The Rear Window

Rear Window is a suspense movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock, who is known as the “Master of Suspense.” In this film Hitchcock tells the story of a murder through the eyes of a photographer. The whole movie is shot inside the photographer’s apartment. The film is very suspenseful for three reasons. The first is that Hitchcock tells the story so the viewer cannot really know what is going to happen until the very end. The second reason Rear Window is a very suspenseful film is because none of the dialog and conversations of the murder suspect, Mr. Thorwal is ever heard. The final and perhaps most suspenseful part of Rear Window is way the film is shot.

In the film the story is plotted out so that there is no way the viewer could say for sure if the murder suspect is guilty or not. The story begins very simply when a photographer sees what he thinks is a murder through his apartment window. He is certain he has witnessed a murder but the viewers cannot know for sure. Throughout the entire movie the photographer continues gathering more and more evidence. By looking through his window he sees the murder suspect handling things like giant saws and his wife’s jewelry. And yet the viewer’s uncertainty continues until the end of the film when it is revealed that Mr. Thorwal did in fact kill his wife and scattered her remains throughout the city of New York. None of this would been possible if the audience could have heard the conversations of the murderer.

The way Rear Window was filmed made it so that there was no audible sound coming from other apartments, including Mr. Thorwal’s. This added that extra level of suspense to make Rear Window a great and thrilling film. For example, in one scene, Mr. Thorwal is having a telephone conversation. He is going through his wife’s jewelry and is obviously telling the person on the other line about it. In many other scenes a slight mumbling of conversation can be heard, but it is impossible to determine what the other actors are saying. This great idea by Hitchcock made the film very suspenseful.

In the movie Rear Window the filming was done in a unique way. Alfred Hitchcock, the director, wanted to tell the story of a murder without the camera ever leaving L.B. Jefferies apartment. Since all of the shooting was done in one room it was never clear what the murderer, Mr. Thorwal was really doing. For example, in one of the scenes Mr. Thorwal is looking around his apartment and picks something up, but the viewer cannot see the object because it is out of the camera’s view. This “challenge” that Hitchcock set for himself gave the film that extra level of mystery that all movie directors strive for in a suspense movie.

These three things make Rear Window a suspenseful and thrilling movie to watch. If you heard the idea of the camera never leaving one place and no sound being heard from the murderer’s apartment you might think the film would be very boring. In fact, Hitchcock made Rear Window an original and fun-to-watch film with that extra sense of suspense by using these methods. As Hitchcock’s nickname says, he was surely the master of suspense, and that is clear in Rear Window.