If you have the misfortune to visit Instagram frequently, you may have been bombarded with ads for one of the biggest hits of 2023 last fall, “Saltburn.” I always take notice of new releases, because I’m constantly on the lookout for potential topics for “Latest vs. the Greatest” articles. This film caught my attention because I hadn’t heard of it before but recognized a few of the actors in the cast.
The trailer is bewitching and awful. The dark lighting, garish reds, bizarre camera angles, and suggestive clips saturate the screen with a thoroughly depraved atmosphere. It’s a weird blend of gothic horror and black humor. Very little of the plot is revealed by the trailer, which was intentional, but the film itself is even more twisted than the trailer suggests.
The Latest
“Saltburn” premiered on Aug. 31, 2023, at the Telluride Film Festival, but it was released on Nov. 17 throughout the United Kingdom and in limited theaters in the United States, before receiving its major theatrical release on Nov. 22. On Dec. 22, it began streaming on Amazon Prime Video.Its daring director, Emerald Fennell, also wrote the original script. Emerald Fennell, Josey McNamara, and Margot Robbie produced this British film. Its production companies were Metro Goldwyn-Mayer, MRC, Lie Still, and Lucky Chap Entertainment. The movie stars Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, and Archie Madekwe.
“Saltburn” begins in 2006 at the University of Oxford, where students Oliver Quick (Keoghan) and Felix Catton (Elordi) strike up a friendship. Felix is a popular, wealthy young man from an affluent family, and Oliver is a scholarship student who earns Felix’s sympathy by telling him about his impoverished parents’ mental health issues and substance abuse. When Oliver’s father dies, Felix invites him to spend the summer at his family’s country estate, Saltburn. There, Oliver endears himself to Felix’s eccentric parents, Lady Elspeth (Pike) and Sir James (Grant), his sister, Venetia (Oliver), and Elspeth’s friend Pamela (Mulligan). One person who strongly resents his presence at Saltburn, however, is Farleigh Start (Madekwe), Felix’s American cousin, a fellow Oxford student who hates him at school, too. Little does the family realize that Oliver has been lying to them about his background and that dark purposes motivate all his actions.
The Greatest
“Strangers on a Train” is one of the less popular movies by acclaimed filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock produced and directed the film. This Warner Bros. picture was based on the 1950 novel of the same name by first-time author Patricia Highsmith. The adaptation was done by Whitfield Cook, and the screenplay was written by Raymond Chandler and Czenzi Ormonde. Farley Granger and Robert Walker play the titular strangers, and Ruth Roman is the leading lady. This film was also a financial success but received mixed reviews upon its initial release. It was nominated for Best Cinematography at the Academy Awards, Outstanding Directing–Feature Film at the Directors Guild of America Awards, and Best Film at the National Board of Review Awards.
Famous tennis player Guy Haines (Granger) encounters a much-too-attentive fan, Bruno Antony (Walker), on a train trip. Guy doesn’t want to be rude, but Bruno’s persistent conversation with him begins to make him uncomfortable. During their discussion, Bruno tells Guy his idea for a perfect double murder, where strangers would exchange victims and thus have no apparent motive. He illustrates the idea by suggesting that Guy could murder his hated father, while he could eliminate Guy’s unfaithful wife, Miriam (Kasey Rogers). She is currently expecting another man’s child, but she refuses to grant him a divorce. During their separation, Guy has fallen in love with a senator’s daughter, Anne Morton (Roman), who actually cares about him. However, he doesn’t take Bruno’s violent suggestion seriously. His world plunges into turmoil when the stranger puts his ruthless plan into action, making Guy a prime murder suspect.
Both “Saltburn” and “Strangers on a Train” have been described as psychological thrillers. Both are about two young men who meet in casual circumstances but end up getting dangerously involved in each other’s lives. Neither Felix in the new film nor Guy in the older movie realizes how dangerous the other man is. However, Felix and Oliver are good friends before the former discovers the truth, whereas Guy mistrusts Bruno as soon as he meets him. Although Bruno reveals his psychopathic nature much earlier in “Strangers” than Oliver does in “Saltburn,” he too succeeds in charming groups of strangers into liking him with a put-on suave personality. Nevertheless, Bruno Antony reveals himself to be a bit off, both to Guy and to the audience, in his first scene, whereas Oliver is a conniving schemer who tricks people into trusting him. Bruno talks about committing a perfect crime, but Oliver succeeds in literally getting away with murder.
The Code and the Closet
One of the most widely discussed elements of “Strangers on a Train” is the implied attraction between Bruno and Guy. Bruno’s lack of a female love interest, attachment to his doting mother, and resentment for his masculine father hint that this character could have homosexual tendencies. However, since this film was made in 1951, such a subtext couldn’t be more than very subtly implied or hinted. In the early 1950s, in addition to the laws against such unnatural relationships, the Motion Picture Production Code forbade the inclusion of perversion in films. Unfortunately, the Code no longer leads films to the right path, so Oliver’s lust toward Felix is an important part of “Saltburn,” conveyed very explicitly.In today’s world, it’s difficult to imagine a time when it was safe to assume that two bachelors might just be friends. It’s also a struggle to remember that a psychological thriller doesn’t need blood to be exciting. “Strangers on a Train” is proof of both possibilities. To me, Bruno is an immature psychopath who isn’t interested in anything but playing vicious games with another boy, like a spoiled child. If you want to read something more into the character, you must do so through a very thick closet door.
Unlike “Saltburn,” “Strangers on a Train” is an intelligent, well-crafted plot which shows the futility of crime and the danger of dishonesty, and it doesn’t allow evil to win in the end.
