Rear Window Thoughts

 

    I enjoyed Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock! I thought that the cinematography was super interesting, in the beginning of the film I expected to be bored sitting in the apartment for the entire film, but Hitchcock made it interesting throughout his story. I thought the murder mystery was elevated nicely by the tension from the window itself, and our very limited perspective of the events occurring. The window keeps the viewer even more oblivious to the outside world than Jeffries is, and the only things we know about it are what we hear from him, his aid, or Lisa. We have to make our own inferences about what is going on in the other apartments when Jeffries looks at them. Personally, I didn't think there really was a murder that happened until most of the way through the film. The detective Tom Doyle kept coming over and saying things that didn't totally disprove the murder, but I thought after a while that maybe Jeffries really was just projecting or making things up in his head. Perception is a powerful tool but sometimes a double-edged sword. 

I think the only thing I wished there was more explanation for in the film was motivation. I didn't really know anybody's motivation for their actions throughout the film, like I don't know why Jeffries was so obsessed with looking out of his window in the first place, I just chalked it up to being a photographer and needing something to look at but for me that's kind of uninteresting. I didn't know Thurman's motivation for killing his wife, which was by design I guess but by the end of the movie, I was hoping he would explain it a little bit to Jeffries before trying to toss him out of the window. And maybe I missed this, but I didn't know why Lisa wanted to marry Jeffries so badly when he was barely interested in her, and didn't really hide it that well. I feel like she explained it and I'm just not remembering, but it didn't stand out in my brain as being a good explanation. I just thought all of the relationships between characters in this movie were either circumstantial or forced, no one seemed like they were mutually fond of each other for who they are.

After watching Rear Window, I would like to watch more of Hitchcock's work! I'm not familiar with a lot of his stuff, like I don't even recognize the large majority of the titles. I enjoy the murder mystery/crime thriller genre-type movies or shows so if he did a lot of those, I would probably like his other works. After I graduate, I will look into how I can watch some more of his works so that I can learn more about him and his classics, thanks for showing us Rear Window!