Rear Window (1954)
Title: 'Rear Window' (1954)
Genre: Hitchcock & Stewart
Rating: 6/10
This movie is ranked #16 on imdb.coms top 250. It is ranked #42 on AFI's Greatest America Movies of All Time. If I had a list, I'd like to think there would be some rhyme and reason to it. So, I don't know who send this conciliatory letter too, but, Rear Window? My rear end.
How this movie ended up as some kind of cinematic event is beyond me. It must have been a super slow year, right?... I just did some homework, and, newswise it was pretty slow: The French were busy getting their asses handed to them by Vietnam (yawn... somebody flip the record, it's skipping), and, Stateside, segregation was ended in the public schools. I'd rate that a moderately slow news year... But, still, you had a brand new 'I Love Lucy' episode to come home to every week, and you were totally rocking out to 'Mr. Sandman' and 'Sh-boom' on the jukebox.
On top of all that, 'Rear Window' wasn't exactly the only choice at the theater. Get this! If you want to get your heart racing: '20000 Leagues Under The Sea', 'Creature From The Black Lagoon', and 'Them' with those fuckin' freaky deaky ants. I'm not so sure people were into the Japanese pop scene, but you also had 'Godzilla' all up in your giblets and 'The Seven Samurai'.
If it was drama you crave then get your ass to 'The Caine Mutiny' or 'On the Waterfront' for Fuck's sake! And for the ladies, get yer hanky out for 'Sabrina' and 'Seven Brides For Seven Brothers'. Holy Monkey! Even Hitchcock had another movie out that year, 'Dial M for Murder'. Did the man himself think 'Rear Window' was gonna tank? It doesn't matter! Pleeeaaase send me an everlovin' timecapsule that explains why you made 'Rear Window' s'plode with box office money.
This movie is like 'The Village' (2004), in that you're thinking 'this is retarded' but, 'there's gonna be a twist that makes this fucker worthwhile... There'd better be a twist... Son of a fuckin' whiskeyfart. It's over? Seriously? WhooooooreBaaaaaaaaag!'
Only, unlike 'The Village' this entire movie takes place in one room. So on top of everything else, you're thinking 'let me out, lemme out, out, out... You, nuthair, please, let me go.' But then Grace Kelly shows up for a bit, so you manage to make it to the end of the film. But just barely, seriously, you feel like Ali looked when he finally dropped Foreman in '74.
I'm gonna contribute some of this pain to the absence of composer Bernard Herrmann. The guy didn't partner up with Hitchcock till '55. But is responsible for half of any Hitchcockian success. Can you imagine 'Psycho' (1960) without that stabbing 'Reeeee! Reeee! Reeee!'. Herrmann is the real fucking deal. Hitchcock's flame would have been pissed away faster than a pubic hair without the aid of Herrmann. Go listen to a few samples. Everyone knows this except for you, don't be a dumbass. The music in 'Rear Window' makes me wanna wear sock-suspenders and Y-fronts.
There was a documentary special on the DVD that had all kinds of people going off about what a maestro Hitchcock was. People like Peter Bogdanovich who is supposed to be some kind of cinematic wunderkind, but has only ever made one good movie,
'The Last Picture Show' (1971) and even then, he screwed up by fooling around with his starlet, Cybill Shepherd, who grew up to be more annoying than earwax. He goes on to talk about what 'a master of subtlety' and 'technical genius' Hitchcock was.
What? Dude. What? Technical Genius? They built an entire city block indoors for this 'technical genius'. The guy can't figure out how to shoot a camera outside? And it still looks like a off-brodway production of 'Rent'. You've gotta be kidding me. If Hitchcock is a technical genius, I'm an authorized Maytag repairman.
Judgement: Stupid. Go see a Herrmann/Hitchcock movie, like 'Psycho' or 'Vertigo' (1958)...
Genre: Hitchcock & Stewart
Rating: 6/10
This movie is ranked #16 on imdb.coms top 250. It is ranked #42 on AFI's Greatest America Movies of All Time. If I had a list, I'd like to think there would be some rhyme and reason to it. So, I don't know who send this conciliatory letter too, but, Rear Window? My rear end.
How this movie ended up as some kind of cinematic event is beyond me. It must have been a super slow year, right?... I just did some homework, and, newswise it was pretty slow: The French were busy getting their asses handed to them by Vietnam (yawn... somebody flip the record, it's skipping), and, Stateside, segregation was ended in the public schools. I'd rate that a moderately slow news year... But, still, you had a brand new 'I Love Lucy' episode to come home to every week, and you were totally rocking out to 'Mr. Sandman' and 'Sh-boom' on the jukebox.
On top of all that, 'Rear Window' wasn't exactly the only choice at the theater. Get this! If you want to get your heart racing: '20000 Leagues Under The Sea', 'Creature From The Black Lagoon', and 'Them' with those fuckin' freaky deaky ants. I'm not so sure people were into the Japanese pop scene, but you also had 'Godzilla' all up in your giblets and 'The Seven Samurai'.
If it was drama you crave then get your ass to 'The Caine Mutiny' or 'On the Waterfront' for Fuck's sake! And for the ladies, get yer hanky out for 'Sabrina' and 'Seven Brides For Seven Brothers'. Holy Monkey! Even Hitchcock had another movie out that year, 'Dial M for Murder'. Did the man himself think 'Rear Window' was gonna tank? It doesn't matter! Pleeeaaase send me an everlovin' timecapsule that explains why you made 'Rear Window' s'plode with box office money.This movie is like 'The Village' (2004), in that you're thinking 'this is retarded' but, 'there's gonna be a twist that makes this fucker worthwhile... There'd better be a twist... Son of a fuckin' whiskeyfart. It's over? Seriously? WhooooooreBaaaaaaaaag!'
