Compare And Contrast Disturbia And Rear Window

“Intelligence. Nothing has caused the human race so much trouble as intelligence,” says Stella from Rear Window. (Rear Window vs Disturbia, 1954 film Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock and the 2007 film Disturbia by D.J. Caruso.) These two films will are addressing how the characters react in these situations due to isolation and the use of semiotic differences that each one expresses.

The women in both films gave the men something to look at. For example, in the opening scene of Rear Window, the audience sees Jefferies looking from his window over to Miss Torso who is dancing and stretching as she gets ready for her day. As in the film Disturbia, the audience sees Kale looking through

binoculars and checks out Ashley as she is getting undressed; as one can see both characters seem to do the same thing in their situation. In Rear Window, Jefferies is stuck in his apartment from an injury to his leg and the only entertainment he has is spying on people in his neighborhood from his Rear window. The audience sees Jefferies who sees Miss Torso dancing and stretching; then the camera pans up to two ladies who are sun bathing, and then a couple waking up from their slumber on a mattress on their balcony. As he continues to look around, he wants to look some more. Jefferies get a satisfaction or thrill from viewing others and because of this he becomes obsessed and discovers that something is not right in his neighborhood.
The people, who know Jefferies such as Stella his nurse, Lisa his lover, and Lt.

Thomas J. Doyle his detective friend, point out to him that his actions are not moral. They all tell him that he is violating ones privacy and call him a peeping tom. The way he is so drawn to look around leaves him wanting more and more. The same goes for the film Disturbia. Kale is sentenced to three months of house arrest with a gps tracker stuck to his leg because he punched his Spanish teacher. There is no way for him to leave the house whereas Jefferies who has a cast on his leg from a race injury. Out of boredom Kale seeks peeping on his neighbors as his entertainment as well. Both of these characters get hooked on looking at the everyday lives of their neighborhood that they both discover a murderer. The difference is that Kale has more spying technology such as binoculars and a surveillance camera system that his friend owns whereas Jefferies does not have much of the spying equipment only a pair of binoculars and a camera that he can zoom in with. This is because of the time period in which the films were made. This also makes it easier for them to watch their prey upon the action that is taken. Kale is a loner to the outside world and only communicates with his mother and friends. He drifts away from the outside world and enters his own world of private investigation.

In Disturbia the setting takes places in a suburban area, the houses are isolated, and the character is forced to go back to his house to indulge on his neighbors activities; whereas in Rear Window the character is isolating himself from society. This is shown clearly as we see above the apartment complex where Jefferies lives in New York where the city is thriving. Both of these characters are very consumed by their obsession and become social

outcast.
Another difference in the two films from what we can see is that Jefferies looks out from the only place in his whole entire apartment whereas Kale can go all over the house to peep on his neighbors. The semiotic in both of the films is slightly different in the elements that due with the time era that they were produced in. These movies were made over 50 years apart. So one has to ask themselves, did Disturibia steal some ideas from Rear window or is Disturbia just a remake? While the idea isn’t totally absurd we must take all information into consideration.
Now let’s go more in depth with the film Disturbia. Opening with in fly fishing scene between father and son, the expanse of sky and mountains offers a contrast to the gloomy house arrest with which the main character Kale is soon burdened with. We can see some of Hitch’s impeccable framing implemented here. Disturbia adopts a teen popcorn movie approach, one that still could have worked if executed less predictably. Kale’s house arrest (for decking a cruel Spanish teacher) forces him into the same situation as Rear Window’s Jeff. Kale starts spying on and eventually gets involved with Ashley the literal girl next door. Unlike Jeff from Rear Window, Kale never shouts and hollers at the main women character Ashely but instead is constantly trying to impress her in his dorky teen age boy manner. Like its source material, Disturbia soon focuses on a neighbor and, in this case Mr. Turner whose conspicuous car and increasingly sinister behavior match the description of a serial killer on the loose. This uncannily matches Rear Window in the aspect of plot and conclusion.
One of the primary differences between the two films is the approach to music. Hitchcock uses music sparingly in Rear Window. In fact, during the most suspenseful scenes Hitchcock masterfully sets the terror with upbeat lounge music, naturally drifting on the breeze from a nearby apartment. In contrast, Disturbia employs an alternative rock soundtrack also stuffed with violins that heavy handedly dictate when the viewer is supposed to feel fear. This also makes the guilt of its villain clear early on, while Rear Window casts Jeff’s suspicions of Thorwald in a paranoiac’s light. Disturbia’s chances of effectively modernizing Rear Window are destroyed by the third act when Caruso ridiculously pulls out every horror cliché in the book. As Kale finally finds hard proof of the villain’s guilt through surveillance video that mirrors the found footage subgenre, Mr. Turner stalks Kale and his friends with the fixated determination wielding a butcher knife, chopping through doors causing Kale to fall into a water-filled pit brimming with corpses in a scene straight out of the movie Poltergeist. Despite everything else, Rear Window will undoubtedly be a masterpiece for many years to come. I for one personally believe that Disturbia is a remake if not then at least a respectable attempt at paying homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Rear Window. This isn’t a terrible thing, but without seeing Disturbia I would have never been open to the classic original that started it all.