Rope

Steyn Online ^ | 25 Jan 2020 | Kathy Shaidle

[Rummyfan]

Last week I took a poke at the beloved leftist slogan, "Words can kill."

Yet it occurred to me later that many conservatives espouse a similar belief:

That, as Richard M. Weaver declared in his eponymous 1948 book, "ideas have consequences."

I'll leave it those smarter than I to crack this apparent paradox. I'm just the movie chick around here, so let's look at a film that explores such notions.

Released the same year as Weaver's masterwork, Alfred Hitchcock's Rope was long regarded as one of his lesser efforts, a mere gimmicky curio.

It's a film shot in what we're meant to understand is one long take, the better to recreate the experience of watching a stage play (which Rope originally was).

But that feat was unachievable in those days, when a Technicolor camera's film cartridges had to be replaced every ten minutes. Therefore, Hitchcock set himself a personal challenge: to employ the fewest cuts possible, defying his own creative instincts and putting aside his signature staccato technique.

[Rummyfan]

[miss marmelstein]

Worst film critic in the world. Is Steyn having it off with her or what?

[Dr. Sivana]

Well she’s absolutely right about Jimmy Stewart’s final speech being a completely unconvincing non-starter. It is in the same league with Spencer Tracy’s final speech in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”. “Rope!” was not a very good movie.

[Cecily]

Agreed. I used to click on “Mark at the Movies” articles automatically because Mark always wrote them. I have learned to check for the author’s name first.

[BBB333]

The movie: Russian Ark is 90 minutes and ONE take.

Remarkable as the battery had to be changed in the camera without it stopping...

Have to agree that Rope is a tad boring...

[relictele]

The film discussion is pretext for the real subject of the article - the gay mafia with tactics to match.

Shaidle has been unafraid and unflinching in her opposition to and condemnation of the buggery brigade even as many on ‘our’ side have meekly surrendered and even adopted terms like ‘homophobia.’

It’s cost her gigs but she keeps fighting.

[csvset]

Looks like it’s available on YouTube.

[\/\/ayne]

But a very disturbing movie.

[allendale]

Hitchcock was a Catholic. In the post war period of moral confusion and relativism, serious Catholics felt it incumbent to clearly define good and evil and saw great danger in the fashionable moral ambiguity of the times. Hitchcock was an artist influenced by Chesterton and would not have had much quarrel with the preachings of Bishop Sheen. Sadly as we now know, in the flush of America’s material prosperity, as in prior historical epochs, the moral relativists with their seductive message have won the day and the culture now rots. As Hitchcock himself says “Rope” failed. The murderers lived and went unpunished. The moral ambiguity which caused grave harm to the family of the deceased and society in fact ultimately triumphs in the film. Hitchcock himself said the film failed because the horror of that “triumph” was not recognized by audiences

[Texas Eagle]

Of all the partygoers, the murderers — supercilious Brandon (John Dall) and sensitive Philip (Farley Granger) — are especially fond of Rupert Cadell (Jimmy Stewart), who taught all three boys at prep school, feeding them underdone Nietzsche by the spoonful:

Intellectually superior people (like themselves, natch) were above the law, Cadell instructed them. Even murder was acceptable, if the victim was an inferior

Wow. Does that remind you of anyone these days?

[normbal]

Never forget: Today’s “fringe belief” is tomorrow’s social policy“

While I’ve never seen this Hitchcock film (I’m not generally a fan, maybe only ever watched a handful of them and for the most part find them eminently forgettable), this deconstruction, review in the context
the writer is using (pseudointellectuals, “intelligentsia” making their own rules based on, well, their self-inflated sense of superiority because they’re smarter than everyone else, their narcissism tells them this... wanna see this writ large, look at Lt. Col Alexander Vindman, or the traitorous intel. analysts Reality Winner or Bradley Manning among others), how the left (outright progressive communists, homoleftists, feminazis, et. al) through infiltration, “social norming” is destroying the fundamentals of western culture which have defined, defended and created conditions to allow our natural rights to flourish and maintain a functional society (IMHO among many others’) leaving chaos, disease, destruction, open contempt for law and citizens over “feelings” and illegal aliens, perpetually pandering to smaller fragments of “victim groups” while ignoring the plight of the majority, or the other “minorities” they’ve left behind in democrat-held third world hellholes like Baltimore, DC, Detroit, Chicago, SE Los Angeles, etc.

Great read, enjoyed it. Five minutes reading saved time which would be wasted watching yet another morally ambiguous self-serving intellectual masturbation film.

Never forget: Today’s “fringe belief” is tomorrow’s social policy“
While I’ve never seen this Hitchcock film (I’m not generally a fan, maybe only ever watched a handful of them and for the most part find them eminently forgettable), this deconstruction, review in the context
the writer is using (pseudointellectuals, “intelligentsia” making their own rules based on, well, their self-inflated sense of superiority because they’re smarter than everyone else, their narcissism tells them this... wanna see this writ large, look at Lt. Col Alexander Vindman, or the traitorous intel. analysts Reality Winner or Bradley Manning among others), how the left (outright progressive communists, homoleftists, feminazis, et. al) through infiltration, “social norming” is destroying the fundamentals of western culture which have defined, defended and created conditions to allow our natural rights to flourish and maintain a functional society (IMHO among many others’) leaving chaos, disease, destruction, open contempt for law and citizens over “feelings” and illegal aliens, perpetually pandering to smaller fragments of “victim groups” while ignoring the plight of the majority, or the other “minorities” they’ve left behind in democrat-held third world hellholes like Baltimore, DC, Detroit, Chicago, SE Los Angeles, etc.

