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I believe that Alfred Hitchcoks REAR WINDOW has influenced the 'burbs. There are many similarities. I will list them at a later date, but can you think of any other movies that may have influenced the 'burbs?
Influences
- Thread starter Art_Weingartner
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Okay similarities between the burbs and rear window off the top of my head.
The main guy is off work.
He is in his pyjamas a lot.
His wife/partner tries to talk him out of such nonsense.
There's a lot of snooping on neighbours.
There's a camera lens in rear window and a night vision scope in the burbs.
There is digging in the yard.
Thorwald and Rumsfield both smoke cigars in a dark room, that can be seen by L.B.Jeffries and Ray Peterson.
There's a small yappy dog.
They break into Walter's house in the burbs - they break into Thorwald's apartment in Rear Window.
There's talk of killing people and burying them in the yard.
At the end there are police swarming.
I'm sure there's more....I shall watch them both Saturday (tomorrow night) and post more!
Like L.B.Jeffries, Ray spends a lot of time in his blue pyjamas.
A woman comes out into the yard area in her nightwear like Bonnie.
Bonnie and Mark like gardening and there's flower-gardening in Rear Window.
L B Jeffries says to his partner "what have you done to your hair" like Ray at the end "I really do like your hair"
Like the scene with Bonnie with Ricky looking at her ass, there are scenes in Rear Window with a dancer who does a lot of bending over and wears very little.
There's a long rainstorm.
The main guy is off work.
He is in his pyjamas a lot.
His wife/partner tries to talk him out of such nonsense.
There's a lot of snooping on neighbours.
There's a camera lens in rear window and a night vision scope in the burbs.
There is digging in the yard.
Thorwald and Rumsfield both smoke cigars in a dark room, that can be seen by L.B.Jeffries and Ray Peterson.
There's a small yappy dog.
They break into Walter's house in the burbs - they break into Thorwald's apartment in Rear Window.
There's talk of killing people and burying them in the yard.
At the end there are police swarming.
I'm sure there's more....I shall watch them both Saturday (tomorrow night) and post more!
Like L.B.Jeffries, Ray spends a lot of time in his blue pyjamas.
A woman comes out into the yard area in her nightwear like Bonnie.
Bonnie and Mark like gardening and there's flower-gardening in Rear Window.
L B Jeffries says to his partner "what have you done to your hair" like Ray at the end "I really do like your hair"
Like the scene with Bonnie with Ricky looking at her ass, there are scenes in Rear Window with a dancer who does a lot of bending over and wears very little.
There's a long rainstorm.
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From the Twilight Zone Episode (sorry for just copying and pasting):
Opening narration
"Maple Street, U.S.A. Late summer. A tree-lined little world of front porch gliders, barbecues, the laughter of children, and the bell of an ice-cream vendor. At the sound of the roar and the flash of light, it will be precisely 6:43pm on Maple Street. This is Maple Street on a late Saturday afternoon. Maple Street, in the last calm and reflective moment before the monsters came."
Synopsis
It is mid-evening in September and the street is full of playing children and adults talking. A shadow passes overhead and a loud roar is heard, accompanied by a flash of light. Later, after it has gone dark, the residents of Maple Street find that the telephones no longer work, and there is no power. They gather together in the street to discuss the matter.
Steve Brand decides to go into town and see what is happening, but his car will not start and he decides to walk instead. Tommy, a young boy from the neighborhood, pleads with him not to go. He is sure that the outages are part of an alien invasion—just as he has read in books and comics. Furthermore, he says, most of these invasions are preceded by the infiltration of aliens who look human. Naturally no one takes him seriously, but soon the first signs of doubt appear.
Meanwhile another resident, Les Goodman, tries unsuccessfully to start his car. He gets out and begins to walk back towards the other residents when the car starts all by itself. The bizarre behavior of his car makes Les the object of immediate suspicion. The residents begin to discuss his late nights spent standing in the garden looking up at the sky. Les claims to be an insomniac. His problem becomes worse when the lights in his house come on, and the rest of the neighborhood remains in the dark. Suspicion then suddenly switches to Steve when he tries to defuse the situation and prevent it from becoming a witch-hunt. Charlie, one of the loudest and most aggressive residents, pressures Steve about his hobby building a radio that no one has ever seen.
