Rear Window, a story about love

Rating: 8/10 (15 November 2012)

Rear Window, a story about love
Alfred Hitchcock had shot many films during his life. It is said, more than one third of his films finally became classics. He was undoubtedly a real master in the field of movie. And the Rear Window, is the brightest pearl on his movie crown.
As is well-known, one of the most notable characteristics of this successful film is the shooting angle. Almost everything that happened in the film was presented in the scenery opposite to Jeffries' window, or inside his room. The director told the story just through our hero's eyes.
Thereupon, some audiences gave out their criticism. Someone claimed that plenty of contents in this film were dispensable. Hitchcock set several attractive plots to cast a mist before audiences' eyes. But at last, those plots seemed unnecessary. The director should not pay too much attention to what happened on the merchant's neighbors. Also, he cared too much about the interaction between Jeffries and Lisa. He would better have his film focus on the murder.
The people who love the film have a different voice. Here is a famous review about Rear Window from a professor of film. 'If you see a movie about murder, you are in first stage; if you see one about peeping, second stage; if you see love, third stage.' In his opinion, the greatest skill of this film is the way Hitchcock expressed his thoughts through the film. He successfully made a large number of different film elements from disorder at the beginning to complete order in the end. Actually, His story is not merely about a murder. He wanted to discuss more.
I agree with the professor. From my point of view, Hitchcock is not only a suspense master, but an outstanding psychologist. He always wanted to probe into human nature and people's mentality. In Rear Window, the murder is just the main clue to keep the audiences concentrate. 'The movie combined the introspection and moral criticism of peeping with marriage issues through a theme of murder.' It seems that the director wanted to put more emphasis on Jeffries' peeping, through which Hitchcock also showed us various states of people's living. And mostly, the film discussed the love between the hero and the heroine.
In the film, Jeffries and Lisa loved each other deeply, but they had big differences in character. Lisa was a favorite in the field of fashion. She wore all kinds of beautiful clothes showing in front of his boyfriend every day, and kept speaking about the interesting news from the world of fashion. She wanted Jeffries to get a more stable job and marry her, living in a big city calmly and respectably. But Jeffries felt uncomfortable with her desire. He was eager for freedom and adventures. Therefore, a marriage with Lisa seemed constraint to him.
Personality conflict is love's enemy. Problems with money or social positions can probably be solved by efforts, but it is hard to force two different people think together.
Fortunately, an accident provided a chance for them to get closer. When Lisa found that what Jeffries told her about the merchant was not merely a fuss, she felt really curious and excited, and threw herself into the investigation actively. During the process of solving this case, both of them realized that adventures and challenges could attract not only Jeffries, but also Lisa. It seemed they could possibly be able to live in a same life style in the future.
But at the end of the film, when everything had come back to peace, the director presented us a last scene: Jeffries, who was still having a rest-cure, dozed off on his bed. On the side sat his girlfriend Lisa, reading books about geography. When she noticed that Jeffries had already fallen to sleep, she put down the book and picked up a fashion magazine. Then she looked much happier than before.
Perhaps the director hoped to express an idea dialectical: it is good for lovers to try hard to get accustomed to the characteristics of the opposite side and look for interests in common. Hopefully they may finally accept each other to a deeper degree through the changes. But we have to understand and keep in mind that, sometimes, differences are always differences. Real changes are not easy to happen.
Hitchcock also extended his discussion from love to marriage. The activities and behaviors of neighbors peeped by Jeffries implied a gradual development of marriage. Ms. Lonely-hearted lived alone and looked extremely unhappy, showing a bad mood of being single; a newly- married couple seemed cheerful so much, closed their window and made love every day; the merchant could not stand his awful marriage any longer, so he killed his wife. People need love. Love turns out to be marriage. Marriage is usually happy at first, but can be a tragedy at last.
The neighbors' lives can be projections of Jeffries'. Other people's failures in marriage may deepen his fear of marrying someone else. How would Jeffries think if he could see that the newly-married couple living in the opposite building changed into continuous quarrels and raised the roof at the end of the film?
Rear Window has too many topics to talk about. It is impossible to discuss everything that Hitchcock wanted to express in it through one article. But in my eyes, it is a story about love.