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Rear Window - Collector's Edition

Rear Window - Collector's Edition

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: CLASSIC!!!!!
Review: "Rear Window" is widely considered as one of Hitchcock's best, and there is good reason for this. I am no film critic, but I do know when a movie is good or not after I see it. In such a small neighborhood setting all throughout the film, Mr. Hitchcock is able to generate considerable viewer-interest and suspense as he affords us a window-sized view into the lives of the tenants living in the surrounding apartments. We see these through the eyes of our hero, who for the moment is tied to the wheelchair with one leg in full brace. It is through the idle hours of doing nothing where he begins to look out of the window and observe (spy is a more fitting word) more closely the lives of his neighbors. The dilemma starts when he begins to suspect one of them as having committed murder.
Let's face it, to some degree, every human being has a taste for voyeurism (although, the nature of voyeurism in this film is not largely sexual : only one scene where our protagonist sees, through a small window which only exposed the head, the young woman living across his apartment taking a shower.) The movie knows this, and aptly capitalizes on this knowledge. James Stewart stars, and Grace Kelly, as the leading lady, has never been more beautiful and captivating. The cast is first rate.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "...Hitchcock outdoes himself for suspense."
Review: One of Hitchcock's most stylish thrillers finds Stewart as a photgrapher confined to a wheelchair. After supposedly witnessing a murder, he tries to convince his socialite girlfreind Kelly and detective friend Burr. Ritter provides for some wonderfully snappy dialog, and Hitchcock outdoes himself for suspense. Impressive sets, delightful Franz Waxman score, and a marvelous script. My favorite Hitchcock film for a long time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Tell me everything you saw--and what you think it all means!
Review: When Grace Kelly utters that line to James Stewart, she like he has her gaze riveted to the window watching the goings-on across the back courtyard. Now we know that she finally believes his fantastical claim that the seemingly innocuous nearby apartment dweller (pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr in a white wig)has in fact murdered his nagging invalid wife.

Stewart has been laid up for weeks in his apartment with a leg cast, unable to pursue his adventurous life as a daredevil photographer. Bored, he has taken to watching the antics of the apartment dwellers across the way. Things look a little strange about Burr and his now-absent wife, so Stewart's long-dormant imagination takes him into a cat and mouse game with dangerous consequences.

I like "Rear Window" quite a lot: the speaking actors are all first-rate, like the aforementioned Stewart and Kelly, and also reliable Thelma Ritter as the visiting nurse who has her own pet theories about where "things" might be buried. Then there's a pile of non-speaking actors, the pantomine players comprising the apartment dwellers, whose skill makes the whole movie work. Costuming for Grace is great, too; there are numerous occasions for her to spin about in haute couture outfits while trying to tempt the wheelchair bound Stewart away from his voyeuristic habits.

If you've ever tried to piece together what the folks across the courtyard from you are doing, whether behind drawn shades or out in plain sight, throw open "Rear Window" and take a peek.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A bit slow, but entertaining
Review: Rear Window is somewhat languidly paced, lacking the taut direction of some of Hitchcock's best films (Notorious, North by Northwest, Dial M for Murder, etc.), and this one-set movie does start to feel claustrophobic. I was hoping for Stewart to be able to get out of that wheelchair, leave his small apartment with the oversized lamp shade, and get out into the world.

The climax was a bit disappointing. It is chilling to hear Burr coming up the stairs, but once he comes in to the apartment he just starts asking questions -- that's not too scary! And he doesn't even have a weapon on him!

It's not one of Hitchcock's best films, but it still is interesting and entertaining.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: is five stars enough?
Review: The definition of a classi in any genre is something in which you can come back to again and again and not get tired of and in which you can still find new and exciting things. Rear Window is one of those films. I saw the restored print of this film when it was released in theaters about a year ago, and was totally engrossed. The thing is I had seen this film several times before, yet it doesnt grow stale.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Go girl! Hitch's feminist fable.
Review: Although Hitchcock listed this as one of his 2 favorite films, I had once viewed it as "closet drama" because of the limited set, conventional bad guy, passive good guy. The voyeuristic angle was interesting, even provocative to a point, but insufficient to save the movie from its sense of claustrophobic one-dimensionality.

That was before I viewed the film through the eyes of Grace Kelly. In one respect, the critical, pivotal moment in the movie is not when Kelly puts herself at risk in Raymond Burr's apartment, nor is it the film's climax with James Stewart fending off the murderer with his camera's flash bulbs. Rather, it's the moment when Hitchcock's camera (not Stewart's) shows Kelly's eyes suddenly open wide and come alive when she, too, becomes interested in the scenes being played out on the other side of the court yard.

