Dead Poets

I wrote an essay for this movie in senior English, and after the class was rebuked for their poor performances, I was given a higher grade. I turned this in early and was told it wasn't up to scratch, I, for some reason, needed help to fix it but I have no idea what I did other than move a few paragraphs around and did well. I did well in English, not English lit. I knew the Thoreu* passage, I ironically had to pick apart Frost at a tertiary level. I'm not a big poetry fan, I'm kind of a movie fan and I like this movie. It's fun for what could be considered something stuffy and inaccessible. You couldn't get many guys to watch this now, which sucks. I appreciate most blokes hold Shawshank up as their favourite movie about men. I think they don't appreciate one about boys becoming men through poetry and art, who find the elixir of life through destroying the status-quo, in the wilderness no less. They could surely identify with being contained in a society that did not permit expression of self or soul. Weir appreciated the zest of raging hormones barely contained but didn't take it to such debauchery you'd end up with an American Pie prototype. The artful camera work in such a confined space as the cave and the dorm rooms is spectacular in its intent, it stirs excitement within. There are some brilliant extended rotating shots with so much energy infused it makes you dizzy.

We didn't encourage boys to like literature and we still don't, which is bullshit. Cultivating the art in younger students itself seems to be a dying process as much as poetry might die quicker than prose. Getting poetry out there is often harder, I think self-publishing was probably vital to some people, except those assholes who stole Vines and passed them off as modern poetry. 

I feel like this should be essential viewing in school still. If they're not giving it for English, that's stupid and sad. Ethan Hawke practically gets acting lessons from Robin Williams, who was settling into dramatic roles with more gusto than comedy. We were spoiled to have seen him in those days at his pique without knowing how much he suffered, it was tough explaining to people how hard that hit the Gen X/Millennial fan base, by then to the kids he was just some old guy that made your parents laugh a lot. He still makes us laugh a lot. 

And yes, there is a non-consensual head kiss in there but it's really not that perverted. That still falls on deaf ears anyway.

*He lived in a shack in the woods but came from money, he wasn't that revolutionary. No more than the Unabomber.

Saltburn - that's not how we eat the rich, but you do you.

I passed on Promising Young Woman because of my inability to cope with movies concerning main characters being accused of creating false allegations. I don't like witnessing the injustice of an antagonist winning favour with the protagonist's friends and family or persecuting the protagonist with lies they can't disprove. (See: Changeling. I will never make it through that movie). When you have characters effectively gaslighting or denying the protagonist's lived experiences, I can't cope even if there's a chance the hero will be vindicated.

But I did want to watch Saltburn for how intriguing the trailer looked. The dialogue's fun if you're used to sarcastic British humour, the characters seem interesting and their motivations aren't all obvious. But I got lost where it became apparent Oliver was intending to steal all of Saltburn for himself. It's taken me over a week to realise where his intentions were birthed, but he's not a poor kid, he's on a scholarship to Oxford but comes from a fairly well-off family. I realise now the enticement grows during his stay, however once we know he's orchestrated the infiltration into Felix's life very early on, I wasn't entirely convinced of Oliver's actual motivations. He loves and hates Felix in the most obsessive, Machiavellian way. Does he want Felix and Saltburn for himself, and when Felix realises who he is and the extent of Oliver's lies, he's cut off from Felix and has to scramble to keep at least one? 

We're led to believe Felix is an arrogant asshole who uses boys every summer by inviting them to Saltburn for his own amusement and to show off his wealth, yet he's hardly as awful as Oliver, or the cousin Farleigh, who's convinced he belongs on the estate and he will get it back one day, his aunt shunned by the family and cut off from their wealth. Oliver manipulates Farleigh and Venesia, Felix's sister, as part of the plan, the two on to Oliver much early on and there to antagonise him despite being enticed by him anyway. Oliver practically enchants the mother, Elspeth, who is a catty woman behind closed doors but maintains propriety where required and shepherds the father James in his apparent obliviousness. It transpires James has noticed much more disturbing aspects of Oliver's behaviour but he struggles to exile Oliver after his immediate family's destroyed. Elspeth loves Oliver noticing the certain unfavourable aspects of others she can't voice without consensus. (There's this classic thing Brits do where they latch on to anyone who agrees with something they know isn't a popular opinion, it's more than "Oh, I thought it was just me." It's always "I knew there was something off about them." They crave permission and confirmation to speak ill of people with others, it's not exclusive but it's prolific with even the middle class Brits).