A man is seen walking along Maple Street through the dark, towards the gathered crowd. Panic begins to build and Charlie grabs a shotgun and kills him. When the crowd reaches the fallen man, they realize that it is Pete Van Horn.
Suddenly the lights in Charlie's house come on and he panics, realizing how it looks. He is now the subject of the suspicion. He makes a run for his house while the other residents begin to chase him and throw stones. Terrified, Charlie attempts to deflect suspicion onto Tommy, the boy who originally brought up the idea of alien infiltration. Lights begin turn on and off in different houses, lawn mowers and cars start up for no apparent reason. A riot begins and the hysterical residents smash windows, fight and switch blame from one person to another with little justification.
The episode ends with two Martian observers watching the rioting on Maple Street and discussing how easy it was to create paranoia and panic, and let the people of Earth destroy themselves—one place at a time. One of them tells the other:
"Understand the procedure now? Just stop a few of their machines...throw them into darkness for a few hours and then sit back and watch the pattern. They pick the most dangerous enemy they can find......and it's themselves."
Closing narration
"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts... attitudes... prejudices. To be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and the thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is... that these things cannot be confined to... The Twilight Zone."
I especially like this closing narration.
Opening narration
"Maple Street, U.S.A. Late summer. A tree-lined little world of front porch gliders, barbecues, the laughter of children, and the bell of an ice-cream vendor. At the sound of the roar and the flash of light, it will be precisely 6:43pm on Maple Street. This is Maple Street on a late Saturday afternoon. Maple Street, in the last calm and reflective moment before the monsters came."
Synopsis
It is mid-evening in September and the street is full of playing children and adults talking. A shadow passes overhead and a loud roar is heard, accompanied by a flash of light. Later, after it has gone dark, the residents of Maple Street find that the telephones no longer work, and there is no power. They gather together in the street to discuss the matter.
Steve Brand decides to go into town and see what is happening, but his car will not start and he decides to walk instead. Tommy, a young boy from the neighborhood, pleads with him not to go. He is sure that the outages are part of an alien invasion—just as he has read in books and comics. Furthermore, he says, most of these invasions are preceded by the infiltration of aliens who look human. Naturally no one takes him seriously, but soon the first signs of doubt appear.
Meanwhile another resident, Les Goodman, tries unsuccessfully to start his car. He gets out and begins to walk back towards the other residents when the car starts all by itself. The bizarre behavior of his car makes Les the object of immediate suspicion. The residents begin to discuss his late nights spent standing in the garden looking up at the sky. Les claims to be an insomniac. His problem becomes worse when the lights in his house come on, and the rest of the neighborhood remains in the dark. Suspicion then suddenly switches to Steve when he tries to defuse the situation and prevent it from becoming a witch-hunt. Charlie, one of the loudest and most aggressive residents, pressures Steve about his hobby building a radio that no one has ever seen.
A man is seen walking along Maple Street through the dark, towards the gathered crowd. Panic begins to build and Charlie grabs a shotgun and kills him. When the crowd reaches the fallen man, they realize that it is Pete Van Horn.
Suddenly the lights in Charlie's house come on and he panics, realizing how it looks. He is now the subject of the suspicion. He makes a run for his house while the other residents begin to chase him and throw stones. Terrified, Charlie attempts to deflect suspicion onto Tommy, the boy who originally brought up the idea of alien infiltration. Lights begin turn on and off in different houses, lawn mowers and cars start up for no apparent reason. A riot begins and the hysterical residents smash windows, fight and switch blame from one person to another with little justification.
The episode ends with two Martian observers watching the rioting on Maple Street and discussing how easy it was to create paranoia and panic, and let the people of Earth destroy themselves—one place at a time. One of them tells the other:
"Understand the procedure now? Just stop a few of their machines...throw them into darkness for a few hours and then sit back and watch the pattern. They pick the most dangerous enemy they can find......and it's themselves."
Closing narration
"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts... attitudes... prejudices. To be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and the thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is... that these things cannot be confined to... The Twilight Zone."
I especially like this closing narration.
Mayfield669
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A minor influence may have been the old TV show Leave it to Beaver - you can see it on reruns, it is like stepping into a time machine. The town they lived in was Mayfield and the neighborhood they lived in the prototypical middle American suburb, I am sure very much like the effect Dante was shooting for.
Was Hinckley Hills named after the guy that tried to assassinate Reagan, you think?
Was Hinckley Hills named after the guy that tried to assassinate Reagan, you think?