Editing of Rear Window- Alfred Hitchcock

Structurally Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 classic, Rear Window appears rather simple but when you examine the film’s editing, complexity and intention is revealed. Point-of-view editing allows the audience to sit in the seat of our main character, Jeff Jefferies, and witness his reactions to what is going on in various neighbor’s apartments. Jump cuts and repetition of images emphasize the editorial choices intended to create suspense and interest in the audience. Hitchcock uses point of view editing throughout the film, for example in one scene we see a close up of Jeff’s face, then across to a woman undressing and back to his facial expression in order to get the feel of what is happening and how he is reacting.
The pace and subjective edits in Rear Window allow the film to be paced in real and dramatic time in various scenes, such as when Jeff is watching his girlfriend, Lisa
(played by Grace Kelly) snoop around in the suspected murderer’s apartment, and nearly getting killed. Editing is a major aspect of this movie due to the fact that it is shown entirely from the perspective of one man wheelchair bound in his apartment. More so than dialogue, Hitchcock’s editing choices reveal a great deal about our character and the plot of the movie. Within the first few minutes we are aware of James Stewart’s character, what he does for a living and why he is stuck in a wheelchair without hearing any dialogue. An intricate part of Hitchcock’s editing style is his use of sound. Sound is heavily relied on in this film to convey feelings of fear or terror. For example, when Jeff’s neighbor, Mrs. Thorwald, is killed, a scream is heard off-screen leaving both the main character and the audience to wonder where it came from and why. It gives the audience the ability to use their imagination and subjectively create where the scream may have come from. By using few long shots, each window that Jeff examines represents a different emotion or issue in his life. The editing in the movie also allows us to feel the entrapment and confinement of Jeff; we are stuck in his apartment with him.