A few thoughts on Rear Window.

Rating: Null/10 (21 November 2011)

When I first heard that we would be watching this film in class, I wasn't too excited. It looked old, it looked boring, and the actors looked kind of fake. I thought to myself 'so what, two hours of a guy in a wheelchair looking out his rear window at his neighbors', what's the big deal? After watching the movie I'd like to change my opinion. This movie made a seemingly uninteresting scenario into an enjoyable mystery. I'm not going to go as far as to say "It will leave you on the edge of your seat" because it probably won't, but it is a classic thriller. The beginning is a little slow, but get past that and it's rather good. I can see in the 50's how this would strike people as a horror/thriller. It plants a disturbing seed in your mind, and that is the fact that nobody can be sure what their neighbors are doing behind closed doors. Nobody can be sure who anyone truly is inside.
The acting was pretty stand up too. I thought it was a little fishy though how one second he didn't want to be with the girl at all, then the next he accepted it and wanted her to stay. The only sing that she changed was the fact that she packed light to stay at his house. This is a movie though, not real life, and I kept that in mind. I'm not sure why he wasn't able to call the cops and report it. Everyone said he would be labeled as a "Peeping Tom", but I don't think that's right. If he looked out his window he would be seeing the windows of the other houses and apartments regardless of if he wanted to or not. Just like if the people living across from him looked out their windows they would be peering into his apartment and into the apartments of the people living above and below him. I think perhaps the people should of thought about this consequence before purchasing the space. I'm not sure if I was supposed to be getting that deep into the movie, but it was something I noted.
In one part of the movie, Jeffries, Lisa, and Stella notice that the flowers were raised higher than they were prior to the suspected murder. I thought that was pretty clever. I think everyone has what it takes to be a detective, it just kind of depends on the drive you have for it. They really wanted to figure this murder out so they started piecing clues together and tried getting all the questions that were left open answered.