Rear Window Film Response

Ngozi Onyema
Film 3000
December 7, 2011
Film: Rear Window
TRT: 112 minutes
Language: English.
Date of film: 1954
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Award: 1955 Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color: Rober Burks. Best Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Best Sound, Recording: Loren L. Ryder (Paramount). Best Writing, Screenplay: John Michael Hayes.

The topic in film theory that this film “Rear Window” relates to is Psychoanalytical Film Theory. Psychoanalytical film theory is a school of academic film criticism that developed in the 1970s and ‘80s, is closely allied with critical theory, and that analyzes films from the perspective of psychoanalysis, generally the works of Jacques Lacar. The film viewer is seen as the subject of a “gaze” that is largely “constructed” by the film itself, where what is on screen becomes the object of that subject’s desire. The viewing subject may be offered particular identifications (usually with a leading male character) from which to watch. The theory stresses the subject’s longing for a completeness which the film may appear to offer through identification with an image; in fact according to Lacanian theory, identification with the image is never anything but an illusion and the subject is always split simply by virtue of coming in to existence. In this film the character L.B. Jeffries played by James Stewart is the subject of psychoanalysis. L.B. Jeffries has suspicions and the audience has to wonder if his suspicions are valid or if it’s all in his head.

The article titled “Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window as Critical Allegory” by George E. Toles breaks down the film “Rear Window” in a way many different critics may see the film. It captures the film from many different angles but is mainly focused on the question of if it was ethical for the main character L.B. Jeffries to jump to the conclusion he did so quickly about the murder. It brings to question the psychoanalytical aspect of the main character in the film. This article goes in to questioning how the audience should view the film during the changes that occur with identifying with the main character. This article is more of a defense against Hitchcock’s critics. In the article titled “Rear Window (1954)” by Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert explains the film “Rear Window”. The article goes in to the audience’s identification with the main character L.B. Jeffries played by James Stewart. The article goes in to the background of the actor who played the main character: James Stewart. The article also goes in to details about how the film was put together by Hitchcock.

The article especially the one titled “Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window as Critical Allegory” by George E. Toles delves deeply in to details that make the “Rear Window” film characteristic of Psychoanalytical Film Theory. The fact that the film expresses the complex that the main character and his neighbors live in as seemingly normal and while a murder is suspected to have occurred has the audience critical which is part of the psychoanalytical film theory. The article by George E. Toles goes on to say: “Rear Window whose protagonist, in addition to being a voyeur and a prototype of the movie-goer, is also a critic of sorts. Returning to the question with which this paper began, the ethical question of the precise nature of Jeffries’s transgression, one might reasonably argue that as a critic Jeffries is guilty, at the very least of arriving at judgment without understanding. At no point does he feel the pressure to arrive at a more difficult self-knowledge’. The article also says: “Rear Window shows us how tempting it is for us not to change subject or terms once they have been established, at the risk of confusion or exposing our own slippery, irresolute ground….One must be willing to reexamine the suspect ways in which the self constantly exchanges its confusions for fantasies of settled order and out of this order contrives a limited world to inhabit.” All of these statements are points to how this film is characteristic of psychoanalytical film theory.

Personally I enjoyed this film especially Jimmy Stewarts acting. He’s a fine actor. I learned through the film and critics writings of the film how films draw the audience in to be identified with the main character. This film displayed that well especially since most of what the main character was doing was spectating and watching others just as we the viewers of the film watched the characters in the film. We formed a bond with the main character but the film involved critical thinking and when the main character came out with his suspicions we applied the psychoanalytical film theory.

Bibliography:

Ebert, Roger (1983, October 7). Rear Window. Rogerebert.suntimes.com. Retrieved December 7, 2011 from http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19831007/REVIEWS/310070302/1023

Toles, George E. (Winter – Spring, 1989). “Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window as Critical Allegory” boundary 2, Vol. 16. No. 2/3 pp. 225-245. Retrieved December 7, 2011, from JSTOR