A Macabre and Perverse Picture of Marriage

Rating: 10/10 (28 February 2011)

"I always say that Shadow of a Doubt is my favorite but I am very proud of Rear Window." (Alfred Hitchcock)
In 1954 Alfred Hitchcock was at the top of his career. He had gained a reputation that can only be compared with a handful of others. He had the continuous need to regenerate, to find something fresh and new which can be seen everywhere in Rear Window; in its setting, movement of the camera, tricks and colors. It is an unusual film and doesn't have any flaws nor defects. Hitchcock had the challenge to make a film set in one room, and to show the story from only one perspective. Each shot was a risk taken, and as usually the risks taken by Hitchcock gave a lot in return. The film is a brilliant mixture of comedy, romance and excitement. It portrays the American idyll with its shadows. Rear Window is a perverse study of our society, and it's surprisingly dark, pessimistic if I may say. The impossibility of happiness, the agony caused by performance pressures and marriage, are the main themes of it. One critic even called it a horrible film because the hero spent all of his time peeping out of the window; to which Hitchcock replied: "What's so horrible about that? Sure, he's a snooper, but aren't we all?"
A photographer L.B. 'Jeff' Jeffries (James Stewart) has broke his leg and is condemned to the wheelchair. To spend his leisure time he spies his neighbors and, one day is convinced that one man has murdered his wife. The film is a criminal investigation done by Jeff apart from his moving disability. But we must not forget his girlfriend (Grace Kelly), who wants to get married with him and plays an essential part in this investigation with his feminine intuition.
Rear Window is a clear film for its world view which is quite hard to see during the first viewing. Marriage is the main subject of the film, it is its leading theme and everything wraps around it; the nagging wife of the neighbor, Jeff's friend's wife, Jeff's nurse Stella and Jeff's possible wife-to-be Lisa Fremont. The quintessential realization of the film is that Jeff doesn't want to marry Lisa but just about everything around the yard reminds him of marriage: lonely woman without husband or lover, a couple who make love all day, bachelor composer who drinks, the little dancer whom all the men are after, childless couple who dote their life on the dog and of course the married couple who are always at each other's throats, until the wife mysteriously disappears.
Then there's the wedding ring with a double-meaning which exposes the murderer; because if he hadn't murdered his wife and his wife would be out of town, she would've taken her wedding ring with her. As Lisa (Grace Kelly) goes to search the ring from the murderer's apartment, she finds it and puts the ring into her own finger and secretly waves back to Jeff. She got a double win: she got the evidence but, who knows, maybe this ring on her finger will inspire Jeff to ask her to marry him? What an ironic touch.
Surrounded by marriage, Jeff obviously gets anguished. This agony caused by performance pressures and marriage, makes him a peeping tom: "We've become a race of peeping toms," as Stella puts it. This, of course, not only indicates to the character of James Stewart but also to all of us -- to our society. Alfred Hitchcock often let's or forces his viewers to be peeping toms in his films, Psycho for example, but in Rear Window this theme is at its most intelligent. This reinforces the idea that the film is a study of marriage and society, it portrays an anguished man for whom voyeurism is the only form of sexuality he is capable of. But also that the film is a study about the ethics of watching and peeping: the window-motive is the screen, it's a film about watching films.
An important observation is also that Jeff only spies his neighbors at their most ridiculous, he doesn't like to watch their happiest moments. He gets entertainment, and pleasure, for watching them getting wet, talking to their imagery friends, nagging to their husbands and getting drunk. Rear Window is actually a cruel, and quite perverse, film. But it's brilliant, a masterpiece, who else had noticed this before Hitchcock. And it's not a thing to be ashamed of, it's just a humane part of us all. If the yard is the world, then Rear Window is also a film about isolation: the small apartments of the characters represent small private jails which they have built for themselves. The scene where the dog gets killed is an excellent example how people are unable to rely on each other let alone help their neighbors.
Rear Window is a macabre picture of marriage. In the end the lonely composer and the woman find each other, perhaps start a life together, but nothing actually indicates that Jeff and Lisa would get married. Lisa is reading a traveling book 'Beyond the High Himalayas' to prove that she is ready to start an international life with a report-photographer. But as soon as Jeff averts his eyes she changes the book to a fashion magazine. What a cruel solution! French critic and filmmaker François Truffaut even said that the film's world view was close to misantrophy.
Rear Window is a ruthless film about the agony caused by marriage, society and sexuality. It's easy to see as a cruel pessimistic film about the impossibility of happiness, but the overall mood of it is, paradoxically, warm, humane and compassionate. The yard is a picture of the world; full of people from all walks of life, small stories and all kinds of behavior. "Rear Window is a symphony of everyday life and shattered dreams." (François Truffaut)