Another Hitchcock Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (21 March 2004)

'Rear Window' tells the story of a widely travelled photojournalist, played by Jimmy Stewart, who ends up wheelchair bound with a cast from hip to toe. This character, 'Jeff' Jefferies, used to excitement and covering wars and events around the world, suddenly finds himself in his small apartment with nothing much to do except watch his neighbors. This man seems to be afflicted with a need to watch and observe the world, and isn't happy watching TV or reading books to pass the time, because he never does throughout the film. He does however, find a human drama by observing his neighbors across the courtyard, and he can interpret who they are and what they do by watching their activities throughout the day, and night! However, with one neighbor, played by Raymond Burr, he suspects a sinister and much darker reality, he thinks the man has murdered his wife.
The film is not a typical film of voyeurism, because of Hitchcock's choice of Stewart to play the photographer Jefferies. Stewart is the decent and normal 'everyman', not a twisted and perverse 'peeper'. If the photographer was played by Robert Mitchum or William Holden, men who have played darker, more morally ambiguous characters in their career, maybe the film would have a different meaning. With Jimmy Stewart however, we can be assured that Jefferies is studying his environment and not becoming gratified with what he's viewing. That said, his viewing becomes close to an obsession when he believes a murder has occurred, but not quite to the unhealthy degree as the obsession he portrayed in another Hitchcock classic, 'Vertigo'.
The film is classic, and it is both a time capsule and relevant to today. The lack of air conditioning during the film's heat wave forces people to leave their windows and blinds open, where as today they would most likely be out of view. The relevance is in the relationship between the 24/7 cable news, 'Americas Most Wanted', video and photo obsessed society of today, that voyeurism and the public's desire to provide breaking news is applicable. In this era, we are all like 'Jeff' Jefferies, and that is what makes 'Rear Window' more than a quaint period piece.