Only, unlike 'The Village' this entire movie takes place in one room. So on top of everything else, you're thinking 'let me out, lemme out, out, out... You, nuthair, please, let me go.' But then Grace Kelly shows up for a bit, so you manage to make it to the end of the film. But just barely, seriously, you feel like Ali looked when he finally dropped Foreman in '74.
I'm gonna contribute some of this pain to the absence of composer Bernard Herrmann. The guy didn't partner up with Hitchcock till '55. But is responsible for half of any Hitchcockian success. Can you imagine 'Psycho' (1960) without that stabbing 'Reeeee! Reeee! Reeee!'. Herrmann is the real fucking deal. Hitchcock's flame would have been pissed away faster than a pubic hair without the aid of Herrmann. Go listen to a few samples. Everyone knows this except for you, don't be a dumbass. The music in 'Rear Window' makes me wanna wear sock-suspenders and Y-fronts.
There was a documentary special on the DVD that had all kinds of people going off about what a maestro Hitchcock was. People like Peter Bogdanovich who is supposed to be some kind of cinematic wunderkind, but has only ever made one good movie,
'The Last Picture Show' (1971) and even then, he screwed up by fooling around with his starlet, Cybill Shepherd, who grew up to be more annoying than earwax. He goes on to talk about what 'a master of subtlety' and 'technical genius' Hitchcock was.
What? Dude. What? Technical Genius? They built an entire city block indoors for this 'technical genius'. The guy can't figure out how to shoot a camera outside? And it still looks like a off-brodway production of 'Rent'. You've gotta be kidding me. If Hitchcock is a technical genius, I'm an authorized Maytag repairman.
Judgement: Stupid. Go see a Herrmann/Hitchcock movie, like 'Psycho' or 'Vertigo' (1958)...
posted by Kong at
9:51 AM
2 Comments:
LONGEST COMMENT EVER...
normally i think you're right on target and funny as all hell with your reviews, but i have to say this one was a swing and a miss. it's actually kinda cute, in that sort of helpless little-school bus sort of way. you have an opinion just like a real person but not a lot of understanding to back it up.
the movie lives in the subtlety. that's why is awesome. it lives in the minor monotonous moments of life that pass by without a mention. you're so looking for the big bang and the twist that you miss that your neighbor just bludgeoned his wife, chopped her into little bitty pieces, and buried her in your back yard... unless of course you're jailed away in your tiny new york apartment with nothing but a window and the performances of others to entertain you. it's established early on with how Jefferies begins to observe the small things, the bird just outside the window, the voices from the street, ms. lonelyheart, and the songwriter. things that wouldn't have been seen otherwise, things that were around him all the time but never noticed. and it's echoed in Jefferies' friends and family that just can't believe that that sort of thing could happen without anyone noticing
and speaking of the world around him, the set is supposed to look like a stage performance. the film's backbone is voyeurism and where is there a better example of voyeurism than in the theatre? hundreds of people sitting quietly in the dark while a dozen people live out lives in front of them for entertainment. this theme is repeated in the shot selection and framing. notice how much of the action in a shot is framed inside a window frame or other construct that pushes the viewer away making them feel as if they are watching rather than living the moment.
the stage for the film was built and shot like a stage in the theatre. all the crisp edges, the lack or perspective, atmosphere, or distance in the background, the canned "street noise" all like you would find in a stage performance. i mean come on, don't you think all the money men didn't say, "hey al, wouldn't it be cheaper to just shoot outside rather than build an entire city block? what say we do that and save a couple bucks? the carpenters' union is killing us."
i'm sorry buddy but he was a technical genius and a master or subtlety, look at the track record, look at where he was in his career. maybe you think his best stuff came later, and certainly his most anxiety-filled films did come later, but the kid knew what he was doing, he'd been doing it for some time, and doing it well. i assure you ever tiny element of the film was planned and executed to perfection for a single purpose.
hitchcock set out to purvey a certain tone to the audience to make them have a certain visceral response, to make them feel claustrophobic and helpless in their voyeuristic nightmare, to make them say "let me out, lemme out, out, out... You, nuthair, please, let me go."
By
Wookiee Rage, at 3:10 PM
I was with Jefferies from the moment I saw 'Here Lie the Bones of L.B.J.' scrawled across the cast on his leg. The movie felt crisp and snappy. The moment it stared to slip away was when the opinions and skepticism of his friends flipped faster than Dale Earnhardt back in '97. That dropped everything in the shallow end.
You do make me wanna watch it again, with a softer eye for the 'every tiny element... planned and executed to perfection'. Maybe I'll see something new. But to the casual filmgoer, I think these things will be missed.
I'm just not sold on the omnipresent control people often ascribe to Hitchcock. To be perfectly petty, it's the frickin' jump cuts. They always stand out like one of those moles you see growing out of peoples necks. There was one in particular that got on my tits in 'Rear Window'. A jump cut in on the gossip in the lower-left of the courtyard that was totally unnecessary and distracting. That's the kinda thing that pulled me out of the movie and made it feel amateurish. I remember he did the same in 'The Birds' as Tippi was exploring the Brenner house.
I don't know, man. Sometimes he's awesome, and sometime's he's not. Sometimes I feel like he was just surrounded by all the right people.
Look, I lik'a the Hitchcock, but non the 'Rear Window', capire?
Si.
By
Kong, at 4:14 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home