Movie Review - Rear Window (1998)

In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon.

Rear Window, starring Christopher Reeve and Daryl Hannah. 1998.

Source: http://goo.gl/8ot18e

This is a remake of an 1954 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Jimmy Stewart. While the story had to be rewritten to fit the situation (Stewart's character broke his leg, but Reeve is paralyzed in real life), the basic questions remain the same:

Where do you draw the line between concerned neighbor and straight-up voyeur? They up the ante in this made-for-tv remake because of the use of video cameras instead of a 35-millimeter still camera. And with that, the creepy quotient quadruples.

And yet it's an appropriate message for today as our phones are now capable of doing what took expensive, bulky equipment to do in this late-90s film.

It is interesting to watch Reeve work again, as his acting career appeared to be over before this was filmed, due to a crippling horse-riding accident. It is hard to watch this film knowing that Reeve is dead. That's a really weird thing to say, considering most of the stars of the films I watch are dead. The difference, I think, is that we actually watch Christopher Reeve existing in his reality in this film. The wheelchair and the tubes aren't screen decoration or props. They are part of his everyday life.

Reeve died in 2004 of cardiac arrest.

3.5 of 5 stars.

Movie review - Rear Window (1954)

In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon.

Rear Window. Starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. 1954.

Source: http://goo.gl/xB4NkC

Where do you draw the line between being a concerned neighbor and being a voyeur? Hitchcock explores this concept with this film.

A neighbor goes missing. Her husband mostly goes about his daily life as if nothing has happened. Can Scotty (Jimmy Stewart) solve the mystery before it's too late?

I have seen this film on the big screen twice and on DVD multiple times. It never gets old. It is interesting to see Stewart progress as he gets older. His characters get grittier as he gets older. There is less innocence and naïveté and more distrust and callousness.

And the fact that it is a Hitchcock film makes it even better.

4.5 out of 5 stars.v