We are truly in the golden era of the DVD. In 10 years, everything that has been released in new picture format will be released and DVD aficionados starting out will be able to have nearly everything from the past at their fingertips. Much like how Youtube has become a depository to relive the past, the DVD library will be something much easier to accumulate. As for now, we get to revel as older films see the light of day month after month. This month, Hitchcock’s Rear Window gets a brand new release.
L.B Jeffries (James Stewart) is recovering from a broken leg. Confined to a wheelchair, the world famous photographer spends his recovery taking pictures of the Greenwich Village neighborhood he lives in. He has a beautiful woman (Grace Kelly) in his life that seems altogether too perfect. Broken leg and all, his focus is on whether or not he wants to be with her forever. He craves danger and excitement, while she’s a socialite. Then one day, while observing the citizens from the safety of his binoculars, everything changes.
He notices his neighbor (Raymond Burr) killing someone–he thinks. As the days go by, he tries to find clues and some proof as to whether or not his neighbor is a killer. Leading to a memorable climax where the truth is discovered, the film still holds up years after its release because of its story-telling style.
Rear Window is a classic of cinema because it’s classic Hitchcock. The man did more classic films than most directors could shake a stick at, after all, and Rear Window is often debated as his best work. Taking place very simply on one set with one point of view, through Jeffries’ apartment, Hitchcock’s style, boiled down to its essence in terms of how he uses sound and camera angles, is on display in this film. Hitchcock takes what starts out as sort of a light comedy between a couple (Stewart and Kelly) and develops into a thriller by which most are measured by. Even a second-rate imitation, last year’s Disturbia, is watchable because D.J Caruso essentially took the same concept and modernized it.
Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, it seems, and if a film can take your basic concept and make it enjoyable the original has to be something special. Rear Window is one of the handful of films that raised the bar for cinema in America.
Presented in a Dolby Digital 2.0 with a widescreen presentation, in a 1.66:1 aspect ratio, the film has been cleaned up somewhat since its original DVD release. It looks average by today’s standards, but the film has been restored significantly and is easily the best it has looked on DVD so far. It is somewhat limited, but this is a film whose DVD transfer is never going to match something modern.
Disc One:
Production Notes and Production Photographs give you a glimpse into the film from stills of the m, as well as some general notes from it.
The film’s original Theatrical Trailer, as well as it’s Re-Release Trailer are included.
Disc Two
Rear Window Ethics: An Original Documentaryis a look at Hitchcock’s films through Rear Window, using it as a method of examining his film-making style in terms of his visual acuity, et al. It’s interesting to hear everyone discuss the film; none of the principal members are alive (but several of the minor actors, as well as several crew members), so Hitchcock’s granddaughter and others discuss the film in their stead. The piece also discusses a lot of Hitchcock’s themes in his films and how they manifest themselves in Rear Window. Hitchcock himself is given some time as an audio interview with Peter Bogdanovich is included (over bits from the film) as he discusses bits pertinent to what the documentary is covering. It covers everything about the film, including its preservation and restoration, and gives an incredible insight to the film.
A Conversation with screenwriter John Michael Hayes is a conversation with Hayes about the film. Hayes, admittedly a fan of the director, was initially given the story by Hitchcock and had dinner with him. Admittedly a wonderful dinner where they drank a lot, they discussed Shadow of a Doubt (which was Hitchcock’s favorite flick and Hayes had watched excessively while working as a projectionist). Hayes discusses the writing process in depth, including how he and Hitchcock sketched out scenes he wrote to better shoot them in the film. He discusses how he based a lot of Grace Kelly’s character on his wife in terms of her elegance and sophistication, as well as his thought processes on how he developed the rest of the film as well. It runs about 12 minutes.
Pure Cinema: Through the Eyes of a Master is a neat feature where many of today’s more famous directors like Guillermo del Toro, and some of Hitchcock’s contemporaries like Woody Allen, discuss Hitchcock the auteur. It’s interesting to hear his peers, as well as various film critics and production chiefs, discuss what Hitchcock did and how he influenced certain people as well. Martin Scorsese discusses certain scenes in Psycho and how he influenced many modern classics with his style. His preparation and his storyboarding are discussed as well, as it’s used to show how his style influenced a lot of modern films in the editing room as well. It makes for fascinating viewing as the most influential directors of the last 30 years discuss what they love from certain scenes and how they used it in their works. Its one thing for his biographer, but hearing del Toro and John Carpenter talk about the power of certain shots is something in and of itself.
Breaking Barriers: The Sound of Hitchcock focuses on how Hitchcock used sound and its influence. It’s much like the prior feature, except it focuses purely on sound. Hitchcock was one of the few directors who had worked in the silent era and had made the transition to the era of sound, which several people point out. He viewed the music of his films as a means of style unto themselves, to be developed as well as his visual style to enhance the film. The piece uses Rear Window, amongst others, to show how he uses sound as an element of the film. He opted realism, taking sirens from police horns as they bounced off of buildings in Rope for example, and opted for sounds from the real world and taping live music from a distance during filming to make it sound more authentic.
Hitchcock / Truffaut is an interview between Francois Truffaut and Hitchcock as part of Truffaut’s biography on the man. Running 16 minutes, it gives an interesting and unique insight into Hitchcock.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents “Mr. Blanchard’s Secret” is an episode of Hitchcock’s Alfred Hitchcock Presents, one of the few he actually directed.
What an age we live in, at least in terms of the DVD. If Hitchcock could see the justice done to his legacy and to one of his masterworks he’d smile, as the new release of Rear Window is well worth the cost.
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Universal presents Rear Window (Universal Legacy Series). Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring James Stewart, Raymond Burr, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter. Written by Cornell Woolrich and John Michael Hayes. Running time: 112 minutes. Rated PG. Released on DVD: 10.7.2008. Available at Amazon.
