Monday, July 19, 2010

Rear End's Window

The apartments that are visible, from the window within Rear Window, play into the relationship between Jeffries and Lisa in a very creative way.

In was very difficult for me to ignore the fact that the Thorwalds part in the movie appeared to expose the fact that Jeffries needed to pay more attention to his own relationship. Throughout the movie he is kind of an asshole to Lisa. She is giving that man everything she has, not to show off the amount of money she has, to show him how much she loves him. She makes him hot brandy, wheels his handicapped corpse around the little apartment and listens to his arrogance as if his lowly life is anything compared to what she can offer him.

Understanding that a man must hold on to his pride and be thankful for the things in which he has accomplished for himself, also be thankful for the PEOPLE who bother to entertain you at a time in your life when you are at your lowest. An example of this would be Miss Lonelyhearts. That woman would have been satisfied with anyone entertaining her seemingly meaningless existence. Not until she has an encounter with a man who tries to force himself upon her does she realize that she may never find a companion and turns to a bottle of pills. Just as she is coming to grips with what may be her last contemplation, she hears music that will eventually lead her to a promising counterpart.

Jeffries is unable to walk because of an injury and in a wheelchair with a cast halfway up his torso. He is not working (economically nor anatomically) and he does not even own a gun. He worked with the military… Hello! Any man would be so lucky as to have a woman around in that condition, but to have a woman that will bring you dinner catered from the finest restaurant in town?! It was only fitting that he was tossed from the window.

In his selfish attempt to gain information on the shady Thorwald gentlemen, Jeffries catches a glimpse of what a remarkable woman he has in Lisa. Not because of the things that she does for him, not because of the conversation he had with his physical therapist (or whatever title she had back in the 50’s) in which Lisa was paying for. It was not because of any of the things Lisa told and showed him. It was because she was willing to buy into (with good reason) his sneaking suspicion of the man, who was later exposed as the murderer. She climbed up metal slates, searched through a slaughterhouse apartment, got slapped, risked her life, and went to jail... All in a dress! But most of all, she believed in him.

And even by the end of the movie, it is not shown that he believes in her enough to put his future, in her hands.

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