High Noon Rear Window

Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window and Fred Zinneman's High Noon are both considered artistic classics in their respective genres. Both films build and sustain enormous tension during the unfolding of their respective hero's tales. Both also rely heavily on the cinematic elements of photography, mise-en-scene, and sound to achieve suspense and tension. However, both films contrast in the ways these elements are used to achieve this effect.

Both Hitchcock and Zinneman rely in photography to build tension and suspense. However, in Hitchcock's film we are in tight, cramped and narrow confines, while in Zinneman's film we have contrasting wide-open spaces. Both L. B. Jeffries (Jeff) and Marshall Will Kane are isolated men. Jeff is emotionally aloof while Kane is isolated from the other townsfolk. Jeff's fears of commitment are in contrast to Will's inability to shirk his duty. Jeff is not only confined by his emotional condition, but he is wheel-chair bound throughout the film. Tight shots, close-ups, and cluttered mise-en-scene serve to reinforce Jeff's trapped nature. As Ebert writes, "The hero is trapped in a wheelchair, and we're trapped too-trapped inside his point of view, inside his lack of freedom and his limited options" (1).

Will Kane's events in real time, with shots of a ticking clock adding to the tension of his upcoming gunfight. As McGinnis notes, "The best part is the fact that the fi

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h Noon that increases tensions, so, too, in Rear Window tension and meaning are heightened by regular shots of a thermometer which expresses the heat wave occurring. As Will Kane's walks through town on his rounds help define his character, so the character of Jeff is revealed to us as the camera then moves around his apartment with the mise-en-scene providing clues as to his occupation and personal life. As one critic notes of the camera work, "The cinematography by Robert Burks brings forth all the heat in the neighborhood and, towards the film's end, all the heightened exaggerated anxiety of the climactic sequence" (Chan 3). Whereas Hitchcock relies more on the natural sounds of his city environment than Franz Waxman's score, the use of such sounds greatly contribute to the film's impact. Jazz music, piano music, singing, alarms, delivery people, neighbors chatting, doorbells, children's screams, sirens and other noises add to the tension in the film and promote a lifelike experience. Music is also used to convey the love and obstacles to that love within the relationship between Jeff and Lisa. Lisa hears a neighboring musician playing Mona Lisa on the piano. She and Jeff begin a dialogue because of it: Lisa: Where does

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