Rear Window (1954)

This movie really is a thinker. It keeps you going the whole time, never a dull moment! Hitchcock's directing is phenomenal in this thriller starring Grace Kelly and James Stewart. The way Hitchcock uses shadows and scenery in this film is in like any other.

The dialogue between Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly is light and effective. Stewart is type casted as his normal smart but clumsy guy role. The "enemy" or "bad guy" actor is picked very well. Outside of the story and plot, the ambience and setting of the film is the added treat. Peering into the live of strangers and their routines and guessing their life. It's a nice breather between plot developments.

This movie was something I would have never expected. As a freshman in college I have always been into the more modern things in life. New movies, new cars, new everything. I have never really been known for watching old movies. However, this movie was a lot different to me. When I think of a movie from 1954, I was thinking of black and white or silent or just something that doesn't seem as much of an interest to me. This movie passed my expectations by a mile. I have heard of Alfred Hitchcock and I have heard of the credibility of the man but I have never really watched any of his work. Rear Window was a story that I will probably remember for a long time. A man is in a wheel chair and all he does is watch the city go about around him from day to night. He experiences everything from happiness to sadness and even a murder. The whole movie was eye pleasing and just well thought out. The use of the city to display emotion in the movie was wonderful. The main part of the movie that really stuck with me was the suspense within it. Every time the main character, L.B. Jefferies, would just look through people's windows and he thought they were looking at them just made me feel fear knowing that they could see him watching them. His caretaker, Stella, made it worse by talking about how he could go to jail for looking through people's windows and I thought that was foreshadowing to him actually going to jail which made me nervous each time it was a close call. Especially when Lars Thorwald was looking out the window and he had to hide in the shadows. This movie also had me asking "What happens next?" as it took our hand and brought us through this great story. What makes a movie great is what ever emotions are going on, you feel them as well. This movie did that very well, any sort of fear, I felt fear. Any sort of happiness, I felt. Any sadness, I felt that too. Being able to bestow emotions onto the viewer is what means a movie is really well thought out and put together to try and help us be in the shoes of L.B. Jeffries. I could feel myself in that little apartment in that wheelchair and just watching everything going on. Another thing done really well was character development. I could really tell the personality and how each character would react in these situations. You could really tell the social classes within each person based on how they dressed and how they act which really shows the problem with the love interest throughout the movie. Each character out the window had their own personalities and you could really see who the people in their apartment were and how they acted. It really shows how a city is back in that time, there is such different events happening in each room and the amount of people really creates the chaos that is in the bustling cities we had back then and what we have today. Do I recommend this movie? Absolutely, this movie was very well made and put together and just looks beautiful. From the characters to the story, it was practically flawless in my opinion. Would I watch this movie again? Yes, I would, it is just so interesting and I feel like it is a kind of movie that the more times you watch it, the more times you realize something new. Do I recommend this movie? Yes, I do.

Rear Window By Alfred Hitchcock's 2/6/18L.B. Jefferies played by James Stewart is depended on his wheelchair after a broken leg. Jefferies is forced to stay in his apartment for several weeks because of his injury. Because of this he gets a deeper meaning to his girlfriend Lisa Carol Fremont who is played by Grace Kelly. Lisa was this perfect woman which every guy dreamed of having but because of Jefferies injury he realizes she has a rebellious side to her. Jefferies nurse (Stella played by Thelma Ritter) who was hired to help him out gets launched into the drama of Jeffries spying on his neighbors. The story was written by John Michael Hayes and filmed by Alfred Hitchcock. The movie was produced by Paramount Pictures in 1952. The story is based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 story "It had been a murder". In 1995, The film won the Edgar Allen Poe award for best motion picture screenplay. In 1997, the movie was honored by the United States National Film Registry in the library of congress. In 2002, the film won the online Film and Television Association Award. After Jefferies broke his leg during a photographing a racetrack accident he is forced to stay in his apartment. His apartment overlooks multiple other apartments in the building over. He creeps on multiple people over the course of time. Until one night during a thunderstorm he hears a woman yell "Don't!" then the sound of breaking glass. He witnesses a guy named Thorwalds who is played by Raymond Burr. Thorwalds lives in the apartment directly across from Jeffries with his wife for the previous six month. Jefferies notices the next day Mr. Thorwalds wife is missing and that he is cleaning a knife. Thorwalds later that day locks a trunk and has moving men move the trunk away from the apartment. Jefferies soon become convinced that Mr. Thorwalds killed his wife and, becomes obsessed with finding out the truth.Jeffries believes that Mr. Thorwalds buried something in the court yard and killed a dog to stop it from digging. Jefferies and his wife Lisa go try and dig it but don't find anything. Lisa than climbs into his apartment. Mr. Thorwalds comes home and catches Lisa; Jefferies calls the cops to save her but in the mix of everything, the police arrest her for breaking into the apartment. Stella goes to bail out Lisa at the police station. Mr. Thorwalds calls Jeffries to confront him but Jefferies thinks it's detective Doyle who is played by Wendell Corey: says, "the suspect has left the apartment". When Mr. Thorwalds goes speechless, Jefferies quickly realizes that it's not detective Doyle and makes a huge mistake. Mr. Thorwalds comes over to confront him. When he gets there, he grabs Jefferies and throws him out the window. As he falls to the ground the police enter the apartment and arrest Mr. Thorwalds. A few days later, Jefferies goes home to rest peacefully but now with a cast on both his feet. All the neighbors seem to go back to living normal lives and a happy ending is at ease. It is not certain if Jefferies and Lisa ever get married.Jefferies isn't by definition, someone who goes out of the way to do good nor is he a detective. He is simply someone who likes to snoop around in other people's business. He is driven to be someone who likes to be next to the drama but not actually involved in it. You can see this in multiple occasions in the movie where he delays doing something because he's afraid to get himself involved.