Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

A voyeuristic suspense

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Rear window is considered by many to be one of Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest works. The master of suspense focuses on the pleasures of watching the mundane and everyday lives of others. He appeals to the dark and instinctive nature inherent in all of us; to know about the lives of others. However, he also twists around the concept of voyeurism to serve a good purpose lest anyone have too much of a moral inhibition to enjoy the movie. Whatever be the moral implications of the movie be, there is no denying that Rear Window is a suspense movie par excellence.

The movie is about L.B Jefferies, professional photographer who has been confined to his apartment in a wheel chair after he broke his leg in the pursuit of taking an exclusive picture. As he has been confined in his apartment for six weeks he becomes progressively bored. To amuse himself he takes to watching the lives of his neighbors from the rear window of his apartment. There he is able to see them going about with their mundane lives. He also gives them some interesting nicknames. He calls a ballerina Miss Torso, a spinster Miss Lonely Hearts and so forth.

His only visitors are his nurse Stella, and his girl friend Lisa Carol Fremont with whom he shares an uneasy relationship. He believes that Lisa maybe a bit too perfect for him. Lisa on the other hand loves him but even her patience is running out because of Jeffries’ moodiness from being cooped up within the apartment. However from being a passive onlooker of the events happening around him, Jefferies becomes more obsessive about their live and even becomes an active participant in it when he begins to suspect a neighbor (a traveling salesman) to have murdered his wife. Though nobody believes him at the beginning he eventually manages to convince Lisa of the crime. Together they try to find out if the murder actually occurred or whether it was all a figment of Jefferies’ imagination.

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Hitchcock shoots the entire movie from within Jefferies’ apartment. Most of the time, we are shown the same view that Jeffries has from the rear window. By doing so Hitchcock gives us a glimpse of all the happenings in the other apartments of the building. Through the open windows (due to the oppressive heat) we see the other bit characters of the movie go on with their live with varying emotions. Jefferies as well as we, see their anger, joy, sorrow and frustration. The most amazing part of it all is that not even once are they aware that someone is watching them and is paying close attention to them.

Hitchcock creates a comic panel kind of feel when he shows different stories unfolding opposite to Jefferies’ apartment through the windows of the various characters’ apartment. Because of this he is able to show multiple stories and lives simultaneously. This creates a natural sense of identifying with the setting rather than being distant from it. Also by giving us the view from protagonist’s angle we are able to identify with the same feeling that Jefferies has. We sense his boredom, his anxiety and even his initial mild interest in the lives of his neighbors.

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Hitchcock shows his master class in keeping us hooked with such limited setting and keeps us engaged with some imaginative narrative. He is able to maintain, almost throughout the movie, the suspense of whether or not the salesman murdered his wife. By giving us a glimpse of an event which occurs when Jefferies’ is asleep he casts doubts in our mind as to the veracity of Jefferies’ claim. This helps in generating the right amount tension in us to find out the truth.

The performances in this movie are all superlative to say the least. James Stewart is brilliant as the complex Jefferies, who go through a gamut of emotions. Due to his character’s lack of mobility Stewart has to convey the various feelings of Jeffries through his eyes, facial expressions and vocal variations rather than with body language. Grace Kelly as the perfect Lisa is indeed just that: Perfect. She brings an unknown something on to the screen every time she comes on it and lifts our hearts instantly. She adds that much needed glamour to an otherwise dreary setting of the movie. The snappy dialogues too make the movie immensely enjoyable to watch.

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Voyeurism is a topic that Hitchcock briefly touched upon in Psycho. It has been showcased in many movies before and since Rear Window. But what Hitchcock has done here is to turn it more into a harmless pastime rather than something for sexual gratification or for other dark pleasures. He is not concerned with moral issues raised in the movie either. He is there to entertain us and to make a memorable suspense drama. And he is more than successful in that.

