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Ethical Issues In Rear Window

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Rear Window Argues that people should mind their own business. Do you agree?

Rear Window, a 1954 romance/murder-mystery by the renowned golden age director Alfred Hitchcock, is a film that explores a multitude of themes and genres through the voyeuristic gaze of protagonist L.B. Jefferies. Jefferies, or ‘Jeff’ as he commonly known throughout the film, is a middle-aged bachelor recently hospitalised due to his high-risk career as a photojournalist. This hindered condition serves as an important foundation on which the movie is built upon as Jeff’s forced lifestyle being in a wheelchair causes an abrupt stop in his usual high intensity way of life and causes him to quench his boredom in other ways, predominantly watching the other residents in his apartment complex through the ‘rear window’ of his apartment. Observing the events that happen in the privacy of each of his neighbours’ apartments is certainly not minding one’s business but Jeff continues to do so anyway and ends up in all …show more content…

Another of Lars’ exploits within the movie was the smothering of an innocent dog owned by one of Jeff’s neighbours in the apartment complex in order to help keep any evidence of his murder to a minimum. In a very heartfelt scene the owner of the dog, distraught over her recent loss, cries into the night, admonishing her neighbours for their cruelty shouting ‘You don 't know the meaning of the word 'neighbours '! Neighbours like each other, speak to each other, care if somebody lives or dies!’. This strong line urges the audience into thinking about pushing past the ethical barrier of privacy and testing boundaries because, as shown by the film, a location in which people predominantly live in complete separation to one another isn’t quite the utopia one might set it out to be, and there very much are ill

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Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window has several themes. One major theme is relationships. The lead character, Jeff Jeffries, a photographer and committed bachelor, is involved in a relationship with Lisa Fremont, a model, although the relationship has some tension due to Jeff’s lack of commitment. When Jeff is confined to his apartment recovering from a broken leg, he begins spying through his rear window on his neighbors in a nearby apartment. Through her frequent visits, Lisa is drawn into this spying as well.

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The practice of voyeurism is a debatable subject often criticized negatively for its perverted motives. Yet, through both Woolrich’s “It had to be murder” and its film adaptation Rear Window, the reader can be led to see a celebration of voyeurism rather than a critique. Jeffries is indeed given the most reasonable excuses to stalk his neighbours as his cast takes away his freedom of movement and the murder he tries to solve also gives him more reasons to spy on his neighbours. However, Jeff is greatly saved from being entitled as a Peeping Tom by the coincidence of Thorwald’s wife’s murder. As a matter of a fact, the timing in which Jeff is stuck in a cast and the woman is murder is nothing but a coincidence, neither Hitchcock nor Woolrich

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What all weird neighbors share in common is that they are acting “weird” to the standards of society. In this society having books is considered strange and illegal. Beatty, one of the firemen tries to convince the woman to leave the house by telling her "You know the law," said Beatty. "Where's your common sense? None of those books agree with each other.

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The idea of similarities among all people, an underlying connection, is expressed by Hitchcock when Lisa in Rear Window argues with Jefferies, saying, “There can't be that much difference between people and the way they live! We all eat, talk, drink, laugh, sleep, wear clothes --“. When she says this, Lisa has a lamp light shining from the upper right side of the screen to indicate the truth of her argument. There is also an instance in Rear Window where the ability to understand a person sprouts empathy. Jefferies is sitting in the dark, after Lisa leaves angry, when the piano man comes home.

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The director makes the argument that unorthodox behavior is worse than murder to portray that unorthodoxy threatens more than the life of one person. Unorthodoxy is so dangerous for the reason that it threatens the whole society, it strikes at society itself (pg.148). D.C.H dislikes Bernard for Bernards heretical views on soma and sport, unorthodox sex life, and refusal to obey teaching of Ford. To humiliate Bernard D.C.H exposes Bernard. For instance, he states, “ this man who stands before you hear, this Alpha-Plus to whom so much has been given, and from whom, in consequence so much must be expected, this colleague of yours or should I anticipate and say this ex colleague?

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The film 'Rear Window' (1954), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is an examination of voyeurism as a moral dilemma faced by both individuals in an ordinary neighbourhood, and by the Government during a time when suspicion and paranoia were rampant in America. Hitchcock's own view on the topic is not immediately clear; he presents the idea of spying on others in both a positive and negative light. In doing so, he may be commenting on the ambiguity of what is right or wrong in such circumstances. Rear Window is unique in its setting, and by allowing viewers a small glimpse into the lives of the neighbours by looking out Jeffries' apartment window, the director effectively creates a very tense situation. In this way, Hitchcock uses the ability to

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Alfred Hitchcock 's Rear Window explores the lives of those who feel isolated within society. The 1954 film, set in the tenements of Grenwich village, depicts those who are incapable of fitting into society 's expectations, as well as those who feel isolated from common interaction with others. Moreover, Hitchcock displays how its human nature to seek comfort and deeper connection even with those who are surrounded by others. Despite depicting characters as lonely, the progression of the film illustrates how individuals can be freed from isolation. The director asserts the loneliness and struggle that comes from fitting into social mores.

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It was a flat building,” are all his interpretations which are describing what exists in his life is very simple (the grid-like shape of the flats) and serves very little interest. But as the story progressives, details about the life of many of Jeffrey’s neighbors are revealed and show how they are being hidden by the apparent straightforward design and layout of the apartment complex. All in all, the setting is meticulously set which requires a little elaboration and thinking to reveal it’s true purpose - to mask significant and perhaps even dangerous parts of people's

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