Confession time. When I watched this on VHS many moons ago, I didn’t particularly care for it. Yet it’s esteem has risen so much over the years, I realized the ultimate test was seeing it in a theater, as it was intended.
Welp, it IS in fact, a masterpiece. It's easily the purest expression of Hitchcock's most prevalent and pervasive theme: obsession. On a technical level, it's marvelous. The photography, pacing, story structure, and production design (including the justly-celebrated, hallucinatory dream sequence) are all top-notch. While I found Rear Window's script to be overly-mannered by comparison, the screenplay by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor is elegant, direct, and full of naturalistic dialogue.
I'd always known Stewart (who's apparently a SWANK subscriber) gives a tortured, stunning performance, but I was quite surprised by how excellent Kim Novak was this time around. The subtle way she plays a dual role was outstanding. And Barbara Bel Geddes is the OG "dorky but hot girl."
Glad my instincts were correct and that my somewhat negative feelings toward this amazing film have been assuaged.
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