Rear Window Blu-ray delivers great video and superb audio in this exceptional Blu-ray release
A magazine photographer, housebound on account of a broken leg, becomes voyeur to the
apartment building facing his rear window for lack of anything to do. Soon, he draws his
visiting girlfriend in on the thrill and eventually they witness a murder in progress that gets
them into hot water.
A man confronts his accuser atop the Statue of Liberty, where one false move will spell death. A wolf in sheep's clothing allows the beast lurking within to bear its teeth. A housemaster slowly, oh so slowly, pieces together the heinous crime perpetrated by two former students. A woman searches for clues in a suspected murderer's apartment just as the man returns home. Four people work to keep the demise of a fellow smalltown resident a secret from a local deputy. An assassin's gun slides out from behind a curtain as an ordinary man races to thwart his plot. An airplane buzzes then roars past as a man dives for cover. The hiss of a shower masks the approach of a madman with a knife in his hand. Countless birds gather on a jungle gym as a woman smokes a cigarette nearby. A husband barges into his new wife's bedroom and has his way with her as she retreats into a near-catatonic state. A physicist discovers killing a man isn't as easy as it might seem, wrestling with his victim right up until the violent end. A purple dress billows out beneath a dying woman like spilled blood. A serial killer retrieves his pin from a woman's grasp, one dead finger at a time. A fake psychic tries to squirm out of a thief's vice-like grip as he pushes a syringe closer and closer. Be it drama, horror or comedy, psychological stunner, monster movie or international spy thriller, is it any mystery that filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was known as the Master of Suspense? Is it any wonder his movies still hold hypnotic sway over filmfans all these years later?
An injured photographer becomes obsessed with watching his neighbors, one of whom might be a killer...
Rear Window might just be a perfect film. If not a perfect film, then perfect Hitchcock. It's impossible to draw a line between the mystery and the suspense, the story and the setting, or the performances and John Michael Hayes' dialogue. A melting pot of paranoia, isolation and the very real threat of murder most foul, it teases and toys, accelerates and tiptoes, delights and surprises, shocks and scares. It's Hitchcock at his peak. Hitchcock at his most playful. Hitchcock at his most devious. Grace Kelly's search of Raymond Burr's apartment is torture, even some sixty years after the fact; torture made all the more unbearable with the knowledge that Jimmy Stewart's wheelchair-bound L.B. Jeffries is helpless to do much of anything as Burr's suspected murderer, Lars Thorwald, returns and catches Kelly's Lisa in the act. Even then, his guilt or innocence is uncertain. Even then, we're forced to ask if Jeffries has it all wrong. The single, shocking image that follows shortly after -- of Thorwald craning his neck and staring directly at Jeffries -- is as brilliant a shot and sequence as any Hitchcock committed to film. It's also a testament to his prowess and punch as a filmmaker, not to mention his keen sense of pacing, plotting and mounting unease. The moment Thorwald makes eye contact with the audience, who's unwittingly become entangled in the story, the director's trap is sprung. All the distraction, all the pleasantries, all the characters, all the suspicion, all the suspense... all to form an inseparable bond between viewer and voyeur. Jeffries almost ceases to exist. It's us sitting in that apartment, watching as the door to our apartment swings open and a hulking madman steps through. Rear Window is without a doubt one of Hitchcock's best and an undisputed masterwork that belongs in any box set that dares call itself a Masterpiece Collection.
