Rear Window Essay

Alfred Hitchcock was probably one of the greatest movie directors of all time. He was known for his technical and artistic genius and was clearly ahead of his time. Rear Window, one of his most notable movies, is an intriguing story about how a man who is stuck in his apartment observes what he believes to be a murder. From his observations through his ‘rear window’ of his apartment he proceeds to solve the murder. Alfred Hitchcock uses many different techniques in his setting, characters and story line that keep us in suspense.

Hitchcock uses the story line to keep us guessing about what is taking place in the story. Many unusual events take place during the beginning of the film. This keeps you wondering what the events mean as well as what’s going to happen next. For example, early in the movie a business man goes out three times in the middle of the night. He wears a long jacket, a hat, and carries a suitcase. This makes me wonder what he’s doing. Then we discover that his wife is missing which leads us to wonder if his strange activities the night before have something to do with her disappearance. Another example of this is that in the film there is a cute innocent little dog. The owners let him out in the day and bring him inside in the night. One night his owners find that someone has broken his neck and killed him. Before this event happened, the dog was observed digging the in the tulip patch. This episode makes you wonder who killed the dog and why. He also presented many different types of characters that may have had their own reasons to kill the victim, it kept you guessing.


The setting that Hitchcock uses also creates suspense in the story line. The music especially adds to the suspense of each scene. When the character Lisa is sneaking into the suspect’s apartment the music is very scary and suspenseful. He also uses the darkness and shadows a lot and much of the action takes place at night. The character Mr. Jeffries has to hide in the shadows so that the suspect does not see him spying on him. In one scene his girlfriend is sending him a signal and the suspect sees her do this. The suspect then knows he is being watched from Mr. Jeffries apartment. You then wonder if the suspect will come over to retaliate. He also used the weather to create suspense. In the most suspenseful parts of the movie there is thunder and rain.


Hitchcock also used interesting camera angles and inferences during the movie as well. For example, when the suspect is trying to strangle Mr. Jeffries we see Mr. Jeffries from the same angle as the person strangling him. It makes you feel as though you were the one strangling him. Mr. Jeffries is confined to his apartment with a broken leg, so he is watching out his window all day. We start to see the scenarios unfold through his eyes. We cannot hear what his neighbors are saying, but are left to infer what is going on. When we see the suspect and the victim having a heated discussion we infer they are fighting. Miss Lonelyheart takes a number of pills out and puts them on her dresser, we are led to infer that she is going to commit suicide. When we see the small dog digging in a spot in the suspects garden and then later the dog turns up dead we infer that there is something there under the soil that the suspect does not want dug up. In another scene the suspect is wrapping a saw in newspaper and we are led to infer that he is trying to get rid of or hid it.


It was fun to watch Rear Window and look for ways that Hitchcock used his skills to create suspense. Many of the movies today are much more graphic and instead of implying that something has happened it is shown right on the screen. Sometimes not much is left to the imagination. I think that it is much harder to create suspense the way Hitchcock did. Rear Window is a movie that is timeless and will be enjoyed by audiences now and into the future because of the genius of Hitchcock.