Author: Adam Ibrahim

Adam Ibrahim

English 2400

midterm essay

10/28/20

     ”The Rear Window”

The rear window is a film based on a story written by Cornell Woolrich that came out in 1942  a well respected author known for writing books based on mystery. Books that become best selling movies are always created based on the book. Having the exact details and situations without changing anything which would attract readers to see a film based on a book. In film or book translation is always used ( Literal, Radical, Traditional) one of the translations was used in the 1954 film ‘’ rear window’’ directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Traditional because it kept every detail from the book without changing the scene or situations.  Such was the character Jeff after being in an accident which left him on a wheelchair in the book with film Jeff was still injured. 

The film kept the similarities from the book like the setting and the main characters which explains the traditional translation. The book is based on a guy named Jeff spying on his neighbor being suspicious of the neighbor wife’s disappearance. Which the film kept with Jeff spying and knowing something is wrong with the neighbor.  

The differences would be the development of the character Jeff’s ‘’main character’’ personal life wasn’t mentioned in the story. But in the film the director wanted the audience to know how important he is in the film. Even the Lisa character is supposed to be the main character Jeff’s girlfriend in the short story she has not been mentioned or been involved at all in the book but in the movie she plays a major role for the investigation of the neighbor. Even Sam in the story was replaced with a character named Stella in the film version having the same responsibilities as Sam which was to take care of Jeff. 

 In the film the actors portrayed the characters from the book nicely being able to bring something to life for the audience and readers. To catch the viewers attention and to help the viewer understand the film Hitchcock use different types of symbols and emotion with character even increase intentions with music for serious scenes. Such as the ending Jeff calls to confront the killer without talking and total silence while the music creates an interesting tension that’s diegetic. An example of non- diegetic sound is seen in the film when Lisa gets caught in camera This is seen when Lisa shows that she found the ring and held it for Jeff to zoom in and see it.

In conclusion the thing i have learned is that written stories can be created as a film with translation involved Radical, Traditional and Literal but depending on how the film is going with the written story. So the story and the film try to teach us to trust your intuition and don’t trust people. They might seem like they are nice and all that but they might not be.