I could go on, but I got stuff to do.

I think there’s a Stargate SF1 marathon going on somewhere...

[PGalt]

No wonder Rope became a foundational queer film studies...

Meaning unusual or GAY?

"Words can kill."

And destroy a civilization.

Sure they can, sexist, racist, deplorable, infidel.

Don't let your "toxic masculinity" offend anyone.

(paraphrasing Rand) Definitions are the guardians of reason and logic.

[Texas Eagle]

From another FR thread.....

At the recent national championship game between Louisiana State and Clemson, a picture was taken of actor Vince Vaughn shaking hands with President Donald Trump as the two watched the game from a private box at the Superdome in New Orleans. Someone posted it on the internet and the left-wing social media went nuts against Vaughn. How dare he “humanize” Trump!

Prayers up for President Trump. Who knows how many John Hinckleys there are out there who buy into this "underdone Nietzsche" crap.

[P.O.E.]

I also liked the long take in Goodfellas where they walk into the nightclub. IIRC, Scorcese meant it as an homage to Hitchcock.

[JimRed]

ROPE- every prison cell should have one. For voluntary prison crowding reductions.

[miss marmelstein]

Says you.

[Savage Beast]

'Infamously, these killers fancied themselves authentic, un-catchable "Nietzschean Supermen" and therefore not only above the law, but the arbiters of a new and better one, in which God was dead, and "superiors" had the right to murder inferiors.'

This is the fundamental message of Rope. This is the message to which contemporary Americans should pay attention. This is a description of the US left--the "liberals" or "progressives" or whatever their nom du jour happens to be.

These are the people who tried to frame Donald Trump for a non-existent crime, who tried to destroy him and his family, who attempted to nullify the 2016 Presidential Election and steal the votes of the American Citizens who voted for President Trump, who spend 3 years trying to destroy him and ultimately resorted to this bogus "impeachment," who attempted to stage a coup d'état in the USA.

Incidentally, I remember seeing Rope years ago, when I was too young to understand what it was all about. I was bored. I completely missed the homosexual part; that was beyond me.

However, I remembered the beautiful and disturbing music. It continued to circulate in my mind all through the years. Not long ago, I decided to find out what that music was. It required quite a search.

The music is Perpetuel No.1 by Francis Poulenc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMidjL1GAw8&t=31s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pNT7pyXtwQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=_pNT7pyXtwQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMidjL1GAw8

If anyone is unfamiliar with Poulenc's music, two wonderful discoveries await you:

1. The Gloria: This is been one of my favorites most of my life. The "Tu solus altissimus" is heartbreakingly beautiful. My first recording included a French chorus--unfortunately I can't remember the name. The Latin sung with a beautiful French accent is sublime.

2. Dialogues des Carmélites (Dialogues of the Carmelites): This excellent opera was performed at the Met in the 2019 season. Not only is the music powerful, but the entire opus is a display and a study of the horrors of the French Revolution and their meaning for all time. Specifically, this serves as a warning not to empower such self-appointed "Nietzschean Supermen" about whom Rope warns.

Thus, we have two works of art warning us about the dangers of "Nietzschean Supermen": Rope and Dialogues des Carmélites. The wise heed such warnings.

And again, for those who don't know Poulenc's music, a discovery awaits you.

[BEJ]

Rope is based on real life characters and has a homosexual and philosophical subtext. The subtleties are missing and even if the unconventional, anti social lifestyle and amorality of thinkers (perhaps ranging from Plato to Nietzsche) were captured for the audience, they would never know nor even care to know. This was the 1950s and Jimmy Stewart is a better as an everyday common man than as a Socrates talking to his bisexual student Alcibiades. It’s surprising that Hitchcock wouldn’t know of these problems before making the movie.

[Sans-Culotte]

While I don't consider it one of the master's best films, I do think Rope is an interesting and effective film. I think it is quite clear to Stewart's character that he knows he shares some guilt for what he taught the young men, but that he did not expect them to act upon abstract concepts. He essentially condemns what he taught them. I think the film is a good way to dramatize the Leopold/Loeb case in a fairly short time. The real Leopold and Loeb also took Nietschean philosophy too far. Nietsche is taught in philosophy classes today and it does not regularly turn out Leopold and Loebs.

Also it is quite clear that the two young men will pay for their crime at the end of the film. Stewart flatly tells them "you're going to die!". He shoots the revolver several times out the window, and the approaching police siren can be heard as Brandon calmly makes himself a drink, still impervious to any human feeling.

Maybe it has been a long time since she saw it?The "one long take" concept may seem like a gimmick, but it reinforces the fact that the film takes place in real time, much like the current film 1917 does.