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Rear Window (Collector's Edition)
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Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
DVD Layers: 2
DVD Sides: 1
EAN: 9780783237398
Format: Color, Collector's Edition, Widescreen
ISBN: 0783237391
Label: Universal Studios
Languages: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
MPN: D20395D
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Publisher: Universal Studios
Region Code: 1
Release Date: March 06, 2001
Running Time: 115 minutes
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: 1954
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Editorial Review:
Like the Greenwich Village courtyard view from its titular portal, Alfred Hitchcock's classic Rear Window is both confined and multileveled: both its story and visual perspective are dictated by its protagonist's imprisonment in his apartment, convalescing in a wheelchair, from which both he and the audience observe the lives of his neighbors. Cheerful voyeurism, as well as the behavior glimpsed among the various tenants, affords a droll comic atmosphere that gradually darkens when he sees clues to what may be a murder.
Photographer L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (James Stewart) is, in fact, a voyeur by trade, a professional photographer sidelined by an accident while on assignment. His immersion in the human drama (and comedy) visible from his window is a by-product of boredom, underlined by the disapproval of his girlfriend, Lisa (Grace Kelly), and a wisecracking visiting nurse (Thelma Ritter). Yet when the invalid wife of Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) disappears, Jeff enlists the two women to help him to determine whether she's really left town, as Thorwald insists, or been murdered.
Hitchcock scholar Donald Spoto convincingly argues that the crime at the center of this mystery is the MacGuffin--a mere pretext--in a film that's more interested in the implications of Jeff's sentinel perspective. We actually learn more about the lives of the other neighbors (given generic names by Jeff, even as he's drawn into their lives) he, and we, watch undetected than we do the putative murderer and his victim. Jeff's evident fear of intimacy and commitment with the elegant, adoring Lisa provides the other vital thread to the script, one woven not only into the couple's own relationship, but reflected and even commented upon through the various neighbors' lives.
At minimum, Hitchcock's skill at making us accomplices to Jeff's spying, coupled with an ingenious escalation of suspense as the teasingly vague evidence coalesces into ominous proof, deliver a superb thriller spiked with droll humor, right up to its nail-biting, nightmarish climax. At deeper levels, however, Rear Window plumbs issues of moral responsibility and emotional honesty, while offering further proof (were any needed) of the director's brilliance as a visual storyteller. --Sam Sutherland
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - "Hand Me the Binoculars, Please"
While Psycho is my favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie, Rear Window is a close second, and it is to my mind the classiest suspense movie he made. Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly provide that classiness. Cool and brazen Grace, subtlely provoking Jimmy at every turn, knowing he is stuck helpless with a broken leg in a cast, while she cavorts about getting too close to the murderer, and enjoying his nervousness. The murderer is played by Ramond Burr in a strange role for him--but he is very scary. In ... Read More
Rating:  - Overrated
Some films show their age, and others do not. Despite its reputation as a classic of great filmmaking, Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film Rear Window, unfortunately, shows its age far too much. No, it's certainly not a bad film, by any standard, and is a pretty good one, but it's not one of Hitchcock's best, much less a great film, nor deserving of any place in the Top 100 Films lists of the last few years. Technically, it deserves many plaudits, but what really fails is the screenplay, written originally ... Read More
Rating: - A British eye spying on America
This film has become a cult film with time. Everything seems to be at that level though the situation and plot are rather light. What is important here is that Hitchcock transforms this back yard and garden surrounded by buildings all around and a highly voyeuristic microcosm into a complete vision of human society with all its dramas, and its pleasures and joys. To transform such a small microcosm entirely closed onto itself into a vision of the whole society we hardly get a couple of glimpses of through ... Read More
Rating: - Peeping James
You wouldn't think that a movie that takes place in one room, with a main cast of two people, couldn't be that exciting.
In fact, Alfred Hitchcock was in near-perfect form when he made "Rear Window," a stylish, minimalistic blend of mystery and dark comedy. This thriller explores "what you shouldn't see" in a slow-burning blaze of skillful suspense, with a few funny bits thrown in. And having a cast that includes Grace Kelly and James Stewart doesn't hurt either.
Photographer L.B. ... Read More
Rating: - Hitchcock classic in new 2-disc Special Edition due out October 7th, 2008!
Rear Window is considered by many Alfred Hitchcock's best movie. The story suited him well. A man confined to a wheelchair, watching things that may be innocent or murderous, a beautiful woman out of her element, in danger, with gradually building suspense that takes a potentially fatal turn as we watch helplessly with our immobilized protagonist, and a cliffhanger climax. The movie has been analyzed by very smart people looking for much more than that, deeper meanings and allusions, and some of their ideas ... Read More
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