Forrest Gump

A movie like a box of chocolates

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Once in a while you get to see a movie that you just can’t get enough of. You had such a good time watching the movie that you tend to go back and watch it because of the sheer joy of watching it. Forrest Gump is one such movie which you can watch for a zillion times and still not get bored with it. Even after years since it became a big hit and swept the Oscars of its year it still feels as fresh today as when it was first released.

It is the story of a man named Forrest Gump and his adventures through life. He is someone who is a bit slow as far as mental abilities are concerned. You see his IQ is 5 points less than normal. So much so that his mother has to sleep with the local school principal to get him admitted into a school. Early on Forrest learns most of the things about life from his mother, who explains things to him in as simple a term as possible.

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At school he is befriended by Jenny Curran, a girl who is physically and sexually abused by her father. Forrest falls in love with her from the very beginning itself. She on her part never lets on how she feels about him. However it is clear that she cares for him. As they grow up Forrest meets others who play a significant part in influencing his life. He meets Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue while serving together in the army at Vietnam. Bubba tells him all there is to know about the shrimping business. This later on helps Forrest to make a fortune from shrimping.

He also meets his commanding officer Lieutenant Dang while serving in Vietnam. Lieutenant Dang’s faimily members has fought and died in every war America was involved in. He therefore wants to die in the line of duty at Vietnam. However his plans are thwarted by Forrest when he saves him from an air raid. His legs however are amputated in the attack. He later on joins Forrest in his shrimping business thereby becoming a millionaire himself.

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He meets Jenny again after coming back and finds her to be going down a road of destruction. She has taken to drugs and prostitution and seems keen not to drag Forrest into her doomed life. However she does make love with him once and leaves him while he is sleeping. A heartbroken Forrest begins to run all over the country and becomes a celebrity. But one day he gets a letter from Jenny that changes his life once again.

The best part of Forrest Gump is its screenplay. The movie’s catchphrases like “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get” or “Stupid is as stupid does” has achieved iconic proportions. The various situations in which Forrest finds himself in like meeting dead presidents, achieving success in sports, meeting other famous celebrities and generally being in the middle of all the major events in America’s most tumultuous period, is so well integrated into the plot that one cant help but enjoy it. It makes you laugh and cry at the same time and makes poignant remarks on life. Even Forrest, who achieves everything he didn’t wish for finds it hard to achieve the one thing he really wants; Jenny’s love.

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The other major plus point of the movie is its superb cast. Tom Hanks, Sally Field and Gary Sinise all give superlative performances. Tom Hanks pays the character so well with the right touch of humor and poignancy that it is difficult to think of anyone other than he would have been able to do justice to the role. Gary Sinise gives an explosive performance as the crippled Lieutenant Dang and holding together the movie in its middle stages. He is so good that there are stages when he overshadows even Hanks.

A mention has to be made of the visual effects in the movie. Forrest Gump is a prime example of how to make CGI a medium of telling the story rather than making it the primary focus of the movie. So often we have seen good movies being undone due to their over indulgence with effects. Here however it brings to life one of the most magical moments in the movies like that of Forrest’s meeting with President Kennedy of Forrest playing ping pong.

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The overwhelming theme of the movie is its positive outlook towards life. Almost every major character in the movie finds contentment in their lives. The movie shows how someone like Gump, who should ideally have no chance of succeeding in life, makes it big just because he flows according to life’s various currents. The movie gives the message of sticking on with life and not giving up no mater how tough the going might get. Both life and the movie are like its recurring catchphrase “like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get.”

Yojimbo

A western from the east

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With Yojimbo Akira Kurosawa takes a classic western, transports it to 1860 Japan and transforms the gunslinger into a sword wielding Ronin (a master less samurai), taking the genre to unparalleled heights. At the same time he does not lose focus from the primary purpose of a movie; that is to tell a good story.

The movie starts off like any other western you might have seen. The dust blowing through what seems like a ghost town, the long road which seems to run right through the length of the road and the audience’s view of the lone stranger entering the town all reminds you of a western. The only difference is that instead of cowboy attire the protagonist wears a kimono.

