One way to read Saltburn is, like Parasite, as a film focused on economic class disparities. Felix and the Catton family represent the top-end ultra-wealthy. While Oliver is the rest of us. Even though it’s set in 2006/2007, it’s about now. Specifically, about the pursuit of style over substance. Style at the cost of substance. Emerald Fennell’s Oliver Quick is like American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman. No humanity, no morality. Simply a yearning. The end of Saltburn begins in the aftermath of Oliver’s successful takeover of Saltburn through the systematic annihilation of the Catton family. We do have the brief bit where Oliver provides exposition to Elsbeth before removing her breathing tube. It’s a continuation of the film’s opening where Oliver ponders if he was in love with Felix. Oliver explains that he actually hated Felix. “I hated all of you.” Early in the Oxford portion of Saltburn, Oliver reads an essay to his professor. Both the professor and Farleigh try to hide their extreme boredom. But Farleigh eventually criticizes Oliver for using “thus” four times. To which Oliver responds that Farlegih’s attacking the style rather than the substance.
Viewed this way, Saltburn becomes a story about the pursuit of style. It’s less a commentary on class dynamics (Parasite) and more a cautionary tale about the kind of person who would sacrifice all his/her substance in order to appear a certain way. American Psycho (2001) was originally a reaction to the Wall Street culture of the late-80s. American Psycho opts for hyperbole. Patrick Bateman serves as a kind of mythologized final-form for someone who belongs to that culture. A warning sign. A line not to cross. In Saltburn we can also infer that conniving superficiality is a recipe for success. In politics, on social media, in business. So a lot of what’s going on at the end of Saltburn has this style versus substance dynamic at its core. In the Greek mythology, Theseus is a seemingly heroic figure who kills a rival in a maze, then ditches the person who had helped him, and inherits an entire kingdom because he tricks his father into suicide.
Oliver Quick (a spectacular Barry Keoghan) is a seemingly likable guy who kills someone in a maze, then inherits an entire estate because he murders the people who had helped him. Likewise, in Nightcrawler (2014) Jake Gyllenhaal's character starts a small business, works hard to overcome fierce competition, and manages to maneuver his way to success. That’s the American dream, right? Except the character does this by lying, manipulating, and setting someone up to die. He’s actually despicable but thinks he’s a good guy. Nightcrawler makes the hero a villain and uses that to make a sharp criticism of modern capitalism and the kind of behavior and person it now rewards. The person who succeeds is no longer the one who does things the right way, the honest way. It’s the bad guy. Saltburn follows a similar pattern. It uses the Theseus myth but flips the hero into a villain. A broader commentary on the kind of person who is rising up in the world and how they’re getting there. Oliver presents himself as gentle and kind but is, behind the scenes, devious and irredeemable.
Oliver Quick is a new kind of figure. A Theseus for the 21st century. With terrifying implications. When Oliver brings down the Catton family and takes Saltburn for himself, you can view this as kind of a revolutionary message, both culturally and politically. But not all revolutions are good, right? As we said in the ending discussion, Oliver echoes the story of Theseus. But instead of the heroic figure, he’s the villain. This brings us back to the comparison to The Social Network. That film wasn’t saying all Millennial Internet entrepreneurs will be anti-social creeps. Just that there’s a cultural archetype that has been forming lately and that we should be aware of it.
No comments :
Post a Comment