Great Film!!

Rating: 9/10 (27 September 2018)

Rear Window Review
The film Rear Window is about a photographer named Jeff. Jeff has a broken leg and is stuck in his apartment for another week. So, what does he do? He looks out the window and watches his neighbors. When one of his neighbors starts acting suspicions Jeff starts to think that he murdered his wife. Jeff's girlfriend Lisa, and his nurse Stella also become suspicious and they investigate.
Rear Window is a fantastic film filled with suspense and excitement. There are some amazing techniques used in in the film. Starting with the control of your emotions right from the start. After only a few minutes into the film we learn of Jeff's suspicions of the neighbor Mr. Thorwald. The suspense and my curiosity only went up from there. This control from the start had completely blew my expectations out of the water. I thought I was going to half pay attention, half do something else, but I couldn't. I was fully focused and engaged in the film right from the start.
Besides grabbing you from the start there are many great technical effects used in the making of this film. For example, we go through the story from Jeff's perspective. We see what is happening as Jeff does. He is looking out his window across the courtyard at his neighbor's apartment. We see this as a wide shot. The audience sees what Jeff sees. We also look through his hand-held camera with him to zoom in across the courtyard. Another way we share Jeff's perspective is by viewing the events in the film through his eyes. There is a moving shot following Jeff's eyes looking through the courtyard. The camera also pans from inside the apartment to outside and to the neighbor's apartments following where Jeff is looking.
Other great effects in the film are the sound. I think the most dramatic example is when Mr. Thorwald is walking towards Jeff's apartment. You can hear his footsteps, one at a time, slowly waking towards the door, getting louder and closer. This add suspense. Another key element to the sound in the film was the music. Music helps to show what is going in a story. Suspenseful music enhances suspenseful scenes and intensifies the viewers experience. This also helps to control our emotions.
Rear window has some interesting ideas for characterization. These ideas are conveyed through the characters names, dialogue and actions. The two main characters are Jeff and Lisa. Jeff is an average name for an average person with an average life and job. Lisa has a pretty name which is appropriate to her character. In the film she is a beautiful fasion model. We don't always associate intelligence with someone who appears as Lisa does but she is much more than that, and we see this through her words and actions. Towards the beginning of the film and through ought its entirety Lisa believes that Mr. Thorwald did murder his wife because she would have never left the house without her purse, wedding ring and other jewelry. Lisa calls this her women's intuition. We also learn more about her character through her actions. Towards the end of the film she goes across the court yard and climbs up the fire escape to Mr. Thorwald's apartment. This demonstrates that she is much more than a pretty model. It demonstrates that she has courage and bravery.
Lastly Alfred Hitchcock is great with lighting and its effect on the story. As we follow Jeff we learn more information as he does. To elaborate, we learn more about Thorwald in the day time then at night. At night Jeff is just guessing and speculation about what is going on. All this appropriately matches up with the amount of lighting that is in the scene.
I understand why this film is considered a classic and would recommend it to others.