Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that the theme of this classic, besides a neat little murder mystery, is voyeurism -- spying on peoples' private lives, customarily without their knowledge. Alfred Hitchcock depicted this tastefully, within the restrictions of the old Hollywood studio censorship code (unlike later R-rated movies like Sliver, Blue Velvet, or Hollow Man, in which guys watching in secret got the full eyeful of sex, nudity, and explicit perversion), and in some Canadian territories this got a "G" rating. Still, the viewer is made to take the POV of a character who likes to watch things he's not supposed to see. While suspenseful, the plotline is necessarily low on action (unlike other Hitchcock masterworks like North By Northwest and The Birds), but a pet dog is killed offscreen. You might tell kids this was the direct inspiration for the 2007 teen-bait thriller Disturbia.
Families can talk about the alienation of urban life, about people living on top of one another in high-rises, yet remaining strangers. Jeff and his motivations are a big part of this movie's intrigue. As a photographer, he has to compose images for a living. When his broken leg means he can't do his job, can he be excused for continuing to habitually watch ordinary people? How do TV, Web sites, video blogs, and especially reality TV add to the movie's theme about the ethics of scrutinizing real people for entertainment?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Charles Cassady, Jr.
Whole college courses have centered around Alfred Hitchcock's fiendish, compact, and sometimes lighthearted REAR WINDOW. Jeff (James Stewart), a photojournalist, is confined to a wheelchair after breaking his leg shooting a car race. Now he recuperates in his Greenwich Village flat, getting occasional visits from his gorgeous model-girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) and putting up with a visiting nurse.
Bored by immobility and equipped with an arsenal of binoculars and telephoto SLR lenses within reach, Jeff amuses himself by spying on his neighbors across the courtyard, from his rear window. Jeff finds that each tenant, some lonely, some oversexed, embodies a different pathology of male-female relationships. At first it's funny to Jeff, seeing a newlywed woman wearing down her husband with frequent lovemaking (broadly but coyly hinted at, nothing shown) and a solitary bachelorette going dateless night after night. But then there's a burly guy named Lars (Perry Mason's Raymond Burr), unhappily married to a nag. Faraway clues and guesswork convince Jeff that Lars has just snapped and murdered his wife, then possibly dismembered her body in packing cases.
But is Jeff correct in his dire assumptions? And how can he convince someone? And what if the menacing Lars discovers he's been watched?
The tension gets so exquisite that viewers unaware of this film's reputation might almost miss the cinematic gimmick that made Rear Window quite an achievement: it never leaves Jeff's room. Not once. But this is no low-budget affair. Hitchcock made Paramount Pictures build one of the largest soundstages to date, erecting a full-scale Manhattan apartment facade with fully furnished rooms and an adjacent street and alleyways, granting the Master of Suspense full control over distant interior lighting, angles, and negative space through his viewfinder. As a result, the POV outside Jeff's rear window into the other windows is like looking into an array of TV screens (or comic-strip panels), the little New York stories unfolding in each one, often simultaneously (and, yes, that's Ross Bagdassarian, creator of the cartoon characters
Throughout his career James Stewart was an a boyishly all-American good guy, though there were a few exceptions, and Hitchcock especially likes to tap into an inner darkness using the wholesome actor. Though he's partially a victim of his disability, Jeff does seem to enjoy being what could be called a "peeping Tom," and there's a question of whether his new pastime of voyeurism is a healthy one or not -- never mind the crime-solving fringe benefits -- and what's the deal with him enjoying looking at strangers, but avoiding intimacy with the beautiful, accommodating Lisa? If wanting to watch makes Jeff some sort of pervert, what does that make us, the audience? We're watching him … watching them!
In the age of Reality TV and embarrassing You Tube Internet clips, Rear Window has relevance indeed, even though its morality and ambiance is a little nostalgic. Hitchcock's hit was pretty much remade as a teen thriller, Disturbia, in 2007. There was also a so-so 1998 TV movie version of Rear Window, also available on video, noteworthy for casting a lead actor tragically wheelchair-bound in real life -- the paralyzed Christopher Reeve.
Though voyeurism has become a regular feature in explicit thrillers and R-rated slasher fare such as Sliver and Body Double, there's one drama about the ethics of a voyeuristic affair with, refreshingly, no knives and homicide ensuing. It's the Polish drama A Short Film About Love, inspired not by Hitchcock but by the Sixth Commandment against adultery.
For more action-y Hitchcock movies, try Vertigo, North by Northwest, and The Birds.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentThough it's kept within the Hollywood censorship code, most of the people Jeff spies on are interesting because of their romantic lives (or lack of them). One of a newlywed couple, who (it's strongly hinted) are having sex constantly and -- for the husband -- exhaustively. Another target is a sexy ballerina often watched doing her exercises. |
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ViolenceA minor scuffle. Some discussion of dismemberment and murder, including a small dog killed offscreen. |
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Social BehaviorThere is the notion of the "peeping Tom" inherent in the hero's behavior here. Even though his violating his neighbors' privacy cracks a murder case, does that excuse his scrutiny of them all the time? If it were an edgier actor besides James Stewart, usually cast as an embodiment of boyish decency, this character would be a little creepy. |
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CommercialismSome covers of well-known mid-century magazines shown. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoSmoking is especially conspicuous. |
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