Rating: 
Summary: Great Film. But Why Letterbox?
Review: This film was always one of Hitchcock's finest. There is nothing I could add to what has been said before in praise.However, I question why the film was letterboxed when the original movie was shot with a ratio of 1.33:1 (or 4:3). Paramount Pictures, in 1954, had not released anything in Vista Vision, their wide screen answer to Cinemascope. "White Christmas" would be the first to be released later that year in the new process. After comparing the new DVD to my 1984 VHS tape, I noticed some striking discrepancies. The most obvious were the shots when James Stewart looked through his camera viewfinder. What he, and we, saw was a complete circle, with the image contained within the circle. On the DVD, this circle is cropped at the top and bottom. Why? Also, during the DVD documentary on how the film was restored, a technician is seen holding the actual film. It plainly shows the movie was shot in the common ratio of 1.33:1. When before and after comparisons are shown, one can clearly see extra image at the top and bottom of the before shot. Again, why letterbox? For such a great film, my criticisms may seem of low importance. I would just rather not see cropping like this happen to other restorations of great classics in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Voyeurism Revisited
Review: Splendid, Engrossing, and a Hell of a ride, are three terms that could describe Alfred Hitchcock's one of if not his best film out of his 54 masterpieces. James Stewart (L.B. Jeffries) is the voyeur, a photograher in a wheelchair after an on the job mishap. He spys out of the rear window of his small two bedroom apartment through a pair of binoculars. After many sleepless nights and help from his model girlfriend (Grace Kelly) he begins to suspect that a neighbor may have murdered his invalid wife. Throughout the film, his binoculars and close up camera lens act as the audiences' eyes, letting us be the voyeur too. Only Hitch could seamlessly weave romance, tongue and cheek comedy (courtesy of Jeff's insurance company nurse, Stella), suspense, and a crime drama together to make a wonderful film about one of the most common of human acts-spying. Classic Hitchcock camera work, edge of your seat suspense, and a particularly creepy scene involving Raymond Burr (the suspected neighbor) looking directly into the cmaera, catching us, the audience in the act of spying are all apparent in the AMAZING Hitchcock classic, Rear Window.
Rating:
Summary: Full Frontal View From The Rear
Review: This is one of Alfred Hitchcock's best films; one that is confined to only one set (much like his "Lifeboat"). This is a tale about a professional photographer, LB "Jeff" Jeffries (James Stewart), who is confined to a wheelchair in his two-roomed flat. He passes time by looking out of his window into the courtyard that backs several small apartment buildings. Jeff even give nicknames to some of the neighbours he watches, mostly to keep absolute bordem at bay. But things aren't quite so bad; he has a nurse who comes in daily to take care of him. Her name is Stella (Thelma Ritter). She makes a casual reference to his being a peeping-tom could get him into trouble for seeing things that he shouldn't see. And, even better, Jeff has a lovely girlfriend, Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly), who is a number of years his junior. High-class and beautiful; Lisa doesn't care that Jeff is living from paycheque-to-paycheque. Eventually, Stella's warning comes true. Jeff discovers that a salesman (Lars Thorwald played by Raymond Burr), could very well be a murderer. He calls his friend, who is a policeman, to check out the situation. His friend can't; not without sufficient probable-cause. Many rather nasty things occur that Jeff sees but can't explain. He enlists the help of both Lisa and Stella.
I find that this film is very captivating and quite fast-paced. The ending is nail-biting. A must-see classic!
Rating: 
Summary: The mystery of perception
Review: This is a great film that discusses the mystery of perception. James Stewart plays a photographer confined to a wheelchair, and, because he is bored, he voyeuristically examines the lives of his neighbors in the apartment building. We only see these neighbors through his eyes. Therefore, when he assumes that the man across the courtyard has murdered his invalid wife, at first no one wants to investigate his theory, especially his detective friend. But the clues seem to pile up, leading Stewart's girlfriend and nurse (a wonderfully witty role played by Thelma Ritter) to lure the man from his apartment to investigate further. The climax is powerful, true to Hitchcockian form. Hitchcock's films are quite different from suspense films made today. The primary difference is the method in which Hitch crafts suspense. It's slow--on purpose. The climax is more powerful because the viewer builds up tension throughout the first 3/4 of the film. In this movie, Hitch's goal is not to shock or horrify viewers, but put them on the edge of their seats in anxious expectation of the climax. That, in my opinion, makes a great suspense thriller.
