review

ROPEAlfred Hitchcock

Words... Adam ScovellDesign... Avalon Lyndon

One of Hitchcock’s most experimental films, Rope contains all the ingredients that came to define his mid period, while at the same time seeming weirdly at odds with them. The first thing to note about this rather twisted affair is its composition. Unlike pretty much any other Hitchcock film, the shots are extremely long in length, giving it the feel of a stage play. With it being based on Patrick Hamilton’s play, this, of course, comes naturally. But it could easily have been made in a similar vein to Rear Window or Vertigo. However, Rope veers from the path of the typical Hitchcock and enters the sort of territory that Béla Tarr consistently inhabits: real-time length in scenes that engulf and trap the viewer in whatever world seems fit.

“Rope has aged extremely well.”

Rope follows the dinner party of two old classmates, Brandon and Phillip. Opening with them committing a murder - strangling a man, David, with a length of rope - we then follow the party they hold straight after the killing as a dénouement to their actions. Hiding David’s body in a chest on which they place their buffet, the two men are determined to put

themselves in danger of being caught, addicted to the thrill of the murder. They add to this by inviting the victim’s parents, the woman who loves him and her ex-boyfriend along. Brandon, the more sadistic of the two, is determined to play match-maker in the dead man’s absence. John Dall and Farley Granger are magnificent as the two higher men and the homoerotic undertones

on feeling superior to their fellow man, born out of beliefs instilled into them when they were young. This is what makes it so subtly horrific. More than any other Hitchcock film, Rope leans into the academic side of philosophy and psychology. The narrative looks into whether the men’s actions can be justified, putting Nietzsche’s Ubermensch theory to the

give the film a timeless and modern feel. Rope has aged extremely well. What makes this film so compelling and disturbing is its deliciously macabre dialogue, verging on almost sexual ecstasy when the murder is discussed. There’s no specific reason for the men’s actions – no motive of money or revenge. It’s a simple power play of two men adamant

test. Defending the ideology that the Nazis twisted to excuse genocide, Brandon brings up the subject in front of David’s parents. He tries to justify his and Phillip’s actions, even though they’re completely unaware of what’s gone on. But these beliefs haven’t sprung from just anywhere. The final guest to the party is their old school master, Rupert Cadell, played brilliantly by James Stewart. At first, Rupert is blasé about his views on murder, believing that they can be committed by the select few, pushing it into the boundary of fine art. He’s unaware of the susceptibility of his students, who have clearly taken these views to heart and put them into the most despicable of practices. Brandon has literally lived his old school master’s ideals to the very limit

and has shown them to be simply evil. Not only does Rope attack the justification of eugenics and most ideas of the super race shared by all sorts of fascism, it also defends Nietzsche’s original view and shames the cold, harsh logic of the true evil that twists it for its own purposes. This heavy, philosophical film is the most underrated and dense of Hitchcock’s works. Examining traits that are still uncomfortably present within our society today, it is a far more disturbing experience than transvestite murderers and hoards of vicious birds could ever provide.