Rear Window Analysis

Critical Analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

In films we watch today there is often many different morals or meanings portrayed within the story, sometimes we are unware of these themes when we first watch a film and do not understand it until we have actually thought about the purpose of the film. In Alfred Hitchcock's movie Rear Window, we see many meanings and morals to his story throughout the viewing. For example, the movie prompts us to look at ideas of mortality, compassion, self-reflection, and more, the idea that personally I did not fully understand until watching the movie until a second time while really looking specifically for theme was the theme of modern marriage. In the beginning of the film Jeff does not want to …show more content…
This theme is especially interesting to me because it is so relatable to how many people feel today about marriage and are afraid of falling in love with someone out of fear that they will be unhappy in their marriage.

In order to create and make themes noticed film makers like Hitchcock must use framing in order to help the viewer see what he wants them to see. Hitchcock uses Jeff's neighbors in a very unique way when expressing this theme each neighbor is in a very different stage in life. One of his neighbors in the film is a newlywed couple, then there is a couple well into their marriage, and then we have Ms. Lonely Heart who is a lady looking for her true love. Hitchcock does this in a very purposeful way connecting to the theme because they want the viewer to realize that by Jeff watching each of them he is thinking about his own life and looking at his future with Lisa and if marriage is really a happy ever after ending. In order for us to understand the neighbors and how Jeff feels Hitchcock uses a form of …show more content…
With this is idea is how we understand that his feelings about Lisa are beginning to change, through the mystery of a possible murder the two connect and from a strong bond in order to prove to the detective that Mr. Thorwald did kill his wife. The two-start spending more time together and you can tell they enjoy being together Lisa starts to put her guard down about fashion and the things that bug Jeff about her and the two beginning to become happy together. The ending of this movie for me was quite interesting when I started to look at the film with a perspective of marriage I noticed the ending is very much a connect to modern marriage. In the scene Lisa is laying on the day sofa wearing jeans and a button up instead of her normal fashion dresses reading a travel magazine but as soon as Jeff falls asleep she picks up a fashion magazine and begins to read that instead. In many relationships today, people will work on changing for their other half as Lisa has done here for Jeff but in reality, they still hold onto those things in a way like Lisa has done. Hitchcock managed to take a mystery thriller film and create it into something so much more the movie gives us many themes and messages all throughout the movie but the one that seems to be the most interesting and snuck in through characters in the film is the fear of modern marriage and overcoming its