Rear Window Retrospective

Thoughts by Chris Boudreau

Spoiler Warning

We make such exaggerated stories of other people’s lives, even though we see so little of their complexity. These stories can consume us, even in their obvious falsehood. They can infect and consume the people around us, as fabricating the evil of others soothes the evil we ourselves do. We believe these fabricated stories so deeply, so hungrily, that we would rather destroy other people’s lives, people that we don’t even know, than succumb to humanity. And when we are faced down with the people whose lives we destroyed, we can only face them in shadow or blinding light. We can’t just mind our own damn business (especially in a McCarthyist America).

I’m not going to be a jackass and assume I could write a better ending. Instead I’m just going to tell myself that Jefferies died falling out that window, Thorwald was innocent until pushed to the brink by this voyeur, and this ideal life of essentially never leaving his nosey perch, both legs destroyed, was Jeff’s fleeting last thought.