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The protagonist’s real name is never known to us. He takes the name of the first plant he lays his eyes on in the town. He says his surname is Sanjuro which means thirty. What hits you in this movie though is its dark humor and violence. During the opening sequence itself we see a dog running across Sanjuro with a human hand, while he is just about to enter the town. This shot gives both Sanjuro and us a foreboding sense of violence in this quiet town. And for all the humor in this movie, Kurosawa doesn’t shy away from showing the violence in very vivid detail for the time it was shot in.

Sanjuro enters the town and quickly learns that the town is controlled by two rival gangs. One of the gangs is led by the local silk merchant while the other is controlled by a sake merchant. The gangs are often involved in bloody fights against one another. And the town is in ruins. The only person making a good living here is the undertaker. The gangsters are aided by corrupt officials. One of them, a constable, actually convinces Sanjuro that the only way to survive in this town is to join forces with either of the two gangs. He even goes on to introduce Sanjuro to one of the gangs and collects a commission for his efforts too.

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But Sanjuro is a crafty fellow and is more intelligent than the towns people realize. He decides to play both sides and gets himself employed in the services of the both gangs. Things go on fine until the fighting escalates between the rival gangs. Even the undertaker is jobless now, because he says that when there are so many dead no one bothers with a coffin anymore. This line is typical of the dark humor that is prevalent throughout the movie.

Sanjuro’s contentment however doesn’t last long. He is not able to suppress his sympathy for a woman kidnapped by one of the gangs. The humaneness in his heart takes over when he decides to free the woman and reunite her with her child and husband. From then on Sanjuro’s faces a battle of survival and how he ultimately succeeds in wiping out both the gangs forms the rest of the movie.

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Toshiro Mifune is unparalleled as the lone Ronin. His swagger and his toothpick chewing in your face attitude give life to a character that could so easily have been played as an unconvincing superman. His subtlety and restrain is superb, and makes the character easy to identify with, even though it is in no way related to us. His silences and glances speak volumes and gives us an insight into what the character is going through at the moment. Although Clint Eastwood patented the same style in “Fistful of dollars” and other westerns, Mifune took the style to another level altogether.

Sanjuro is not your typical hero either. His motives, almost throughout the movie, are purely selfish. He is a hired sword or mercenary, willing to give his services to the highest bidder; whoever they might be. In the initial sequence he kills of a few gang members with utter nonchalance just to demonstrate his skills. Later on when he sets about to destroy the gang members, it is mostly out of revenge rather than out of a desire to save the town from their grasps. He was brutally assaulted and tortured by the gang members after he had freed the kidnapped woman, the only time he does a selfless act. Kurosawa’s hero is as grey as any you could find and still you end up rooting for him.

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That Kurosawa is a master of fight and action sequences was proven beyond doubt in “Seven Samurai”. In Yojimbo though he brings about a ballatic effect to the action sequences amidst its chaos. It leads to the climatic showdown between Sanjuro and the main gang member who has the advantage of a gun on that very long stretch of road right in the middle of the town. Kurasowa’s mastery of filmmaking is further illustrated when we see Sanjuro practicing with a knife by throwing it and pinning down a fluttering leaf. In reality that sequence is shown in reverse. The effect was created by first pinning down the leaf with a knife and then pulling it out with a string.

Yojimbo is not considered as great as some of the master’s other works. It doesn’t appeal to the intellect as Rashomon does nor does it enchant you like Seven Samurai. But still it is one of the best action movies I have seen. Kurosawa does not preach about the moral values and the wit in the movie compliments the violence and vice versa. Yojimbo is in fact more western than many other western movies from Hollywood. I believe it showed Hollywood how a western should be made.

Reviews of Akira Kurosawa's Major works

Akira Kurosawa

Rashomon (1950)

Ikiru (1952)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Hidden Fortress (1958)

Yojimbo (1961)

High And Low (1963)

Red Beard (1965)

Kagemusha (1980)

Ran (1985)

Rhapsody In August (1991)