Stereotypes In Rear Window

1252 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Portrayal of women in movies

Stereotypical Gender Roles
Gender roles are norms that are expected from men and women. These norms were mainly established after World War II, when all the men returned from the war and resumed working and the women were usually the home care providers. Today, although this is a different era, people are fixated on these norms turning them into stereotypes. After such stereotypes arose, multiple filmmakers adapted this idea into their films. One of the biggest portrayal of gender roles was depicted by Alfred Hitchcock in his 1950 film Rear Window. Although the main plot of the movie revolves around the main character’s, L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies, attempt to solve a murder; the director successfully manages to illustrate the idea of gender roles …show more content…

Hitchcock uses point-of-view and eyeline matching to shot the majority of the movie, which was done in Jeff’s point of view. A point-of -view shot is when a shot is taken with the camera placed approximately where the character eyes would be, showing s exactly what the character would see. Eyeline matching, on the other hand is when the character is looking at a certain object, or another character and the director cuts the shot to show what it is they are looking at. Moreover, because this movie is in Jeff’s point-of-view, most of the characters are portrayed through his perception of them and are given corresponding names. Hitchcock has a unique approach for the portrayal of his characters and the majority of it can be seen through Jeff’s eyes. Ms. Torso’s first appearance through Jeff’s eyes, for starters, is presented through an eyeline matching shot combined with a point-of-view shot and a shot/reverse shot, which is when the camera alternatively cuts from one character or object to another. During the layout of this shot, Jeff is on the phone with an unknown character, presumably his boss, talking about his job, while in the next cut people see Ms. Torso practicing her ballet skills stating her profession as a dancer. “Women love to sing and dance.” As Hitchcock uses his eyeline matching shot technique, Jeff talks about his adventures on the job while Ms. Torso continues to be his form of entertainment. This symbolizes the stereotype that men are expected to do more adventure-related and outdoors type job “Men enjoy outdoor activities.” On the other hand, a profession of being a ballet dancer would fall under the category of the jobs women are expected to have. A similar type of editing is used when Ms. Lonelyhearts is introduced as well. People see the first appearance of her through Jeff’s eyes where she is shown to have an

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Strangers On A Train

    1470 Words  | 3 Pages

    Strangers on a Train is one of Hitchcock’s most well-known films. It is typically analyzed in terms of the ways that the two main male characters interact. According to many film critics, homosexual attraction between Bruno and Guy is one of the premises of the film. This may be the case, however, many of these film critics fail to consider the minor characters of the film: the women. Specifically, they fail to analyze the influence of these women on the development of the male characters and to interpret the message Hitchcock is trying to portray about women, especially those with qualities typically not associated with women.

    Read More

  • Auteur In Rear Window

    812 Words  | 2 Pages

    Now we will address a few of these from the film. First, Drawing parallels between characters with a difference, usually a negative one, is a repeated concept in Hitchcock films. Such as in the film “Strangers On a Train”, where Bruno ends up killing Guys’ wife while Guy had himself been desiring to be rid of her somehow. Here in “Rear Window” early in the film we can see this between Lisa and Jeff to Thorwald

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In Hildy And His Girl Friday

    1119 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gender roles are a common if outdated, categorization of the ‘right’ ideas of what men and women are to do and be. Often unchanged throughout the decades and appearing to just develop into more complex entities as the year’s pass. These roles encompass ideas of day-to-day life, personal interactions, and often job prospects as well. Although vilified and greatly disliked by many, to the point people go against them, these roles are often portrayed in films, both old and new. The film we have just watched, His Girl Friday, has some instances of these roles and showcases the main character, Hildy, breaking a few of these gender roles.

    Read More

  • Stereotyping In The Blind Side

    1233 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sometimes in life we are quick to judge a book by its cover, but once we begin to read, we sometimes often discover that the book we once judged, was something special after all. This is exactly what was demonstrated in The Blind Side. Many people saw Michael and was so bothered by his appearance that they did not bother to figure out who he truly was. It wasn’t until they were forced to deal with him, that people saw him for who he really was. Michael was not just some bad kid from the hood, he was a child with a lost spirit that came from a broken home and a bad situation that needed someone to guide him and show him the true meaning of love. As Christians we are taught to love our neighbors, but stereotyping often gets in the way of that. Stereotyping can compel negative results on a person’s character, but in this case, it opens ones heart to mother someone who needs mothering.

    Read More

  • Rear Window And Psycho Theme Analysis

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    He uses the point of view shot a lot in Rear Window, most of the film we are looking from the perspective of L.B. Jefferies view outside of his window. Everything he sees, the audience sees through his view. This seems to really create an honest relationship with the audience and the character. For example, when L.B. Jefferies sees Lars Thorwald putting his knives away. We see everything that L.B. Jefferies sees and essentially feel the same way that he does. When Hitchcock adds in a shot following the POV of L.B. Jefferies reaction to what he saw Lars Thorwald just do, that is Hitchcock using the Kuleshov effect. Used in almost every Hitchcock film, the audience gets a sense of reality and the reaction to that reality from the character. In Hitchcock’s The Birds for example, the Kuleshov effect is used extremely. In the scene where the man gets knocked down by the bird at the gas station and gas spills down the roadway. We see this through alternating shots of POV from Melanie Daniels view and her facial expression as the gas trail leads to man who is about to light a cigarette. We see the fear and drastic change in emotion in the close up shots showing her reaction to what she saw. In the end, the audience feels psychologically involved and connected with the

    Read More

  • The True Edict of Women

    799 Words  | 2 Pages

    The movie Bridesmaids defies the stereotypical role of women by showing the unseen manner-less and crude side of the gender throughout multiple scenes of the film. In each scene the main characters, Annie, Helen, Lillian, Becca, Rita, and Megan, act in obscene ways that are not socially acceptable for women. They all come from different social classes but are forced together for the wedding of Lillian. The gender role of a woman is a very traditional, narrow, and specific idea that does not allow women to be open and crude as they are in this film. The film shows the crude, vulgar, lusting characteristics that are not normally highlighted and acknowledged in films. Scenes like the dueling speech, food poisoning in the dress shop, and the morning after, are all examples of ways this film defies the stereotype and the divide of class by money between the women.

