Rating: 
Summary: The ultimate voyeristic thriller!
Review: Hitchcock directed his movies so that the audience would see and feel exactly what the characters in the movie experienced. Never was this done more obviously or more effectively than in Rear Window, the 1954 classic with Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly. Stewart is a magazine photographer who has suffered a broken leg. He is forced to spend most of his day in a wheelchair, and his only entertainment is staring out the window of his Greenwich Village apartment. Kelly is in love with him and wants to marry him. He wants no part of that (for some reason) and is contemplating ending the relationship. It is interesting that we learn a lot about six or seven of his neighbors just by watching with Stewart. There's the songwriter, who goes from failure to success right before our eyes, and the newlywed couple, who move in at the beginning full of love and lust and end up at the end like a couple married for 20 years. Miss Torso is his name for a shapely young woman with multiple suitors and he calls another Miss Lonelyhearts, who is desperate for companionship. The most interesting neighbor is Raymond Burr. He has an invalid wife who disappears suddenly. Stewart sees suspicious things in the middle of the night and develops a theory that Burr has killed his wife and disposed of her. At first no one believes him, but eventually they come along and spy with him, trying to figure out what happened. Stewart has a detective friend who refuses to be convinced, but Stewart tries over and over to explain why he thinks the wife is dead. Throughout the film, Hitchcock has us totally hooked. We are right there with Stewart and we are totally enamored by Kelly, who may have one of the most sensual screen openings in film history. Thelma Ritter is Stewart's housemaid, and she dispenses advice on relationships and how to handle this supposed murder. In the end, we learn whether Stewart's suspicions have any merit. I can say that there is lots of tension and suspense along the way. It takes real guts to make a film like this, where you are limited to one section of a room for almost two hours. Hitchcock's genius is clearly obvious here. One of the master's five best films of all time.
Rating:
Summary: I never tought spying on neighbors could be so thrilling!
Review: Rear window is one of my favorite movies ever! James Stuart was superb, along with grace kelly. This movies was a complete success. I watched it because a friend reccomended it to me, but I didn't know he had a good reason for it!
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely Great
Review: This is one of the best movies i have ever seen. Its absolutely extroidinary. It's got a great climax and makes you wonder through the whole movie. ... i don't like old movies but this one really interested me a lot. I would see it again anytime>
Rating:
Summary: Hitchcock Masterpiece
Review: Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly combine in what is one of the most engaging and suspenseful classics of all time. She is at her finest, playing a role that was designed for her. In scene after scene she is striking. While we might never understand this beauty's attraction to Jimmy Stewart's character, it helps to draw us in to the relationship between the two. As they are attempting to sort out the meaning and direction they will choose, the suspense the builds naturally. It reaches a height when she decides to investigate the missing woman across the way. Fascinating entertainment that will solidly remain a classic for years to come.
Rating:
Summary: My favourite Hitchcock movie
Review: This is a great accomplishment - a film which captures so much in the very confined space of one Hollywood soundstage, complete with articifial daylight and the sounds of an urban neighbourhood. But that is just a small part of the genius - Hitchcock manages to draw together several visual ideas with a number of underlying messages and come up with a movie that could be anything from comic entertainment to an intuitive social commentary - you decide! Perhaps the best aspects of the movie are the relationships - be they between neighbours, employees, friends or lovers - the audience is drawn in and the 'voyeur watching voyeur' aspect becomes all the more ironic. James Stewart is fantastic as the recuperating photographer who cannot find anything to do except watch the comings and goings of people in his apartment block. Thelma Ritter, as his nurse/housekeeper, has some of the best one-liners. And Grace Kelly as his love interest is in truly stunning form - both in terms of her acting and physical presence (I think I fell in love with her when I first saw this movie - and I was only 10 years old). If you want to know what all the fuss is about when it comes to movies of this era, do get this - you will enter a world of sophistication you might never have known existed. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: best hitchcock movie
Review: One of Hitchcock's first movies in color and his best movie. It is filmed extremly well concetering it was made in 1954. James Stewart gives an exelent performance as a world troting photographer who breaks his leg and is forced to stay in his tiny apartment for 6 weeks. Soon he gets bored and begins to look at his neighbors threw the rear window of his apartment. One night he sees some suspicious things and begins to suspect that one of his neighbors is a killer. His high class girl friend Lisa Freemont (Grace Kelly)joins him in solving the murder. Also along for the ride is the insurance company nurse Stella ( Thelma Ritter) who delivers some comidic lines very well. The movie is very entertianing surprisingly it never gets boring even though the whole 2 hours takes place in Jeff's apartment. I belive that this is Hitchcock's greatist movie ever.
Rating:
Summary: TERRIFIC HITCHCOCK THRILLER...
