Starring:  Dirk Bogarde

Running Time:  96 minutes

Louis Farr is a man with a secret; and a successful career in law and a loving, beautiful wife give his secret a much greater weight.  Louis Farr is homosexual--a crime punishable by prison time in his home of late 1960's London.  He is a member of a faceless subculture, one of men on the fringes of society, ashamed of their feelings of love for one another.  Farr is content with denying his lustful urges for one particular young man, and reaping the benefits of good reputation.  Content, of course, until he finds that his would-be lover committed suicide in prison under the pressures of blackmail. 

A very controversial and challenging film for its time, Victim deserves a great deal of praise.  Quickly, though, I will mention one of the pitfalls of the film:  the soundtrack.  The orchestra is much too dramatic--even for a film containing such grave social commentary.

Moving on, one of many of the film's triumphs lies in its "normalcy."  There are no queens, and no overdone effeminate gesticulations--just people trying to keep themselves out of the glaring eye of public scrutiny.  Not to mention, Farr's sexuality is not rigid.  He feels what can be categorized as lust for "Boy" Barrett, the aforementioned young man; this does not mean that his love for his wife is a false one.

In fact, Mrs. Farr is aware (although not happily) of her husband's potential bisexuality.  She knew before they married, and hoped a ring of Louis Farr's finger would calm his... "tendencies."  However, once the blackmailers get too close for comfort, Mrs. Farr does not falter--preferring to remain supportive of her husband's stand:  to have the law against homosexuality challenged in court.

So, what makes this sensitive take on homosexuality so special?  The fight.  Farr sacrifices his untarnished career to bring this injustice to the foreground.  Whether or not you are interested in LGBTQ issues, this is an important film to take a look at.  It will help to shatter even today's misconceptions of the social boundaries placed on sexuality and love.

For the entire movie, Jeff is bedridden and powerless, and reliant on the care from women, especially from Lisa. She wants him to be a domestic husband rather than a traveling adventurer, creating tension between the two. In the Thorwald apartment, Jeff sees a reflection of his own situation. Mrs. Thorwald is bedridden and a constant nag to Mr. Thorwald creating tension between the two. There is no sexuality in the relationship, but rather Thorwald is totally stripped of his power because he must take care of his sick wife. She mocks and belittles him to the point where he cannot take it any more. This is why he feels that the only way out of his situation is through murder. In both apartments, the men are desexualized by their circumstances.

This is why Jeff literally wants to see murder. He feels as though he is totally desexualized and powerless and wants to see the murder because it shows that there is a way out of this feeling. As Rushing states, “Jeff identifies with Thorwald who lives out of “the real deal of his desire” - killing the nagging wife who ties him down, freeing the male subject for further adventures” (317). Jeff wants to be free again as he was when he was a traveling photographer. Lisa, though, is taking this opportunity to tie Jeff down to domesticate him into a husband. “The woman represents a trap in this case the trap of domestic status” (Rushing, 316).

In the movie, all that Jeff sees is men who cannot pursue their own sexual wants and needs, amplifying his own fear of women and sexuality and his desire to see murder. In the case of Miss Torso, the scantily clad dancer, many men seem to desire her, but she ultimately holds the control as she thwarts every man's sexual advance. With Miss Torso, however, like murder, the audience and Jeff desires to see her become more than a tease. The husband in the newlyweds is literally sexually controlled by his wife and every time he comes up for air, he is called back for what the audience and Jeff presumes to be more sex. Ms. Lonely Hearts is unable to “trap a man” (Hitchcock, Rear Window) and when a man makes sexual advances on her, she does not like it, but wants to be in control herself. The couple with the dog is totally desexualized and there is no outward show of sexual emotion. When the dog is murdered however, it is interesting to note that the wife says the murder was done “because it loved you” (Hitchcock). This is interesting because in both Thorwald and Jeff's case, their significant others probably love them, and both men desire to be rid of them. In all of these cases, Jeff sees only negatives that go along with love and sexuality, making his own fears even worse. Obviously, the worst case that Jeff sees is Thorwald's and therefore, when Thorwald murders his wife, he sees himself through Thorwald. He does not actually see the murder, but can empathize with Thorwald's situation and can see why Thorwald would want to be rid of his wife.

Through the movie, the viewer can make the assumption that sex is dependent on love, but that love is a source of misery. We see this through the neighbors' various pursuits of sex or love. The people that have love are unhappy because they have become desexualized, either through sex acts, with the newlyweds, or through no sex acts, as is the case with Thorwald. On the other side, however, the people that do not have love (the pianist and Ms. Lonely Hearts) are unhappy because they do not have love and therefore, no sex. Jeff soon realizes subconsciously through what he thinks is murder in the Thorwald household that murder is the only way out of the misery of relationships. He is not sure of what he actually wants- does he want to be with the woman he loves and become like these other married men, or does he want to have no love at all?

Ultimately, the film relates murder and sexuality as the two things that the audience and Jeff presume occurs, but never actually sees. Jeff desires to see both sex and murder through his gaze and “window shopping” because he sees himself in his various neighbors' different situations, both in and out of relationships. He is able to identify the most, however, with Thorwald. Thorwald's wife is the source of his tension, just as Lisa is Jeff's source of tension. He wants to see the murder that he thinks happens because he is also desexualized, powerless, and in a tense relationship just as Thorwald is. Lisa is a trap to Jeff and he realizes this, but does not know how to deal with it and as a result desires to see the murder. This is how the film, Rear Window, relates love and sexuality to murder.

 

Maybe it's the simple fact that the women in fantasy movies are…well…fantasy women. They're sexy and hip and hot and completely unreal, two-dimensional and shallow. Yes, there are exceptions. No, I'm not going to write on them, because that would make this article entirely too long.

The worth of a woman in fantasy film is often phrased in terms of her beauty and allure rather than her worth as a human being, or even an accessory to the plot. In fantasy story lines, the woman's beauty is always the factor which draws the hero to her, at least initially. Though she wields power and may even be a key point to the plot, she is described in terms of her looks, femininity, and how the hero thinks she's incredibly sexy; like in movies such as Troy, King Arthur, and the Indiana Jones film series. The woman is an objectified character: she is showcased for the benefit of the male gaze. Minor female characters often function solely for sex appeal; more and more often, women are shown doing sexual acts (often with each other) purely for the pleasure of the guys in the audience. Yeah, that tent full of freaky chicks in 300? Where the hell are the straight women in the audience supposed to look? Everywhere it's just boobs, butt, and bare-naked women. Next time, I want a tent full of freaky nude men to ogle!

Even female fantasy characters who are heroines in their own rights, such as the figure of Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider videogames and movies, are objects of the freaky voyeurism that passes for entertainment in our culture. Lara Croft is a strong heroine who has no need of male aid, yet she's depicted as an inherently sexual being: she has huge breasts, a small waist, a big butt, and long legs. In the movies, she is played by Angelina Jolie, one of the hottest and most overtly sexual actresses in Hollywood today.

Fantasy plot lines often operate within medievalesque worlds and societies, and often one of the only ways to power for women within these settings is through their sexuality. Fine, I get that, it makes sense within the plot of the novel or film, but seriously, medieval values and systems of power are no longer relevant in the 21st century. However, our culture buys into it regardless of common sense, and therefore the swooning, scantily-clad woman on the movie poster or novel cover becomes the symbol of femininity for our society.