The red curtain scene's forever etched on my mind. The "carry on, regardless" mentality and its toxicity of it when emotions come to the surface, it's all perfectly executed behind closed curtains. The intense red lighting makes it more impactful and still lights the scene that would otherwise be shadowy, but we're deep in the hell of their grief and anger, and Oliver uses the tension against Farleigh to finally vanquish him. Before that, he's taken other measures but it wasn't enough. But if you want an example of what British stiff-upperlipedness does to people, watch this scene. Every repressed grievance comes to the surface, everyone's in visible pain from the discomfort, nobody can defuse the situation but they also can't leave and are forced to keep "carrying on". (I now know why I fucking hate that meme so much, people don't get the history of it, the demand to keep going through inexcusable torment). Farleigh is actually very lucky to be kicked out even if he knows it's the end of his access to Saltburn, least he can leave the fucking room. Oliver listens in on arguments during the film but this is it all "coming to a head". Growing up in families where expressing even a modicum of anger or pain or sadness could be punished, and being raised by people forced to endure the same, this scene hits so much harder than it might someone from the US or someone who at least knew what was going on and was free to be honest and argumentative. You can joke about keeping up appearances, it's entirely at the cost of one's mental health.

I wasn't happy with Oliver's ending, which took far too long to reach. Everything he does seems so overt it seems impossible he would manage to do all he could without being found out. His fingerprints are on everything, but as long as he can maintain the pretense, nobody questions it. Farleigh could probably find evidence Oliver was manipulating Elspeth into signing everything over, it comes off like a master plan but there still seems to be impulsive, unplanned moments, so I can only assume Oliver's endgame develops over time, he's not taken one look at Felix and his wealth and possessions and decided to take it all before he even reaches Saltburn, he becomes covetous as he's led through the house, Felix the focal point of this shot so we personally can't see anything. If you visit an English mansion, there are so many superfluous rooms connected to one another can genuinely get lost, Felix doesn't speak of them as being important, it's all, "this is the blue room" and so on. I found the anachronistic nature of the modern family in this antiquated home more interesting, they're all living with mod-cons (modern conveniences) while leaving all the paintings and ornaments and busts still in place to be perpetually dusted by the help, the head of which detests Oliver as well. I like how the family lounges around and accepts the hedonism afforded to them now while still dressing for dinner. They take breakfast with relative civility, and lunch. So when there's a disruption, they still have to sit down to their usual meal and make out as if there isn't a body stuck in the maze outside because the police keep getting lost, something farcical you can only get from dry, sardonic British humour. That the Cattons even refuse to assist the cops in this moment speaks to their privilege and unwillingness to deal with the reality of the situation. There's a severe, long Dutch angle shot that captures the initial commotion, Elspeth deciding they can't remain and wallow, it's nearly lunchtime. We can't disrupt the status-quo even in a moment of abject horror and chaos.

I don't think the owners of Saltburn are any worse than most aristocrats. They're not evil, just snobbish, so asking me to side with Oliver's plan when it's coming to fruition is too much for me. The family isn't necessarily harming anyone but they aren't helping anything by hoarding their wealth. The problem is, Oliver then hoards it for himself and dances in naked glee as we finally get to see the spoils of his plan. He's not doing it to feed the poor, just himself, and he wasn't poor in the first place. Felix exposes Oliver's normal parents who are very much not drug-dealers (or dead, as in the case of his father). I even asked my mum if Prescot is a richer suburb than where she grew up in Liverpool, and I have family there we visited, it's upper-middle class. I love the Cattons don't know where Liverpool is relative to where they live, they just know it's a working class city, so Oliver's lies make sense when they're expressed. He wasn't abused, I felt like I needed more from him than simple envy and desire to steal from the Cattons and make Saltburn his. He has to wait years to execute the last part because he's kicked out and bribed to stay away. I kind of want to watch it again but I can't tell if I like it. I probably should just to pick up on whatever subtleties I missed, even after I went to Wikipedia to find more of a solid crux of Oliver's plan, it wasn't there, it wasn't evident for it to be missed. But maybe there's something else. Like I said, it took me a week to realise this is an evolving desire of Oliver's based on his initial obsession and desire of Felix. If he can't have Saltburn and Felix, he'll settle for Saltburn.

Yeah, I was also grossed out by the drain scene and the "vampire" scene and the grave scene, but those weren't the things that made me tense. The fucking red curtain scene was my ick moment.