Hitchcock's Rear Window: The Well-Made Film

by John Fawell

In the process of providing the most extensive analysis of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window to date, John Fawell also dismantles many myths and clichés about Hitchcock, particularly in regard to his attitude toward women.              Although Rear Window masquerades quite successfully as a piece of light entertainment, Fawell demonstrates just how complex the film really is. It is a film in which Hitchcock, the consummate virtuoso, was in full command of his technique. One of Hitchcock’s favorite films, Rear Window offered the ideal venue for the great director to fully use the tricks and ideas he acquired over his previous three decades of filmmaking. Yet technique alone did not make this classic film great; one of Hitchcock’s most personal films, Rear Window is characterized by great depth of feeling. It offers glimpses of a sensibility at odds with the image Hitchcock created for himself—that of the grand ghoul of cinema who mocks his audience with a slick and sadistic style. Though Hitchcock is often labeled a misanthrope and misogynist, Fawell finds evidence in Rear Window of a sympathy for the loneliness that leads to voyeurism and crime, as well as an empathy for the film’s women. Fawell emphasizes a more feeling, humane spirit than either Hitchcock’s critics have granted him or Hitchcock himself admitted to, and does so in a manner of interest to film scholars and general readers alike.    

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published November 22, 2001

About the author

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There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Fawell begins his study of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 movie Rear Window by laying out the case for regarding it as the director’s greatest film. The rest of the book is an effort to demonstrate this by analyzing the cinematic techniques Hitchcock employed and the messages he seeks to convey within them. This approach is underscored by the thematic focus of his chapters, which explore in detail everything from the emasculation of James Stewart’s protagonist to the pervasive sense of loneliness throughout the film. While readers seeking a “behind the scenes” description of the making of the movie may be disappointed, it’s a must read for anyone interested in Hitchcock’s compositional masterpiece for the insightful perspectives Fawell brings to his subject.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had two reservations going into this book. One, since Rear Window is my favorite movie I was worried this would be the kind dry academic dissertation that would suck all the fun out of it. I’m happy to report this is an in-depth and revelatory analysis of a masterpiece. Fawell illustrates again and again that Hitchcock is a genius but he also debunks the myth that he was a misogynist. The women in Rear Window have the agency, wisdom and power (well, except for Mrs. Thorwald but you get it). Fawell concedes how Hitchcock went too far with his obsessions later with Tippi Hedren but Grace Kelly here is in many ways the movie’s real hero. Fawell also talks about Hitchcock’s sense for women’s fashion and how he wanted them in more clothes not less as is erroneously believed. Almost every other page I audibly went “Hmm” as Fawell showed me something I never saw in a movie I’ve seen hundreds of times. This has been a love letter, which brings me to my second reservation. This book is too expensive. On IBooks, in print, used. Way too much money. On the off chance, Fawell or the publisher read this, a lot of people won’t read your book because it’s too expensive. Whoever’s call this us, wake up.

[Richard Wolff · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an exceptionally insightful look at Hitchcock's "testament" film, REAR WINDOW. Fawell provides creative, thorough, well-supported insights into this Hitchcock classic. The chapters build from looking at particular details, to reflections upon broad themes. Hence, we get early chapters on Hitch's technique as he introduces and shoots the set, Jeff and Lisa, to an analysis of each neighbor's window and how it relates to the Jeff-Lisa story as a whole, the Thorwald's apartment included. HIs later chapters, examining the relation of fantasy and reality (and Jeff's slow movement from preferring the former to the latter), the film's all too palpable cinematic reflection on the social alienation we all feel (especially those who live in cities) and longing for true, emotionally satisfying relationships, to Jess as a stand in for Hitchcock himself. At times a little too clever in the manner of "reading too much into" things (his discussion of hunger in relation to sex and relationships comes to mind), the book is otherwise a thorough but concise discussion of REAR WINDOW, its meanings, and what it has to teach us.

[Jeremy Hawthorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very balanced account, with an excellent eye for details in the film.