Rear WindowI am not a Hitchcock fan. There are many of his films that I think are perfectly adequate suspense thrillers, such as The 39 Steps and North By Northwest, but I often think he tries too hard and, at least for me, he fails. I am not a fan of Vertigo, The Birds or Rope and Psycho I thought was okay, but I don’t feel the need to revisit it.
Rear Window is different altogether. Here, I think Hitchcock finally has accomplished the pinnacle of the thriller genre. It is perfection in every way. There is not a single misstep, and there is so much detail to linger on and to consider, as well as many personal and ethical questions to consider. This is what movies can rarely accomplish—a fine example of what I love about movies.
Technical—5/5 In every way this is a film in which I award that rare label “perfect.” The writing, the camera work, the pacing, the editing, the lighting—it all works together as a coherent whole to tell a unique story.
Interest—5/5 It fed me just enough information to keep me intensely interested and just enough character development that I wondered what would happen to these sometimes likable folks.
Tension—4/5—I’ve experienced movies with more tension, but the final 15-20 minutes kept me at the edge of my seat.
Emotional—3/5—Not deeply emotional, but it is a perfect film to engage the mind.
Characters—5/5—Jimmy Stewart is almost always one of my favorites, but he is surrounded by other amazing performers, including Grace Kelly and Raymond Burr. I believed each character, and almost every action made perfect sense.
Theme—5/5 –Observation and responsibility. I love some of the critical analysis of this film which says that the film is pointing the “peeping tom” blame upon the movie observer, which gives us a limited responsibility to that which takes place on the screen.
Ethics—5/5—There are a number of ethical questions that come up here, both about responsibility and relationships. None of them are clearly answered, but the ideas are there.
Personal—4/5—The deepest personal connection is that I find myself observing other people’s lives and my wife and I are often discussing their issues from a distance, having little ability to do anything about it. We often struggle with the balance between boundaries and personal responsibility.
I fell in love with Rear Window all over again and so it is being placed surprisingly high:
1. In America
2. Rear Window3. Amelie
4. Edward Scissorhands
5. Princess Mononoke
6. The Dark Knight
7. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
8. Tideland
9. The Brothers Bloom
10. I [Heart] Huckabees
11. District 9
12. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
13. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
14. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
15. The Son (2003)
16. Raising Arizona
17. Do The Right Thing
18. Adaptation
19. Three Kings
20. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
21. The Science of Sleep
22. Fitzcaraldo
23. Mister Roberts