Pop Culture Presentation: "Rear Window" and "Disturbia"

My pop culture report is on Rear Window and Disturbia.

Rear Window is a 1954 mystery/suspense film directed by one of the most famous names in film history, Alfred Hitchcock. It stars James Stewart as L.B. Jefferies, a photojournalist confined to his apartment in New York due to breaking his foot while covering a sporting race. Jeffires begins to watch his neighbors conduct their normal activities across a courtyard thought the summer, until be becomes interested in on of his neighbors, Lars Thorwald (played by Raymond Burr) when his bedridden wife suddenly goes missing. His physical therapist, Stella (Thelma Ritter) and his girlfriend, Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) at first, condemn Jefferies for spying on the neighbors, but reluctantly begin to watch Lars when he is seen cleaning off a saw and a large knife, leading the three to believe that Thorwald murdered his own wife.

Disturbia, on the other hand, is a 21st century updated version of the classic Hitchcock thriller, directed by D.J. Caruso and stars Shia LeBeouf as troubled teen Kale Brecht serving three-months house arrest for decking his Spanish teacher for bringing up his father's death. Kale is cut off from most electronic devices (iTunes account, XBOX Online gaming account, television in his room) and resorts to watching his neighbors through his room with a pair of binoculars. Much like the character Jeffereis in Rear Window, he begins to grow suspicious of one of his new neighbors, Robert Turner (played by David Morose) when the dent on his classic Ford Mustang match the same police reports of a serial killer's car in Austin, Texas. He enlists the help of his friend, Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) and the new neighbor teen, Ashley (Sarah Roemer) to watch if Mr. Turner is actually the same serial killer from Austin.

Similarities
Both Rear Window and Disturbia follow the same overall gist of the story:
-Both the lead male protagonists are confined to their homes and resort to spying on their neighbors for entertainment.
-Both become suspicious about one of their neighbors one night and assume that they are murders.
-Both enlist the help of their friends and love interests to help solve the mystery of the suspected neighbors.
-Both suspicious neighbors turn out to be serial killers.

Differences
As you may have noticed from the movie posters above, the most obvious difference between Hitchcock's Rear Window and Caruso's Disturbia is generational.
-Rear Window was released in 1954 during the Cold War and at the heights of McCarthyism, perhaps suggesting that ordinary citizens must always remain watchful of their neighbors.
-Distrurbia was released last year, during the growing popularity of social networking sites such as You Tube and Facebook.

Another glaring difference is the target audience.
-When Rear Window was released in 1954, most of the actors (with the exception of Grace Kelly) were in their late 30's to early 50's, perhaps suggesting that the movie's target audience was more toward middle-aged Americans.
-Disturbia, given that the film's star was probably in his early 20's when released, was geared toward a younger audience group, probably high schoolers to young adults.