Rear Window
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"Perhaps only one other filmmaker -- Walt Disney -- lived to see his name become synonymous with a certain type of screen entertainment: In Hitchcock's case, it was stylish, sophisticated suspense, laced with humor and romance" (Maltin, 1994, n. p.). Alfred Hitchcock started in the movie making business in 1920, before there was color, before there were "talkies", and this greatly influenced the way he directed and filmed a movie -- the way he "saw" the movie. His experience helped him to understand that a picture is worth more than a thousand words of dialogue. According to Maltin, Hitchcock "proved that the presence of sound was no reason not to continue to tell stories with visual panache" (1994, n. p.). Rear Window was not only a suspenseful movie that told a story with "visual panache", it was a commentary on the spectator in a society of spectators -- who are actors in their turn. Cameras are prevalent everywhere, from disposable Kodaks and home video cameras to professional photography equipment and movie cameras to wireless cameras used for security purposes. In a society like this it's easy to feel, sometimes, as if one is always living in front of one of those cameras. Conversely, movies and television and security cameras are so extensive through out society and so deep-seated now that it's easy to succumb to what Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) refers to in Rear Window (1954) as "rear window ethics". "Rear window ethics" is that ability or habit or compulsio
. . .
suspicion (Ebert, 2000, n. p.).
Each square offers its own bit of action and many times Hitchcock uses the little stories being played out in the courtyard to emphasize the story that is contained in the apartment where Jeff lives. For example, at the beginning when Jeff is talking to his editor about coming back to work, they get on the topic of marriage. Jeff doesn't want to be "nagged to death". His friend says it's no longer called nagging, it's called discussing. During this conversation the audience sees Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr), the salesman and his invalid wife, Anna (Irene Winston), arguing after he gets home from work.
In another instance, after Lisa arrives in a new dress and with a catered dinner, she and Jeff start a discussion about marriage as well. Jeff is against it, he is "in love with the occupation of photography, and becomes completely absorbed in reconstructing the images he has seen through his lens. He wants what he can spy at a distance, not what he can hold in his arms" (Ebert, 2000, n. p.). Taylor discusses the voyeuristic atmosphere that Hitchcock has set up. "Put in the position of watching along with Jeff, we see moments so private that our first impulse is to look away in embarrass
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1849
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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