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All it takes is a murder to make the subject of
voyeurism acceptable to mainstream audiences. Without the violence factor,
the subject is just plain sick. Disturbia plays it safe in that regard, but it takes a huge risk by
borrowing a plot device from Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954). James Stewart stars
in the original as an injured photojournalist who spies on the neighbors
who live around his vast courtyard. His focus is eventually narrowed to one
neighbor (Raymond Burr), who, he believes, has murdered his wife. Disturbia takes this core
idea and replaces the Stewart character with a teenager (Shia LeBeouf)
under house arrest. He becomes convinced that one of his neighbors, the
quietly creepy David Morse, is a serial killer. The plotlines beyond the similar premise are quite
different, and Disturbia holds up much better than anyone could reasonably expect. Even so,
there was much outrage at this incursion onto Hitchcock’s turf. Rear Window ranks 13th on the
Internet Movie Data Base all-time Top 250, placing it highest of all
Hitchcock’s films. Although the master of suspense made several
better films, Rear Window is still a classic of its kind. Despite the obviousness of
its outcome, the suspense level is sustained all the way to the climax, and
Hitchcock also proves a master of small spaces. Most of the film takes
place in Stewart’s small apartment. The one oddity is the fact that
all the time that this professional photographer is watching the strange
goings on through his camera lens, he never once snaps a picture.
Wouldn’t this be instinct? Michelangelo Antonioni presents a more logical
photographer/voyeur in his masterpiece Blow-Up (1966). His photographer (David Hemmings) is fused to his
camera, and when he spots a suspicious couple in a park he does much more
than watch. When he develops the photos, he sees what appears to be a body
in the bushes. As he blows up the photos for a closer look, that image
becomes more blurry and ambiguous. Don’t expect an airtight plot.
Antonioni raises more questions than he answers, and it’s far from
certain that there really was a body in the park. Brian De Palma is
regularly accused of ripping off Hitchcock and his themes, but his best use
of voyeurism is in the great thriller Body
Double (1984). An underemployed actor spies on
his beautiful neighbor and eventually witnesses her brutal murder. What we
see may not be the truth, and De Palma plays on that human instinct to
watch. Isn’t it instinct?
New on DVD this Tuesday (May 1): Dreamgirls, Alpha Dog, The
Hitcher, and Happily N’Ever
After.
This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2007.
