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The Ruling Class
Is the movie more social commentary or emotional manipulation?

The Ruling Class

oag
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Posted 07/14/09 - 11:33 AM: Subject: The Ruling Class	#1
A very basic outline of the movie The Ruling Class is that we meet a young lord (Peter O'Toole) and heir who believes that he is Jesus Christ. He is charming, delightful and loving but an embarrassment to his family. He is "cured" of his delusion and instead becomes a dark, brooding murderer. Since he is a lord though he remains above suspicion and reproach. After watching that movie for the first time I felt like I'd been sucker punched in the gut. The contrast between the "sick" lord who sang and danced and professed love for everyone and the "cured" lord who was an amoral murderer with a mind full of death was obvious and contrived but very effective, IMHO. However, more than a commentary on what we, the audience consider to be a difference between diseased and cured in the main character is the underlying theme of the disease which permeates the ruling class. While you are busy watching the story of the young lord unfold you might not notice just how sick the background characters are. It isn't necessarily their fault either. I think the premise is designed to indict the whole system as sick and the plot device that the "cured" lord is accepted as one of them is brilliant. I'd be interested to hear other people's reactions and takes on the movie. I think it is a brilliant work of art.

oag
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Posted 07/15/09 - 07:07 PM:	#2
What? Has nobody else seen this movie? Philistines!

BitterCrank
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Posted 07/15/09 - 10:18 PM:	#3
Hey, wait a minute. We're not all Philistines (maybe). I'm glad you liked The Ruling Class, it is one of my favorites, but you know, that movie came out a long time ago (in the 70s) and it isn't showing at a theater near anybody. It is, of course, a comedy and works with stereotypes that a British audience would be more sensitive to than people like me. It's probably even more delicious for them. Try to find the movie IF. Its set in a private school and came out roughly around the same time as The Ruling Class. Another good one from that vintage and genre (sort of) (maybe it was a little earlier) is Oh What A Lovely War, which is set during the first world war. That came out in 1968 or 1969. There were many scenes I liked, the near-suffocation method of heightening orgasm (I assume that's what the old Lord was doing) and the butler's happy reaction was extra good. I also liked the scene in the House of Lords where the old members of the upper house turned into moldering corpses for a few seconds. Rich! The British just know how to do this kind of movie better than we do.
Everything begins in mysticism and ends in politics.

oag
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Posted 07/16/09 - 08:38 AM:	#4
Do you think the British ruling class is all that different from ours? I think the social commentary works for any society where the rulers take themselves too seriously. I just think movie is one of the best examples of making us question our perceptions of what is acceptable, normal, proper behavior and what is considered sick. The other movie that did a great job of posing the question was Being There. Here we have a simple man telling stories or parables about gardening and everyone reads brilliant insight into them. Toward the end of the movie they are considering a candidacy for president and in the very end our hero, the idiot, walks on water. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what the movie is trying to suggest about our leaders, up to and including Christ. That movie is more of an indictment of the cult of personality than of the social structure surrounding the ruling class but it makes a similar attack from a different angle as the Ruling Class does. Yes, these movies are older but I have a hard time finding current social commentary in movies that runs as deeply or effects me as profoundly. For social satire one has to view indie films these days.

cowpoke
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Posted 07/18/09 - 03:20 PM:	#5
If anyone is looking for a copy of "If", I have one. That was one mind-bending film at the time.
A horse can find the water faster than you can.

gjieanfrancko
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Posted 09/08/09 - 10:30 AM:	#6
Just got around seeing this film a few days ago, one of the best comedies i ve seen. To me, the Dr. is the voice of reason in the film. He is analytical and precise, but humble enough to acknowledge when another character has made him realize something. And Dr's are usually portrayed as know-it-alls. The butler makes him realize that jacks behavior is not such a big deal because he was born into royalty/wealth and never really had to work. And when you have money/power you can pretty much do as you please and get away with anything. So it justifies his schitzo behavior, there is a saying: "if your poor your crazy, if your rich your eccentric(example: Howard Hughes). Jack makes the Dr. realize that since the "ruling class" knows that he is "cured". That the Dr. would be seen as a madman/crazy if he was to kill or make claims that Jack killed Lady Claire Gurney. This film has so many themes and ideas that you can write a thesis paper on it.

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