Saturday, October 15, 2011

Rear Window

Who am I to write a review of a classic movie? An amateur that's who. I probably have seen far less movies than a true "movie guru" but I have seen my share, and boy have I seen some real stinkers as well as some gems. I have seen a few that have been compared to the master himself, Alfred Hitchcock. Among them, The Sixth Sense, Signs, and Flight Plan (which is easily the worst of these three, and actually quite funny if I remember correctly) but after seeing many of the imitators and movies influenced by him I thought it was time to sit down and watch one of the real things, and boy was I in for a treat. I don't think I have really seen a movie like "Rear Window" before, except maybe "Rope" which is of course another Hitchockian classic. It really only has one set piece, Jimmy Stewart's apartment, from which he (and we the audience) see the world outside his (Rear) window. You see Jimmy has a broken leg and has nothing better to do than to spy on his neighbors. Boy what a creeper. But the film is really all about relationships, Jim's relationship with his girlfriend (played by the beautiful Grace Kelly), his nurse, his friend, and the relationships or lack thereof that his neighbor's have. It's quite interesting. For the first 30-45 minutes of the film Hitchcock sets up the world that Stewart lives in, and his relationships. He shows the rhythm of his day. Slowly we find out about his reluctancy to marry and why. One day however Jim notices that one of his neighbors is missing, and her husband seems very suspicious. Stewart has no choice but to get help from the outside world to see if his suspicions are true. I won't spoil how it ends up, but the story plays out nicely and naturally. Even though the neighbors are only used at background and have little to no dialogue they all have their own story (besides the suspicious husband I mean) that each have their own arc over the movie, and it is nice to see how that pans out. I recommend this movie highly if you enjoy classic cinema, thrillers, or just have a marginal knowledge of Hitchcock and like what you have heard. Now about this blog post it is an experiment. I am just trying to write out how I feel and think about something, in this case a movie. If you have constructive criticism let me know please, but any negative comments will be deleted. I know I am not the authority on movies, I really just want to try and write something and also let all who are willing to read know about a great movie!

thanks :D