middle-aged couple who dote over a pet dog; Miss Lonelyhearts is a depressed, aging spinster with no apparent friends; and the young, bachelor song-writer, when he isn't trying to compose songs, is either throwing parties or fits. Then there are the Thorwalds, a squabbling couple across the way. Stewart is at first only slightly interested in them until Mrs. Thorwald disappears and her husband starts going out at night carrying paper parcels that look like they came from a butcher shop. Soon Stewart is, understandably, suspicious. He convinces Kelly that something is amiss, but has trouble with his detective friend. His nurse Stella agrees that something is wrong across the courtyard, and the threesome become amateur detectives. Rear Window is great fun. It's a thriller, a romance, a mystery, and at times a comedy of manners. The actors all give superb, unflashy performances. Hitchcock had been making movies for three decades by the time he undertook this one, and he knew exactly what he was doing; everything happens as it should, on time, with no fuss or bother. The courtyard set is magnificently designed and photographed; it looks both artificial and realistic, and seems almost to change at times, as circumstances dictate. This is, after Dial M For Murder, Hitchcock's first truly 'fifties' film, which is to say it is a far cry from the genteel romances and spy stuff he'd been doing before. There's less use of atmosphere here, as a new, more independent director was emerging, decidedly post-Selznick, often using color. Hitchcock is playing a sort game of cinematic chess, moving people and things around here and there, changing camera angles slyly, never showing his hand. The film lacks only warmth. All sorts of learned books and articles have been written about this picture, some of them quite silly; all at least partly right. This is at times a profound film, but it also aims to entertain, it has a light touch, and it can be scary, it's romantic about couples and cynical about people. There's a little bit of everything in it,--it's a work of art.
  • sanjurosamurai
    November 4, 2008
    sanjurosamurai
    one of the best of hitchcockcs films. very slow film because this is a full length movie based on a short story, so it drags a little, but the story is very interesting and its told well. james stewart was great as always and the whole film youre really left wondering if the sa...( read more)lesman across the courtyard commited the murder or not.
  • doglover000000
    December 7, 2009
    doglover000000
    Its slow and usually this would be a problem but with brilliant performances and a well writen, suspense filled film. Its hard to dislike this film! It kept me guessing right till the end! They build up a good case for proving that his neighbour had murdered his wife but when Jam...( read more)es Steward brings in his police friend to investigate, he convincingly disputes all of James Stewards case. Its difinitely one to watch. Brilliant!
  • gmale9000
    December 4, 2009
    gmale9000
    Hitchcock at his best
  • thereeldeal
    December 4, 2009
    thereeldeal
    Great flick. Simple, but suspenseful and enjoyable. My favourite Hitchcock film.
  • joyndick
    December 4, 2009
    joyndick
    An excellent Alfred Hitchcock movie. One you don't want to miss.
  • carolynmj19774
    December 4, 2009
    carolynmj19774
    If this is the movie with Jimmy Stewart - I LOVE IT! Hitchcock ROCKS!
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