Movie Review

Rating: 10/10 (27 September 2018)

It's great to experience a movie that leaves you on the edge of your seat, very rarely does a movie have a story that has you so immersed that you forget you are watching a movie. The movie was so good I had my roommates join me in the movie viewing. I enjoyed a lot of the subtle camera work in the movie because it made you feel like you are seeing everything though Jeff's perspective.
A good example is when Jeff is looking out his window to see his neighbor, Lars Thorwald, bringing his wife food to her bed on a tray, the camera is zoomed out, showing that Jeff is just passively watching not seeing anything interesting happening. Then it shows Jeff sitting in his wheelchair suddenly being enticed in something that's going on off camera, so the camera pans back to Lars and his wife but this time the camera is slowly zooming in as the scene progresses to show that Jeff is interested in what's going on, it's as if we are seeing this scene through Jeff's eyes.
Something that I found very interesting about rear window that I didn't realize until we talked about it in class, is the fact that the whole movie takes place in the same room for the whole length of the movie. That's very impressive since showing the same room for the whole movie would normally lose the audiences interest. The only other movies that I've seen pull this off was the breakfast club and 12 angry men.
I thought It was very cool that Jeff was watching all his neighbors as if it was some crystal ball showing him all the different futures that he could have. I liked that each neighbor represented something that Jeff was thinking about, whether it was the young couple who just got married and are happy that they just got married, showing that Jeff was thinking about how happy he would be if he was to marry Lisa. Miss. Torso representing some girl of his dreams that he just can't take look away from her. Lars Thorwald representing an older version of Jeff who is unhappy with his marriage. The young musician, representing Jeff because he's successful and well recognized but unhappy because he feels alone. Miss. Lonely heart representing an older version of Jeff who choose not to marry Lisa and feeling alone.
I loved the fact that you can see Hitchcock in the movie when the musician is at the piano and someone is winding the mantel clock, I like it because I thought Orson Welles was one of the first movie directors to cameo in their own movies.
Something I thought was interesting was the fact that at the end of the movie it shows the young couple's window, the newly wed husband comes out to smoke and have a small break from his new wife and she calls out to him and it shows his face that he's annoyed representing that the honey moon was over.