Journal #2

The film i chose to review is Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It was made in 1954 and starred James Stewart and Grace Kelly. It was produced by James Katz and Alfred HItchcock. It was based on the short story "It Had to be Murder" written by Cornell Woolrich and the screenplay was written by John Michael Hayes. The movie is about a man, L.B. Jeffries, who is a photographer that got injured and is now confined to a wheelchair in his apartment. The whole movie basically takes place in his apartment and shows the apartment building across where he spends most of his time watching his neighbors. One night he sees his neighbor leave and come back 2 or 3 times and begins to get suspicious when he doesn't see the man's wife the next day and begins to suspect murder. The other main character Lisa Fremont, Jeffries' girlfriend is also a main part of the story because she wants to be with J.B. so much, but he is so consumed with his job and wanting to do it even though he is injured. She wants to be with him so bad that she goes along with his murder theory and tries to help him prove it. The general conflict of the movie is Jeffries trying to figure out what happened to the man's wife and prove his suspicions that he had murdered her. The plot is believable but not very realistic. It could end up happening but the chance that your neighbor killed their wife and you witnessed him taking her remains out in suitcases is not very high.
A main theme in Rear Window is fear. This is shown not only in the fear of Jeffries that the man may have murdered his wife but also in how he is afraid to let anyone get close to him and also how he is afraid to ask for help. Fear also shows up in the character of Lisa. She is afraid that Jeffries doesn't love her and she tries to do anything to make him feel the same way about her that she feels about him. Another literary aspect of this movie was the dialogue. It was pretty realistic for its time. The characters talked how people would normally talk. There wasn't any random dialogue. The acting overall in the movie is fantastic. Stewart portrays J.B. Jeffries with perfection. He becomes the character and never loses it. An audience gets lost in the movie because they can believe the actors are actually the characters they are playing and that is what happens in this movie. Grace Kelly also plays her role well. She doesn't have that difficult of a part, but at the times in the movie when she plays a significant role she does a great job becoming Lisa Fremont.
This film was unique compared to the other movies of its time because it is all restricted narration. The audience knows the same amount of information the characters do throughout the whole movie. Also the editing in Rear Window is great. George Tomasini, the editor, uses the Kuleshov effect in which all the thoughts that add up in Jeffries' mind add up to murder and so that is what the audience is led to believe as well. Also there weren't many quick cuts. There were a lot of lengthy shots to keep the audience focused on the story and the dialogue. The director of photography, Robert Burks, used a subjective point of view for most of the movie. Whenever J.B. looks out the window at his neighbors we, the audience, see exactly what he sees. The sound in rear window is credited to Harry Snodgrass. He does a great job of using non diegetic sound to create a feeling of suspense throughout most of the movie. Also the lighting was interesting in this movie. There was a lot of low key lighting to express that the characters did not want to be seen and could just escape into the shadows so their secrets wouldn't be discovered. The cinematography in Rear Window was also great. There were a lot of long shots to show the apartment building across from Jeffries and the people inside. Also when J.B. and Lisa were in his apartment there were close-ups of them when they were sitting together and also close-ups of Jeffries when he was watching people out the window. Also high angles were used when it was showing the dog digging in the garden. Another great aspect of Rear Window is the set design. It was fantastic for its time. The movie was shot on the same set for the entire movie and it really gives the movie a realistic look. Also the costumes were realistic as well as the makeup. Lastly the music in this movie is written by Franz Waxman. Many of the scores were ones that he had written for other movies and was able to incorporate into this one as well. Rear Window is a classic and there aren't many movies that compare to it but one that is similar is Disturbia, which is the same idea with a few plot changes to create a more exciting and modern effect. Overall Rear Window uses all the right film elements to create a great movie.