In 1997, Rear Window was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". By this time, the film interested other directors with its theme of voyeurism, and other reworkings of the film soon followed, which included Brian De Palma's 1984 film Body Double and Phillip Noyce's 1993 film Sliver. In 1998 Time Out magazine conducted a poll and Rear Window was voted the 21st greatest film of all time.[28] In the British Film Institute's 2012 Sight & Sound polls of the greatest films ever made, Rear Window was ranked 53rd among critics[29] and 48th among directors.[30] In the 2022 edition of the magazine's Greatest films of all time list the film ranked 38th in the critics poll.[31] In 2017 Empire magazine's readers' poll ranked Rear Window at No. 72 on its list of The 100 Greatest Movies.[32] In 2022, Time Out magazine ranked the film at No. 26 on their list of "The 100 best thriller films of all time".[33]
Rear Window was restored by the team of Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz for its 1999 limited theatrical re-release (using Technicolor dye-transfer prints for the first time in this title's history) and the Collector's Edition DVD release in 2000.[34]
American Film Institute included the film as number 42 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies,[35] number 14 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills,[36] number 48 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)[37] and number three in AFI's 10 Top 10 (Mysteries).[38]
Rear Window was remade as a TV movie of the same name in 1998, with an updated storyline in which the lead character is paralyzed and lives in a high-tech home filled with assistive technology. Actor Christopher Reeve, himself paralyzed as a result of a 1995 horse-riding accident, was cast in the lead role. The telefilm also starred Daryl Hannah, Robert Forster, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, and Anne Twomey.
Rear Window has directly influenced plot elements and themes of numerous Brian De Palma films, particularly Hi, Mom! (1970), Sisters (1972), Dressed to Kill (1980), and Body Double (1984).[39][40][41]
Disturbia (2007) is a modern-day retelling, with the protagonist (Shia LaBeouf) under house arrest instead of laid up with a broken leg, and who believes that his neighbor is a serial killer rather than having committed a single murder. On September 5, 2008, the Sheldon Abend Trust sued Steven Spielberg, DreamWorks, Viacom, and Universal Studios, alleging that the producers of Disturbia violated the copyright to the original Woolrich story owned by Abend.[42][43] On September 21, 2010, the U.S. District Court in Abend v. Spielberg, 748 F.Supp.2d 200 (S.D.N.Y. 2010), ruled that Disturbia did not infringe the original Woolrich story.[44]
Rear Window has been homaged and spoofed in numerous episodes of television, including the Pretty Little Liars episode How the 'A' Stole Christmas and season four episode seven of 9-1-1.
In February 2008, the film was referenced as a part of Variety's The 2008 Hollywood Portfolio: Hitchcock Classics spread, with Scarlett Johansson and Javier Bardem as Lisa and Jeff, respectively.[45]
Rear Window has been referenced multiple times by Taylor Swift. In the music video for her single "Me!", Swift wears a dress similar to one of Edith Head's designs worn by Grace Kelly.[46] Swift has also stated that the voyeuristic elements of the film inspired the storytelling of her album Folklore.[47]
