This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The first film to kick of the 1980s and having somewhat of a cult reputation due to its daring (if not explicit) lesbian overtones and somewhat box-office failure. "Windows" is an immensely so-so, dour obsessive psycho thriller affair with some creative photography and an effectively sensitive lead turn by Talia Shire (who just came off "Rocky 2"). She really does impress in her timid role and convincingly portrays someone who's battling their own insecurity. Outside the sullen cinematography, Shire's performance and the slightly disturbing and intense opening assault sequence. It's rather disappointing, overdone and a banal effort.Elizabeth Ashley starring opposite of Shire as the compulsively manipulative and startling neurotic friend who really takes a liking to Shire's character. What she does to her is really screwed up, unstable and it generates a real uneasy mood around her when on screen. However I find her stalker performance grating and somewhat off. Joseph Cortese gives a sleepy turn as the detective looking into the case and the uninteresting love interest formed with Shire. The rest of the support add little colour. Cinematographer Gordon Willis makes his film debut and so far to be his only crack at the director's helm. For most part it meanders with little in the way of suspense. Slowly building towards it underwhelming payoff. Sure it can be malicious and dark in an atmospheric sense, but the dreary script bungles the psychological interplay with uneven patterns, ridiculous turns and blatant clichés that just go nowhere. It's the imagery that lingers with authentic urban locations, where lighting had that neon-touch with dim, shadowy passages and Ennio Morricone's music score is smoothly melancholy. "It hurts".

The general opinion of this movie is either that it is terrible, or that it is SO bad, it's actually good. Well, I don't think this movie is really "good" in any sense of the word, but it's not that bad either. It definitely has some good aspects. The cinematography is outstanding, not surprisingly perhaps since it was directed by famed cinematographer Gordon Willis. Visually it was kind of and attempt to update the moody film-noir style of the 40's and 50's to the present day (as of 1980 anyway). It was also filmed in NYC and it captures a lot of the palpably sleazy ambiance of the city in that era that can also be seen in films like "Taxi Driver" or "Dog Day Afternoon".The plot is ridiculous, of course, but that's not necessarily a bad thing either. In fact, the people who were so offended by the movie originally should have taken into account that this movie defames real-life lesbians about as much as "Roadrunner" cartoons defame real-life coyotes. (And Wile E.Coyote gives a much more subdued performance and usually shreds less scenery than Elizabeth Ashley does in this movie). Besides the problem is not that lesbians are frequently portrayed as villains in movies. Even taking their relative numbers into account, there are still far less lesbian villains in movies (not including sexy bisexual women, which is a whole different thing) than there are white male villains. There is certainly a lack of POSITIVE portrayals of lesbians in movies perhaps even today, but that's a different issue. And, ironically, the typical negative portrayal of lesbians in the media does not generally involve them being murderous stalkers, but rather being shrill, self-righteous, humorless, man-hating busy-bodies who want to censor everything under the sun that offends their perpetually outraged sensibilities. Hmmm, I wonder where that stereotype comes from? But back to the movie, this is one of 70's/80's movies that would actually be PERFECT for a re-make. They could put a really sexy actress in the lead who doesn't play the whole thing as deadly earnestly as ole "Yo! Adrienne!" does here. It would actually be pretty hard to best Elizabeth Ashley's campy, OTT performance, but I think modern audiences would certainly appreciate a performance like this a lot more than they did back in 1980. This isn't a good movie, of course,but why re-make a GOOD movie? Re-make, DVD release, or both--this is definitely long-due for some kind of revival.

This is one of those flicks I've wanted to see since it came out (I was underage at the time). The plot just sounded very freaky and bizarre. Regardless, it is one of the THE most impossible films to find since I don't believe it got a video release (except overseas) and I don't even think it played on cable in the '80s. It is however on YouTube now :-).This film gets trashed by a lot of people immediately as being non-PC and homophobic. I think that's more a signpost of when the film was released, when attitudes toward people with other orientations weren't so enlightened.No, the core problem behind this picture is that it's just a raving, stinking mess, and it really is virtually all Willis' fault. When you read the opening credits, your jaw drops...they read like an A-list of movie greats: Morricone, Bourne, Willis as DP. How could they screw this up? Easy. A) Don't build any suspense; B) Don't establish any characters or motivations; C) Allow the writer to write any damn thing he wants to, no matter how stupid or no matter what expense to the actors; D) Resort to constant dissolves when you don't know what else to do, especially since there is virtually no coherent action; E) Don't direct your actors...after all they're pros, they know exactly what to do. The list goes on....This is a stalker movie....it should be about stalking. There is absolutely no fear built, no tension. It's a real master class in wasted celluloid.Still, part of me has to admire this in a way you sometimes admire any bad movie. It sure didn't have any self-censoring going on. it did what it wanted to do and took no prisoners. One of the many things that makes it a museum piece today, even if that museum is a wax one.

After hearing all the bad things that has been said about this movie, I didn't care I still wanted to see it. But they were right the bad things that have been said about this movie are actually true, This has one of the most boring-est movies I have ever seen."Windows" is about a shy recently divorced woman named Emily (Talia Shire) living alone in a New York apartment with her cat. When one night she is attacked in her apartment and raped and is forced to moan into a portable tape player while the rapist forces a blade into her mouth.The next morning she reports the attack to the police. Whilst they are interviewing her, Emily's neighbour, Andrea (Elizabeth Ashley), comes by to comfort her. Emily is so upset by the attack that she decides to move to a new apartment, but whilst moving out the mysterious man tries to attack her again – only, Andrea manages to stop him entering the apartment. However, Andrea is not all she seems. She has the tape recording of Emily's attack. It becomes apparent that she is in love with her – and had hired a violent rapist to make the recording; to turn her on and turn Emily against men, and into her arms. Unaware, Emily continues to see Andrea as a friend, and starts a relationship with the cop investigating her attack (Joseph Cortese). Andrea becomes increasingly unhinged, and takes to spying on Emily through a telescope ...This movie was apparently infamous as it was criticised for portraying gay people as psychotic and disturbed. But I didn't find that aspect to be true in this movie's case because anyone can be psychotic gay or straight people.But it's none of these reasons why I dislike this movie so much, I dislike this movie simply because it was dull, to be honest I'm surprised Talia Shire even had a career after this mess, talk about a bad choice. This movie was just distasteful through and through, I mean even the final showdown was incredibly dull and pointless. (All we get is a slap across the face), talk about exciting and that copper he was dull as dishwater and him and Talia Shire had no chemistry between them, and lastly Elizabeth Ashley I just found her laughable in this and not convincing at all.All in all it's understandable why this movie is so hard to find is because it's just bad and should stay locked away forever.