At this point, within the first half of the film, Kelley drops her high society, fashion-model airs and her constant mothering of Stewart. She now spectates with greater curiosity and imagination than Stewart, and even though she questions these "rear window ethics" and characterizes her behavior as "ghoulish," it's clear she has become a major player, fully participating in the game of voyeurism, scopophilia, and fetishism that is normally assigned only to men who fail to emerge from an obsessively narcissistic and hedonistic childhood.

For the past 20 years feminist academics have been applying "male gaze theory" to just about every film in sight, and invariably to the discredit of the male. He is the subject; she's the object; he's the one who sees; she's the one who is seen; he owns the gaze in all of his power, pleasure, and guilt; she can only helplessly follow the gaze, experiencing a kind of masochistic pleasure at best.

In "Rear Window" Hitchcock, frequently depicted by feminist critics as a mother-obsessed misogynist, turns gaze theory on its head. Grace Kelly demonstrates that a woman can get as much pleasure from looking as do men--an irony of collossal proportions when we consider that as a high fashion model her role, if not job, is to be looked at and photographed.

But Hitchcock's film manages to liberate its central heroine's vision while preserving the "institutions" of marriage, motherhood, and femininity. What is the object of Kelly's pursuit while playing the game at its most intense moment? A wedding ring, which she flashes before the probing telescopic lens of Stewart. And at the end of the film, the camera makes clear that, pending his recovery from double castration (both legs are now broken), he will no longer go off on adventures without Kelly at his side. But then, of course, Hitch has his final little joke when, once Stewart goes to sleep, Kelly (now wearing pants) puts away her mountain-climbing magazine and replaces it with a high fashion title. Still, a radical film for Hitchcock and, for that matter, most other filmmakers.

The DVD makes it all the more possible to read the visual dynamics of the film, permitting razor sharp stills of the principals' faces and eyes, disclosing the act of seeing to a degree never before possible.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Hitchcock Masterpiece!! TEN Stars!!
Review: 1954's Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock remains one of my all-time favorite motion pictures. Even though nearly 100% of this film takes place in one very small studio apartment, it's never boring, never loses momentum, and never releases its suspenseful "grip" on the viewer! And we wonder, just as Jimmy Stewart's character wonders ... Was this murder?

Kudos all around on a flawless effort here! Favorite J. Stewart dialogue: "Well, tell me, what do you need to search .... bloody footsteps leading up to the door?!"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Suspense and glamour
Review: Alfred Hitchcock is no doubt one of the greatest directors of all time. To have proof, one only needs to experience Rear Window. This film is chocked full of Hitch's own recipe for suspense and glamour. James Stewart is hilarious and likeable. Grace Kelley is as beautiful as she is daring. Raymond Burr is chilling as a wife-murderer who does away with his spouse in a gruesome manner perfect for those who love Hitch's morbid love of the lurid. I absolutely love this film--one of my favorites!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Suspense Thriller that Will Leave you Breatheless
Review: If your looking for a suspenseful thriller that will leave you breatheless, The Rear Window is the one movie for you. Grace Kelly and Jimmy Stewart play amazing rolls as an injured photographer, and his fashionable girlfriend. When Stewart must stay in his apartment after braking his leg, he decides there's only one thing interesting to do, and that is to spy on his neighbors in the apartments surrounding him. When the newlyweds become boring he turns to an old man and his sick wife, and suspects the old man of murdering his wife. But, that only leads to more trouble and, leads the old man directly to Stewart. Hitchcock did an amazing job on this movie by the screenplay, actors, and camera shots. If you buy this you won't be left disappointed!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Clever, funny, and thrilling
Review: This is a wonderful film. It's thrilling, funny, and provocative. Also, the characters are great. If you are looking for a slam-bam action film with meathead dialogue, this is not the picture; if you are looking for a fun film that layers subtext & social commentary with a voyeuristic plot and delightful characters, this is a good bet. It is clearly a Hitchcock film; if comparison needs to be made, I see similarities with North By Northwest. While the plot and scope are very different, the tone, sexual tension, and dialogue seem to be cut out of a similar mold. What makes it a fun film is the light tone -- it's thrilling without being too serious. I am a fan of Hitchcock, and without question, this film is my favorite. The chemistry of characters, especially between Jimmy Stewart & Grace Kelly, is wonderful. Big thumbs up!


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