    Read More

  • The Truman Show vs Rear Window

    1709 Words  | 4 Pages

    Stam, Robert & Pearson, Robertson., ‘Hitchcock’s Rear Window: Refluxivity and the Critique of Voyeurism’ in Deutelbaum, Marshall & Poague, Leland A. ed., A Hitchcock Reader (John Wiley & Sons: 2009).

    Read More

  • Voyeurism In Rear Window

    323 Words  | 1 Pages

    The first shot in the film is the view from Jeff’s apartment, which he is confined to due to injury. As a photographer, he is naturally curious of what occurs outside his window. This window shows everyone who lives near Jeff and he is able to view them through their windows. As a result, he imagines

    Read More

  • The Meaning Of Voyeurism In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

    651 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...m plays a considerable role in this film. Jeffries, the films protagonist is bound to his apartment, so for entertainment he watches people through his window without them knowing. From the very beginning these characters seem to so interesting, so no wonder Jeffries decides to watch them. While watching the film, we become witnesses of their private lives, making us voyeurists too. In this film windows are not used in a traditional sense, they expose people, they symbolize confinement, and they allude to suspenseful plot devices. Hitchcock’s aesthetic configuration of the film manipulates the audience into questioning several aspects of the film and in life in general. Hitchcock’s originality in Rear Window was not only successful during the golden age of Hollywood, but it continues to be creatively adapted and consistently influential in today’s cinema as well.

    Read More

  • Hitchcock's Use Of Suspense In Rear Window And Vertigo

    988 Words  | 2 Pages

    Perhaps the important answer to this question would be the ways that he composed "Rear Window" with the whole geometry of terror. Although certain elements would appear the same with his other films such as the "The Man Who Knew Too Much" and "Vertigo," "Rear Window" was unique because it was Hitchcock in the most simplistic but ultimately fascinating film. Hitchcock was able to weave out all the elements of space, look, and narrative, making this film a "precision of the mathematical thought" (Pallasmaa 1). Pallasma added that Hitchcock defined how filmmaking ought to be as simplistic as possible in the form of combining only three spaces: Jeffries' condition, the part of what he sees, and his reaction. It was the complete measuring of these angles and connecting them to form a singular film that made it more like a combination of logic and art.

    Read More

  • Stereotypes In The Movie Crash

    830 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the movie “crash” people from different racial group crash in to each other and at least two of the characters come to recognize how their prejudice and stereotyping is based on their accidental encounter with members of other social groups.

    Read More

  • Surveillance In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    This is shown by Jefferies treatment of Lisa and Stella along with their involvement with helping him, and the violence that takes place against women within the film as a way of showing that the world of surveillance is a male dominated sphere that can be

    Read More

  • Urban Isolation And Loneliness In The Film 'Rear Window'

    169 Words  | 1 Pages

    The film, 'Rear Window' has an essence of 'urban isolation/ loneliness' in it. The entire film is made on one confined set. In the whole movie, the viewers can either see the apartment of the immobile protagonist, Jeff or the window views of his neighbors.  With the idea of confined set, Hitchcock (director) showed the loneliness and urban isolation of Jeff. Due to his leg injury, Jeff can not go anywhere so he passes his time by peeping into his neighbors' life through his rear window and can see different stories going on in different apartments. Each apartment window is like a TV series for him, which he watches on a daily basis. This film shows the visual study of obsessive human curiosity.

    Read More

  • Cinematic Techniques In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

    617 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to Baudry, the “cinematic apparatus” is the idea of how isolation from the outside world (darkened room, no outside noise, etc.) and being exposed to reproduced reality through a screen gives the viewer the notion that what they are seeing is real and they are experiencing it themselves, much like in a dream. Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Baudry’s “cinematic apparatus” theory hold hands in many different elements, but I will be discussing one of those elements, which is how Rear Window’s main character, Jeff, is a representation of this theory. In the movie, Jeff looks out his window and he can see his neighbors’ day-to-day life. Using the windows, the binoculars and the telephoto lens on his camera to spy on his neighbors, Jeff’s view is

    Read More

  • Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are three key scenes that best exemplify Hitchcock’s technical competence. After Alicia’s party and run in with the police, she is shown lying in bed with a hangover. We see a close up of a concoction Devlin made Alicia for hangovers. The next shot is a Dutch angle of Devlin, arms crossed and in shadow. Alicia drinks more of the concoction and camera’s perspective is in Alicia’s point of view. The Dutch angle slanted to the right rotates clockwise to an upside down shot of Devlin because Alicia is lying upside down on the bed. Coincidently, after the elaborate camera work, Alicia sits up and says, “What’s this all about? What’s your angle?”. Hitchcock’s technical competence in this scene is a testament to his authorship.

    Read More

More about Stereotypes In Rear Window

Open Document