10 Films You Probably Hated As A Kid But Love Now

2. Rear Window

8 Year Old Me: I thought Alfred Hitchcock was supposed to be cool. He gave us that awesome movie where Cary Grant gets chased by an airplane and then climbs down Mount Rushmore. He gave us that scary movie with the people getting stabbed in the shower (at least, I think it looks cool. Dad won't let me watch it).

But man, where did he go wrong with this movie? The idea is cool. Jimmy Stewart is a guy who's spying on his neighbors and figures out that one of the guys murdered his own wife. Only problem is that Jimmy Stewart is stuck in a wheelchair through the whole movie and never leaves his apartment! This movie is like watching a movie about a guy watching a movie, and nothing else. He can't do anything about it! He calls the police, but you know how that turns out in movies. This movie is just really dull, and throws away a brilliant concept.

I don't think it's coincidence that this guy was in Hitchcock's other stupid movie, Vertigo. Does anyone like that movie?

22 Year Old Me: It actually hurts to read the review by eight year old me. Everything I once hated about this film is now what makes me recognize it as being brilliant. One of my fondest memories in recent months is watching a run of this film at a small local theater. Seeing this movie on a big screen was simply incredible. I have never ever been so utterly immersed in a film experience before or since.

The way Hitchcock constructs the little world of this film is amazing. All you see is what Stewart's character L.B. Jeffries can see. But even in that tiny world, all his neighbors are fully developed characters despite having no lines. Most of the musical score comes from a piano playing neighbor who leaves his windows open. And how does someone construct a totally believable murder mystery while never visiting the crime scene, simply looking at it through open curtains?

Hitchcock does it.