I can't quite shake the feeling that Rear Window's 1080p/VC-1 encoded video transfer, for all its strides and striking shots, could look better, which will no doubt leave some readers shaking their heads and dismissing this review entirely. To be honest, I've bounced back and forth between a 3.5 and a 4.0 ever since I laid eyes on Universal's new presentation, cursing my inability to somehow split the difference. But choices must be made and I choose... to round up. The source of my hesitance? Color and contrast are in a steady, arguably negligible state of flux, some of which is easily attributable to the original elements, some which appears as if it could have easily been addressed. Skintones are a bit problematic; accurate to the era on the whole but, in some cases, too pale, too orange or too muddy. Artifacts aren't common but they aren't uncommon either; watch for brief instances of suspicious grain, fleeting banding and minor crush. And digital manipulation is slightly obvious at times, particularly when the lights go down in Jeffries' apartment. That said, colors are typically satisfying and supported well, black levels are rich and inky (albeit a tad oppressive here and there), grain behaves as it should far more often than not, and clarity is excellent. Detail is the real draw to Rear Window's Masterpiece Collection resurrection, with clean edges, surprisingly revealing textures and exterior shots that showcase every brick, flower, ladder rung, window sill and distant passerby. Moreover, the encode isn't beholden to any serious aliasing or macroblocking, and the restoration itself is impressive overall. So while my gut tells me there's a better presentation of Rear Window to be had one day, my heart tells me "shut up, kid, and take in the scenery."
No internal debate on this one. Universal's two-channel DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix is fantastic, from the faint sounds of a fidgeting voyeur cloaked in darkness to the exterior comings and goings of Jeffries' neighbors to the hustle-n-bustle chorus of street noise in the distance. It's so involving that I longed to hear a carefully crafted 5.1 remix (so long as a presentation of the original mono audio was available too, of course). But no matter. Dialogue is crystal clear and lovingly grounded in the city, effects are clean and precise, and Franz Waxman's music and, more importantly, Hitchcock's score-like soundscape has been given full run of the place to engaging ends. None of it defies the tone and tenor of the film's mid-50s sound design either, making the resulting lossless audio as faithful as it is memorable. Purists will be most pleased, as will anyone and everyone who has affection for Rear Window.
Audio Commentary: Author John Farwell ("Hitchcock's Rear Window: The Well-Made Film") provides a somewhat dry but undeniably detailed analysis of Rear Window, without so much as missing a shot or scene.
Rear Window Ethics: Remembering and Restoring a Hitchcock Classic (SD, 55 minutes): From short story to screenplay to Hitchcock masterpiece, track the development, casting, production, performances, style and, eventually, the restoration of Rear Window.
Masters of Cinema (SD, 34 minutes): A lengthy "Masters of Cinema" interview with Hitchcock that, despite its age, is one of the must-see extras in the 15-disc Masterpiece Collection set.
A Conversation with Screenwriter John Michael Hayes (SD, 13 minutes): Hayes covers a lot of ground, touching on his first meeting with Hitchcock, his first days on the job, his take on the director, his impressions of Stewart and Kelly, and more.
Pure Cinema: Through the Eyes of the Master (SD, 25 minutes): An in-depth, career-spanning look at Hitchcock's filmmaking prowess, desires as a director, contributions to cinema, and influence on generations of filmmakers that followed. "Pure Cinema" doesn't focus on Rear Window, but it's no less welcome.
Breaking Barriers: The Sound of Hitchcock (SD, 24 minutes): Hitchcock had a penchant for unforgettable visuals, but his meticulous mastery of sound was just as crucial to the impact, suspense, dread and mood of his films.
Hitchcock-Truffaut Interview Excerpts (SD, 16 minutes): Excerpts from filmmaker Francois Truffaut's 1962 interview sessions with Hitchcock (for his book, the aptly titled "Hitchcock") are set to a montage of clips and stills from the film.
Production Photographs (SD, 3 minutes): Movie posters, vintage ads and production photos.
Theatrical and Re-Release Trailers (HD, 9 minutes)
Whether you purchase the Masterpiece Collection or hold out for a standalone release, Rear Window is a timeless piece of cinema that belongs in every filmfan's collection. Universal's Blu-ray edition features a solid restoration and video transfer, an excellent DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix, and a generous selection of extras, among them an audio commentary, three documentaries and fifty-minutes of interviews with the director himself. Is it a perfect disc? Not quite. But it's perfect Hitchcock. Perhaps even the master filmmaker's best.
