Rear Window Review

Rating: 10/10 (24 September 2018)

Alfred Hitchcock is undoubtedly the master of suspense. "Rear Window" is a testament to his ability to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Not only does he build suspense through the power of doubt, but the subtleties of his camera-work contribute to the audience's physical and emotional investment.
Rear Window's main character, Jeff, is wheelchair bound after having broken his leg. He spends his time spying on his neighbors, who end up all representing different aspects of love & relationships. One neighbor in particular, Mr. Thorwald, becomes especially suspicious to Jeff as his behaviors seem to indicate that he killed his wife after a rough marriage. We are introduced to Stella, Jeff's visiting nurse who is initially skeptical, and Lisa, Jeff's love interest. Both characters eventually join Jeff in his speculation, and work together trying to figure out if Mr. Thorwald really is a murderer. In the end, Mr. Thorwald is caught and Jeff falls in love with Lisa.
Like any other mystery movie, Rear Window withholds the killer's reveal until the very end, but Hitchcock takes building the suspense a step further. Throughout the movie, Hitchcock makes the audience question or even doubt Jeff, by introducing counter evidence. At times, we are made to believe that maybe Jeff's opinion's are hyper speculative and that his observations can be explained by perfectly reasonable behaviors. This doubt makes the mystery and the suspense so much more powerful, as the situation could realistically go either way. We first begin to doubt Jeff when we are introduced to Stella. Jeff tells Stella about his theory that Mr. Thorwald is a killer, and Stella very reasonably comes up with other explanations for Mr. Thorwald's actions. Hitchcock makes us doubt Jeff a second time, when we are introduced to Detective Doyle. Like Stella, Doyle explains that it is unreasonable to accuse Mr. Thorwald since there is a lack of concrete evidence, let alone act on it and search his apartment. It is hard not to side with Doyle, after all he is an experienced professional with a high reputation. The third and final time Hitchcock makes us doubt Jeff, is when Lisa sneaks into Mr. Thorwald's apartment in search of Mrs. Thorwald's ring. The trio (Jeff, Stella, and Lisa) had reasoned that Mr. Thorwald was sloppy in his execution, and had put Mrs. Thorwald's ring into her purse; a place no woman would ever keep her jewelry. The trio was sure that they would find the ring and solve the mystery. As we watch from Jeff's apartment, Lisa finds that the purse was empty and we are instantly hit with a feeling of "oh crap! Maybe we were wrong about this..." By making us doubt the characters and even ourselves to an extent, Hitchcock masterfully keeps the tension high. The audience can't help but feeling anxious that they might have been wrong, a critical element of suspense.

Hitchcock creates suspense with the plot, but he really raises tensions through his camera work. The brilliance of creating Jeff as a character in a wheelchair, excuses the anchoring of the camera throughout the movie. (In any other circumstance, the anchored camera would have made for a dull viewing experience). Instead, Hitchcock takes advantage refusing to zoom in or give us a better angle of what Mr. Thorwald is doing. So much of the movie's suspense is caused by the audience craning their necks to see what is going on in Mr. Thorwald's apartment. Hitchcock physically makes the audience lean forward and squint, just like Jeff. He even refuses to give away what Mr. Thorwald is saying, covering it up by street noise. Without even noticing it, the audience can't help but join the trio in trying to solve the mystery. This is the brilliance of Hitchcock's anchored camera.
Another masterful use of the camera is, strangely, when it is pointed away from the action. For example, when Lisa is caught by Mr. Thorwald after having snooped around his apartment, Hitchcock chooses to point the camera on Jeff and Stella's faces instead of the active conflict between Lisa and Mr. Thorwald. He refuses to let us see what's happening. We instead see the terrified looks on Jeff and Lisa's faces, and our minds begin to race as we try to imagine the horror they are looking at. Hitchcock defined suspense as the opposite of shock. Shock is caused by a sudden surprise, whereas suspense is created within the audience's own minds. It is our imagination of all the horrible possibilities that makes this technique so suspenseful.
Rear Window is a model example of how to best create suspense. Hitchcock's insertion of doubt into the plot, use of camera positioning make this movie a classic.