Rating:
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:
Summary: Pleasure of the voyeur
Review: Though it's unfashionable to say it, I'm not a big fan of Hitchcock. I watched Psycho, Frenzy, The Birds, Vertigo and Rope, and could not for the life of me work out why he was so popular, but then, after seeing it parodied in a 'Simpsons' episode, I saw Rear Window. What, in the first five minutes, seemed a good 50's-era Hitchcock film became, within ten minutes, a good film, period. Rear Window is incredible in terms of acting, writing, filmmaking, everything. I've never liked James Stewart either, but in this film he is fantastic, and playing against Grace Kelly is a work of pure genius. Shot entirely within one room (except after Stewart has left the room, shall we say), it places the viewer in Stewart's position, trapped inside his two-room apartment, with nothing to do but gaze out of the window, and as such this creates an incredible level of empathy with the character. You feel his claustrophobia at the same time as feeling his compulsion to watch, and thus in terms of placing you within the film, Rear Window has no near rivals. The beauty of this film is in the simplicity of its construction. A guy, a girl, a room, and an apartment building opposite containing what looks like a wife-murderer. Perhaps because there are so few things to watch, you watch ten times harder than you watch other films. Anyone who has any voyeuristic tendencies (voyeur meaning the pleasure of looking, without the negative connotations of Peeping Toms) will love this film, and based on the success of shows like Big Brother and Survivor, there are a lot of people out there who take pleasure in looking. But not only is it great to watch, the characterisation is exceptional; Kelly and Stewart are great as the odd-couple Jeffries and Lisa, and serial-massager Stella is a wonderful counterpoint full of home-spun philosophies and unintentional witticisms. As the film progresses and the originally sceptical Lisa and Stella both become drawn into Jeffries' voyeurism, you are drawn too, so that when, towards the end, the line between watching and acting is crossed, you feel the increased sense of danger and excitement that they do. But it is not a tense film; it is hailed as a work of suspense, but it is difficult to see it as that. Rear Window is realistic, compelling folk drama, plain and simple and incredibly addictive. Admittedly, it's not everyone's cup of tea. I have friends who call it slow-paced and lacking in spectacle, but to me, every scene is imbued with some kind of hook that keeps you watching. Every character across the way has an evolving story, so even when the main story takes the back seat, you remain glued to the screen. As there can be unputdownable books, so this is an unlookawayable film. It is by far the best Hitchcock I have ever seen and is still better than 99% of films made today. To me, it is an asset to every film collection, regardless of whether you're into Hitchcock or not. You could definitely do worse than owning a copy of this.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite Hitchcock movie ever
Review: I have always been a big fan of Alfred Hitchcock movies, but I have to say that Rear Window is one of my all time favorites. It has all the elements of a great picture; A star studded cast with Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly, and Raymond Burr, suspense and intrigue, and even thought provoking dialog. Jimmy Stewart is a photographer that has been laid up with a broken leg. Unable to leave his apartment, he becomes board and has found that his only entertainment comes from watching his neighbors across the courtyard. He becomes obsessive about a particular neighbor played by Raymond Burr whom he believes has committed murder. With the help of his girlfriend, played by Grace Kelly, they set out to find the evidence they need to prove that the crime has actually been committed. Acting as his legs, Grace Kelly finds herself in some very dangerous situations, and all Jimmy Stewart can do is watch from his rear window.
Rating:
Summary: A Hitchcock classic
Review: This old classic (with photographer James Stewart confined to his apartment with a cast on his leg and his girlfriend Grace Kelly providing legs for their sleuthing) never fails to satisfy. And it's really, really scary, especially the scene where the suspected murderer (Raymond Burr with menacing gaze and heavy brow) sees Kelly twiddling her finger behind her back, glances out the window and up, up, up to where Stewart is framed in his apartment window across the courtyard. Ridiculous, but even as I type this, I'm getting goosebumps.
The beauty of this film is the way it plays on the role of the voyeur. Stewart amuses himself by spying on his neighbors in the apartment buildings that surround his Greenwich Village courtyard - and we, the viewing audience, get to peek over his shoulder. It's incredibly titillating - until Burr's invalid wife goes missing.
Terrific cure for boredom, both Stewart's and ours, especially with the truly terrifying conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Hitchcock
Review: I love Hitchcock, and his infatuation with Grace Kelly is contagious. He makes you realize what he saw in her that so fascinated him. I always thought she was an especially gifted, classy and beautiful actress and I always had a soft spot for James Stewart. The way these three come together in Rear Window is truly magical. It's one of those movies one can watch over and over throughout the years and never get tired of. It's a movie you grow old with, like a beloved spouse. It's great entertainment, but the questions that are posed by it are eternal, like the meaning of privacy for instance, more valid than ever at this age of big brother and paparazzi; or how you can love someone with all your heart who doesn't fit in your universe and your way of life. Stewart's argument with the nurse (amazingly played by Thelma Ritter in what may very well be the role of her career) upon that very subject is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen on film. The movie would be worth it for that alone. He proves the world over and over again that, just like his movies tend to be about bringing two lovers together and how that is achieved is ultimately unimportant, the eroticism between them is not about how much skin or graphic sex you're shown. Any frame in Rear Window is hotter than everything else you'll ever see in the movies put together. No one can be as erotic or as romantic as him.
Rating: 
Summary: If you prefer souffle over meat or casserolle
Review: 5 stars as a piece of cinematic craft. 1 star as substance. another hitchcock exercise of excellent pacing, subtle humor and
droll commentary on the folly of human behavior, heavy on dramatic artifice, as are most of hitchcok's films.
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