Mozart. Michelangelo. Jordan. Wolverine. Some people are just the best there is at what they do. And no name better epitomizes the cream of the crop of film making then Alfred Hitchcock. Psycho, The Birds, Notorious, Vertigo, North by Northwest each one a classic in its own right. And that is far from being a comprehensive list of his masterworks.
With all of those classic films to his credit its hard to select just one of them that is a must see. The truth is they all are for any true film aficionado. But How Have You Not Seen That is not a blog for cinephiles; its a case-maker for why the average citizen needs to sit their butt down and see a particularly important film. And with that as a criteria none of Hitchcock’s works need to bee seen more than Rear Window.
That at least is the opinion of this not so humble blogger. And it is an opinion that is shared by a great many critics and moviegoers. Rear Window has made an appearance on both editions of the AFI 100 years….100 films list at numbers 42 and 48 respectively as well as being added to the National Film Registry in 1997. Such esteemed luminaries as François Truffaut, Spike Lee, Roger Ebert, and Jonathan Rosenbaum have placed the film on their Essentials lists. And if those all seem to stuffy for you the film appears in the top 250 lists of modern mood takers and such as Reddit, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Empire. How’s that for accolades?
But all the awards in the world couldn’t communicate just how far-reaching Rear Window’s influence has been on pop culture. According to IMDB, since its release in 1954, Rear Window has been referenced, remade, spoofed, or featured in over 300 other feature films or television episodes. From Monty Python to The Simpsons, Scream to Pretty Little Liars; that’s quite a few instances of you not getting the joke.
And what about the star power Jimmy Stewart (a genuine war hero) at his prime and Grace Kelly only two years before she retired from acting to become Princess of Monaco. Yeah, that’s right; this film features a genuine, real life princess.
I mean honestly, for a movie with a cultural impact this wide and deep, the next time the topic of Rear Window comes up do you really want someone to look at you and say How Have You Not Seen That?