Rear Window

“Nothing has caused the human race as much trouble as intelligence.” We arrive at a Hitchcock film, finally. More than 120 films into my cinematic journey and I’ve somehow avoided his filmography entirely, but no longer can that be an ugly distinction of my foray into movie enjoyment. Concept wise, this is obnoxiously clever. I was immediately into this window thing. It’s naturally fragmented, as you can only get so much information from the small area a window is made up of. With the amount of windows Jefferies can see from his own he’s got to play this role of manager of all of these completely different stories in such close physical proximity. Not to mention the fact that he’s got a fair amount going on in his own life, including a love interest who’s frankly way too good for him, which oddly enough is his biggest gripe. Jeff is such a fun case study, because I understand his frustration from a couple different angles. It’s hot out, he’s irritated from multiple personal standpoints including his love life and the cast on his leg, he’s essentially trapped with nothing to think about but whatever goes on in these small windows into others worlds, and he’s disturbingly certain that he’s a partial witness to something he can only imagine to be horrific. What a conundrum that is, I mean I don’t know how I would handle that. I’ll spare the time to write more about Rear Window someday when I feel more intelligent than I do now. As a story though, a truly sweat inducing and brain engaging journey over a two hour journey. I get it now, I get the whole suspense pillar that Hitchcock stands upon to most. It’s a sickeningly suspenseful movie. Rear Window is the second time I’ve ever felt physical anxiety over a film, and by FAR the more potent experience. This is really the only film I’ve watched so far that doesn’t leave a singular room for the entirety of it, and until the climax of the film I didn’t quite realize what that was doing to my subconscious all along. It made an evidently impenetrable safe haven out of something that clearly wasn’t, hence all the times folks just opened the door and waltzed in. I felt outsmarted here but not in a pretentious or arrogant way and that is fucking brilliant to me. So yes, I understand just a sliver of the genius that lived within Alfred Hitchcock and how good he was at putting it on the screen for others to decipher. On another note, the dialogue is also super smart and creative, all the little philosophical and ultra literal rebuttals are right up my alley. I’ve read this is one of Hitchcock’s better films, and god I hope so because if it gets significantly better than this I’m not sure I can even handle it. I guess the hyperbolic bug has bitten me, or at least nibbled on me, and I will 100% feel obligated to delve into Psycho and Vertigo now. This is a 5 star movie, no questions asked. Also, that whole dog basket elevator thing was terrifying.