A Critique of Rear Window

    Rear window seems to be described as a classic. That's part of why I was excited to watch it. However, I found myself a little unsatisfied after finishing the movie. I wouldn't say it was a bad movie by any means, but I just felt like I was expecting more from the plot of the movie. There are a couple reasons I have for feeling this way.

    Mainly, I felt like I expected more of a surprise at the end. Jeffries is shown throughout the whole movie to potentially be losing his mind, so it's a little disappointing to just see the movie end with him simply being exactly right. And this would be fine if it felt earned, but in this situation it doesn't. Jeffries doesn't really solve anything himself. He figures out that Thorwald's garden is different, but no evidence is ever found with that until Thorwald just flat out admits at the end of the movie that he hid his wife there. No, Jeffries just has Lisa sneak into the apartment, where she just finds a ring, and Thorwald decides this is enough for him to get caught and basically commits a murder in plain sight of the cops.

    That's another thing: there was basically no evidence on Thorwald still when the ring was found. So therefore, there's no logic to him just trying to commit a murder of Jeffries with the police literally across the street and for them to easily see what is happening. Thorwald just goes from being super sneaky to just committing acts of violence in plain sight. It all just feels like the writers needed to end the movie and they just found a way to wrap everything up in a clear and clean way.

    Overall, I honestly wish that Jeffries had at least been wrong about something, or at least for there to be logical consistency with Thorwald's character. But even so, the ending was still fine. It was exciting and provided a suspenseful conclusion to the story. I guess I just expected more, for there to be more depth to the mystery of the movie.




Comments

  1. Bradford MartinOctober 14, 2022 at 1:00 PM

    Hi Kurt,
    I definitely agree that the ending of Rear Window felt rushed and forced. When Thorwald came over he already knew it was over for him and he was busted because Lisa was with the police turning him in. So, it confused me when he was so determined to kill Jeffries instead of trying to run away or escape. Also, the way Jeffries used the flash bulbs to slow Thorwald down made the scene feel cheesy and comical so the ending of the movie just felt off all together. Nice critique overall!

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