Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

Improved Essays
Rear Window is a good movie. It is about a man’s determination to find out the reason one of his neighbors disappeared. This film is an adaption of a short story titled It Had to Be Murder. The camerawork is in this film is phenomenal. The way the camera was positioned in the shots makes it appear as if the audience is actually there. We get the view of what the characters see when looking out the window and looking through binoculars. Needless to say it is visually pleasing. The actors did an amazing job in portraying their characters. The excitement, fear, and anger were all believable. I love Alfred Hitchcock, but in my opinion this is not his best work. Everything was great except the fact that the film is slow.

The film revolves around
…show more content…
The main character Jeff Jefferies is played by James Stewart. Jeff has limited mobility because he is in a cast for a broken leg. He is a professional photographer that was a bit too daring casing him a broken leg. Being confined to his apartment can be quite boring. His frequent visitors include his nurse Stella and his girlfriend Lisa. When he does not have company his entertainment is watching his neighbors. Jeff’s neighbors, the Thorwalds, have another heated argument. Late at night Jeff sees Mr. Thorwald leaving his apartment multiple times with a heavy case. The morning after Jeff witnessed Mr. Thorwalds suspicious activity he notices Mrs. Thorwald has vanished from the apartment. Her disappearance begins to raise questions. Jeff and his friends investigate a bit further into where her whereabouts may be. The more they piece the puzzle together the more questions arise with no answers. One of Jeff’s friends believes he is starting to imagine things because he has been cooped up in his apartment for weeks. All the unanswered questions are given plausible answers by his friend. His other friends still think the whole situation smells fishy so they stick by him to help find Mrs. Thorwald. The deeper

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    ‘Rear Window’ is a 1954 film by Alfred Hitchcock. It is full of symbolism, narratives, and characterization. In this movie, Hitchcock creates suspense in the next coming shot and the characters looking toward the perspective point of view. He used specific signature motifs such as character parallels between the main character and all other characters in the building. The film focuses around the main protagonist Jefferies, a photographer who recently broke his leg and is restricted to a wheelchair.…

    • 275 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Anse, Addie’s husband, waits on the porch, while their teenage daughter, Dewey Dell, fans her mother in the July heat. The night after Addie dies a heavy rainstorm sets in; rivers rise and wash out bridges the family will need to cross to get to Jefferson. The family's trek by wagon begins, with Addie’s not-embalmed body in the coffin. Along the way, Anse and the five children encounter various difficulties.…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Rear Window is based on a story from the February 1942 issue of Dime Detective Magazine called "It Had to be Murder", written by Cornell Woolrich (under the pseudonym William Irish). Alfred Hitchcock, who was a longtime fan of Woolrich's pulp thrillers, was taken by the piece, but his goal in adapting it for the screen was to unify the narrative. Jeff doesn't have a girlfriend in Woolrich's version - Hitchcock and screenwriter John Michael Hayes added that in. They also invented Jeff's job as a photojournalist, thinking that it would ease his transition into a voyeur. Besides that, the final plot of Rear Window remains fairly close to Woolrich's original work.…

    • 359 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The movie did not meet my expectations in the sense that it did not give near as much detail and it didn't follow the storyline very well. The…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In 1954, Alfred Hitchcock directed a film which was named Rear Window. In this movie the main characters were Lisa Carol Fremont, L.B. Jeff, and Detective Doyle. L.B. Jeff was played by James Stewart is a man who is confined to his apartment and his only view of the world in looking out his window in his apartment. Lisa Carol Fremont was played by Grace Kelly, she was a model who showed interest in Jeff, but could not get his attention. Detective lieutenant Doyle was played by Wendell Corey was skeptical of Jeff accusing his neighbor of murder until the very end when it was made clear.…

    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the beginning, we figure out Jeff had broken his leg and is casted all the way up to his waist, and is having to stay in his apartment for several weeks to recover. He passes his time by looking outside his window and observing his neighbours and how they live their daily lives. In the beginning, he was observing in a way that was not odd in any way, just observing several different people. He would update his nurse Stella who would come see him everyday on what is going on in his neighbourhood. His fiancée Lisa is his other visitor that visits Jeff everyday.…

    • 1147 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rear Window Sparknotes