Review: This is a superlative film of suspense. It is a tribute to the direction of Alfred Hitchcock that one is never bored watching this film, though it entirely takes place within the confines of a claustrophobic New York Greenwich Village apartment, the windows of the neighbors across the way, and a courtyard that separates the buildings. Professional photographer L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (Jimmy Stewart) is recovering from an accident that occurred while on assignment. Encased in a cast covering his left leg and hip, Jeff is pretty much immobilized and temporarily confined to a wheel chair. Despite regular visits by his nurse, Stella (Thelma Ritter), and his beautiful, sophisticated girlfriend, Lisa (Grace Kelly), Jeff is chafing at his confinement. Bored stiff, he does what he does best. He peers at those around him from his window. Jeff finds the lives of his neighbors both immensely interesting and amusing. He watches them through their windows and in the courtyard, enhancing his experience with binoculars and the zoom lens of his camera. Jeff draws inferences and conclusions about them, based upon his own experiences with human behavior. This interest intensifies and takes a strange turn, when he believes one of them, Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr), may have committed a grisly murder, killing off his invalid wife, Anna. Though Jeff never actually sees the murder, what he does see is its aftermath and some peculiar behavior that puzzles him. Putting two and two together, he becomes absolutely convinced that his neighbor across the way has done away with his invalid wife. Jeff then informally involves his friend, Lt. Thomas Doyle (Wendell Corey) of the New York City Police Department, who initially scoffs at Jeff's assessment, though he does a cursory check . With Lisa and Stella also becoming fascinated by the strange behavior of Lars Thorwald, their interest and amateur sleuthing propels the film to an exciting climax. Jimmy Stewart is terrific as the housebound voyeur, drawing the viewer in with him. One finds oneself peering along with him into the lives of those around him. Grace Kelly is stunningly beautiful as Jeff's girlfriend Lisa, with whom Jeff is finding it difficult to make a commitment. It is interesting that as Jeff gets more intimately engrossed in his neighbors' affairs, his intimacy with Lisa seems to grow, drawing them closer together. Thelma Ritter is funny and sassy as the tough talking, no nonsense nurse. Raymond Burr, looking eerily as he would half a century later, is well cast as the neighbor whose wife got on his nerves. Wendell Corey is very good as the congenial, though jaded, detective. All in all, this is a terrific film that clearly shows the mastery and deft direction of the legendary Hitchcock. With a well written script and a stellar cast, this is a film that is well worth having in one's personal collection. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: The unfolding of an origami bird...
Review: A film destined for over-analysis, "Rear Window" deserves it's place in the pantheon of great films.
Instead of thinking about it so much, just watch the film and surrender to it's lovely storytelling style. It's like unfolding an origami bird to see what's on the original square piece of paper. (Notice I didn't say origami "crane", because that would be more apropos for another film circa 1960.)
The acting is superb, the script is unusually crafty, and the quips are appropriately tension-easing. The film attracts attention to it's style, yet manages to make you succumb to it.
We KNOW Hitchcock is a master. It's just nice to be reminded time and again, isn't it?
Rating:
Summary: A classic film in every sense of the word
Review: Countless times during the 25 years I've been alive, I've heard someone older than me sigh nostalgically and comment, "they just don't make 'em like they used to" with regards to contemporary cinema. And I have to agree in terms of objective fact, but not in spirit. No, they don't make movies like they used to, and as far as I'm concerned, that's to the good- I much prefer movies made from 1965 on, for the most part. However, there are certain films, such as Rear Window, that you recognize could never be made in this era where special effects, short attention spans, and cheap thrills, dominate the suspense/horror genre, and you have to sigh nostalgically, even if, like me, you weren't alive during the period of cinema for which you are yearning. Fortunately, you can pop in the excellent DVD release of this classic Hitchock film anytime you like and be taken back to a time where, indeed, they still made movies like they used to. I don't see how you could not like this film. As far as the acting goes, James Stewart is great as the crusty photographer with a broken leg and nothing to do but spy on his neighbors. Meanwhile, the female lead, Grace Kelley, has the best role in the film, and she assumes it brilliantly. Grace plays the woman of every man's dreams: heart-breakingly beautiful, kind, smart, and, as we find out in the film's climax, tough as nails. That said, the real star of this film is Hitchock, who once again advances the art of filmmaking with his unique sense of macabre and technical expertise. The story here is mainly existential rather than suspenseful. The act of violence around which the film is centered is the most chilling example of the darkness of modern/postmodern existence, but each apartment into which James Stewart looks provides both James and the viewer with some very dark insight into the pain, the banality, and the frustration and isolation, that has become ingrained into life as we know it. Now, how many suspense films can you name that are philosophically profound in addition to dramatic? Finally, the DVD version is sweet. I don't care much for extras, but the documentary is interesting. Meanwhile, the sound and picture of the film itself won't give Terminator 2 a run for its money, but are both fantastic in DVD adaptation, especially given the period during which the film was made. In sum, see Rear Window many, many times. That goes for those you who already have seen it many times, as well as for those of you have never watched it. Maybe they'll never make another Rear Window, but hey, you couldn't pop the film into your DVD player and lounge on your sofa cuddled with your loved one, pet, or bottle of beer, back in 1954, now, could you?
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest movies ever made. I'll tell you why...
Review: Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock (Shadow of a doubt, Marnie, Psycho) is one of his most respected films. Practically his first cinematic landmark shot in color, REAR WINDOW is a scary, quality film. A man suspects his neigbor GETS IN AN ARGUMENT WITH A WOMAN (HIS WIFE) and they fight, the lights go out and a scream is heard. He killed her, right? Later in the film, when he sends his girlfriend to go in the house for clues as the supposed killer leaves, the girlfriend (Grace Kelly) gets trapped as the attacker rushes back home, he finds her and grabs her, shutting off the lights, a shreik is heard, you see the girl moving, struggling from the attacker's grip. The boyfriend calls the police, he has a broken leg and can't move, help or do anything but hope they come on time. The scene where the attacker finds out his girlfriend was the one who spied on him, the attacker comes to kill him, who will survive in this suspenseful classic that holds grip, romance, drama, suspense and mystery until the final shot.
|
