For the film I have selected this week, I have decided to view Alfred Hitchcock’s incredibly innovative film, ‘Rear Window.

For the film I have selected this week, I have decided to view Alfred Hitchcock’s incredibly innovative film, ‘Rear Window. To begin, I think you can definitely see the effects that the cold war had both on American cinema at the time and as well as the perceptions of the public feeling like they are being watched by others. You can already see where connections are being drawn, as the entire synopsis of Rear Window is about a man watching his neighbors throughout the film. People throughout the decade of the 1950s were also incredibly paranoid of others due to the cold war and spies and this is reflected in the main character Jeff as well. Jeff becomes increasingly paranoid during the film thinking one of his neighbors murdered their wife, despite not having any concrete evidence to prove it. Just a few years prior to the making of Rear Window, Lewis states that “The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) subpoenaed nineteen studio employees as part of an inquiry into Communist influence in Hollywood.” The Cold War’s influence is seen in this film as the behavior of the main character Jeff and his paranoia and spying reflect the fearfulness of communism in Hollywood as they took drastic measures to prevent its influence from spreading into their industry and films. I think you can also certainly see Alfred Hitchcock’s influence on present-day thriller movies within Rear Window too. As we all know Hitchcock was considered to be the master of suspense and this is evident in the film. For instance, when Jeff is being attacked at the end of the film, the killer approaches him with malicious intent while he struggles and tries to delay him and get the attention of others. Hitchcock shot this in a way where we the viewer feel stuck throughout the film to really get a sense of what Jeff’s perspective is like, but the suspense becomes much more intense as the character no longer avoid the danger from a distance giving the viewer a much deeper sense of fear and helplessness. This type of suspense is seen today in thrillers like the film ‘Hush’ for example. The main character is deaf while being hunted by an attacker, and much of the audio goes quiet during the film to give viewers a sense of what the main character is enduring and make us feel the fear too by putting us in their shoes. This stems from Hitchcock’s work originally on Rear Window emphasizing just how significant and influential it really was.