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The movie ‘Rear Window’ was released on September 1, 1954, the movie was directed by the one and only Alfred Hitchcock, and the movies plot is that a photographer named Jeff, who is stuck on a wheelchair in his apartment to recover from a broken leg, and the movie gets the name “Rear Window” from the fact that his back window looks out into other apartments from people who live in the area. He observes many people from the area, but the most important is a jewelry salesman and his wife. One night, Jeff hears a woman scream "Don't!" and then the sound of breaking glass, then he falls asleep to later realize that Thorwald makes continuous late night trips carrying his suitcase. Jeff soon notices that the wife is gone and then sees Thorwald cleaning knives, so Jeff assume right after that the wife has been murdered causing him to continue to spy on Thorwald.…

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, there were many parallels between the two protagonists and the neighbors they observed through the window. Jeff seemed mostly in parallel with the newly married couple, which reflected his idea of marriage. In the first scene when he talked about not wanting to marry Lisa, the newlywed shuts down their blind, which to me indicated Jess shutting down the idea of marriage. As the story progresses and they open their blinds up, the new husband seems to look unhappy with the attentions his wife needs. Again this expressed Jess’ reluctance to marriage because he believes it would bond himself to his wife’s needs.…

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This is a story about a door-to door jewelry salesman, Lars Thorwald and his extremely ill wife and a single man who is a traveling photographer, L. B. Jefferies, who spies on his neighbors due to his boredom while he is stuck in his apartment due to an accident which caused him to break his leg and now he is immobilized for a couple of months. While peering at several of his neighbors, he has memorized each of their daily routines and one particular couple peaks his interest. Although Jefferies notices the daily routine of the husband going in daily to check on his wife, the blinds are always open. One day he notices that the couple have what may appear to him as an argument, the blinds have been closed that night in the bedroom from that point for a few days and there is no activity from the wife, she seems to have disappeared permanently from Jefferies daily view. The inactivity of Mrs. Thorwald sparks Jefferies interest, he believes that Mr. Thorwald murdered his wife, Mrs.…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    After he notices his neighbor unusual behavior, he sensed that he is worried about his wife 's. However after a day or two has passed, he notices that Thorwald hasn’t checked with his wife on even been near her room. This scene is so heavily motivated by his humanly instance that he decides to call Bynoe. Based off the short story Bynoe is seen as friend to Jeff and he takes his information as sees it as reliable. Bynoe accepts Jeff’s request finds nothing after searching Thorwald apartment.…

    • 1778 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rear Window Narrative

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Rear Window uses literal windows as frames to convey this concept, but a film can easily just decide to pick and choose certain shots and utilize blocking and masking to convey the same concept. Using film as a frame allows it to be seen relatively like a piece of art in which the narrative or meaning is in the eye of the…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 Vertigo, stars James Stewart and Kim Novak in this mystery thriller about a retired detective who has acrophobia or "vertigo". John Ferguson, or to his friends Scotty, is on a private investigation to find out if his friends wife is possessed. The story takes place in San Fransisco in the late 1950's and is about retired detective John Ferguson, who after a tragic accident has acrophobia and decides to give up on being a detective. One day, an old friend from college calls him to investigate his wife on the suspicion of her being possessed.…

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    North by Northwest, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller, features a handsome lead, a beautiful love interest, a charming villain, and exciting action scenes that led to it being called “the first James Bond film,” as noted by The Guardian’s John Peterson (Peterson). Even if it is one’s first time viewing the film, it is easy to pick up on moments that are obviously iconic, including the moving text in the opening credits, the crop duster attack, and of course the final scene on the face of Mount Rushmore. Although the film spouts originality and iconic moments, there is one element that stands most important in moving the plot, which is in my opinion, the microfilm, otherwise known as a “MacGuffin.” According to Michael Kurland of New York Times,…

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Shining Analysis

    • 2704 Words
    • 11 Pages

    With its two hours and twenty three minutes, the movie is admittedly long. However, it is not only because it is long but also because its slow pace gives two different reactions. The first view is how it is boring, it takes to long for the action to arrive and and even the action is slow. On the other hand, pace combined with the music creates a feeling of nervousness and anticipation of what will come next.…

    • 2704 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Spellbound (1945) takes place at the Green Manor’s asylum, the head psychiatrist, Dr.Murchison is retiring and being replaced by Dr. Edwardes. When Dr. Edwardes arrives he immediately falls in love with Dr. Constance Peterson. As the film progresses, Dr. Constance Peterson realizes that Dr. Edwardes is an amnesiac imposter. The film is about their journey on figuring out the identity of the imposter as well as finding out what happened to the real Dr. Edwardes. The film was the first film to use Freud’s psychoanalytical or “the talking cure” theory to solve a mystery instead of using a typical detective.…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays