@DRDMovieMusings said:

When I reflect on the voyeur culture, how we watch tv shows today that are basically just putting people in situations to see how they navigate their way through situations, Rear Window is decades ahead and one of the first big movies that is not complex in plot, but does focus on the characters, their idle boredom and hyperactive imaginations.

The film also explores an idea about urban living, how people living in close quarters mind manage boundaries. Wilder's The Apartment took a variant look (how the super had a preoccupation with what he perceived to be Jack Lemon's character's playboy lifestyle).

This movie is not The Maltese Falcon, a film that is also highly rated yet I found difficult to follow, understand, or enjoy. Rear Window is remarkably not that complicated, and the actors actually do a lot of acting with such a relatively uncomplicated script.

Even sticking within the Hitchcock repertoire, again, I found North by Northwest absurd, it tried too hard to raise the stakes but it came off to me as too conveniently contrived and far too busy to be taken seriously; and Vertigo was, for me, too complicated, I still can't explain off the top of my head what this movie was about.

Rear Window was accessible, believeable. A guy with a broken leg is bored sitting at home and begins to let his nosy imagination get the best of what he thinks he's seeing through his rear window watching his neighbours. And the setting is also neat - a highrise apartment complex that is not a slum, but rather middle class. How often do we see this kind of depiction of urban life in a big city?

The above sums it up better than I could (although I also really liked NbNW as something more at the popcorn level of entertainment). I've just noticed Hitchcock statistically appears to be my favourite director ever, with 6 films scoring 8/10 or more (and a whole bunch of 7/10s). No director even comes close to that consistently excellent level in my personal rankings. This was an 8 (Dial M my only 9, released in the same year as this for crying out loud, so prodigious). The man was clearly an absolute genius at making 'accessible' (to steal the term) mass market films where an everyman (or everywoman) found themselves slowly realising they were jeopardy. It just makes it so relatable despite the high drama that typically ensues. On paper a lot of the films can sound similar when summarised like that, but he makes each one so distinct. None of it is what you'd call High Art, but you don't need to have artistic pretensions

Its been a long time since I've seen this one but it was just utterly unique (and felt as such seeing it for the first time this century). The fact there was so much mundanity going on in both foreground and background just drew me in completely to keep a keen eye out for the out of the ordinary.

I do agree with some of the criticism about Stewart's range as an actor, but some films, like this one, absolutely suit the way he can convey a slightly eccentric, intelligent, know-it-all who is a somewhat socially awkward, even boring individual. Put a standard chiselled jaw in as the lead in Rear Window and it wouldn't work. His behaviour wouldn't make as much sense.

@Fergoose said:

@DRDMovieMusings said:

When I reflect on the voyeur culture, how we watch tv shows today that are basically just putting people in situations to see how they navigate their way through situations, Rear Window is decades ahead and one of the first big movies that is not complex in plot, but does focus on the characters, their idle boredom and hyperactive imaginations.

The film also explores an idea about urban living, how people living in close quarters mind manage boundaries. Wilder's The Apartment took a variant look (how the super had a preoccupation with what he perceived to be Jack Lemon's character's playboy lifestyle).

This movie is not The Maltese Falcon, a film that is also highly rated yet I found difficult to follow, understand, or enjoy. Rear Window is remarkably not that complicated, and the actors actually do a lot of acting with such a relatively uncomplicated script.

Even sticking within the Hitchcock repertoire, again, I found North by Northwest absurd, it tried too hard to raise the stakes but it came off to me as too conveniently contrived and far too busy to be taken seriously; and Vertigo was, for me, too complicated, I still can't explain off the top of my head what this movie was about.

Rear Window was accessible, believeable. A guy with a broken leg is bored sitting at home and begins to let his nosy imagination get the best of what he thinks he's seeing through his rear window watching his neighbours. And the setting is also neat - a highrise apartment complex that is not a slum, but rather middle class. How often do we see this kind of depiction of urban life in a big city?

The above sums it up better than I could (although I also really liked NbNW as something more at the popcorn level of entertainment). I've just noticed Hitchcock statistically appears to be my favourite director ever, with 6 films scoring 8/10 or more (and a whole bunch of 7/10s). No director even comes close to that consistently excellent level in my personal rankings. This was an 8 (Dial M my only 9, released in the same year as this for crying out loud, so prodigious). The man was clearly an absolute genius at making 'accessible' (to steal the term) mass market films where an everyman (or everywoman) found themselves slowly realising they were jeopardy. It just makes it so relatable despite the high drama that typically ensues. On paper a lot of the films can sound similar when summarised like that, but he makes each one so distinct. None of it is what you'd call High Art, but you don't need to have artistic pretensions

Its been a long time since I've seen this one but it was just utterly unique (and felt as such seeing it for the first time this century). The fact there was so much mundanity going on in both foreground and background just drew me in completely to keep a keen eye out for the out of the ordinary.

I do agree with some of the criticism about Stewart's range as an actor, but some films, like this one, absolutely suit the way he can convey a slightly eccentric, intelligent, know-it-all who is a somewhat socially awkward, even boring individual. Put a standard chiselled jaw in as the lead in Rear Window and it wouldn't work. His behaviour wouldn't make as much sense.

So well said, yourself! Every iota. And Dial M is indeed terrific!