Rope | James Stewart | Hitchcock scores again.

Rope | James Stewart | early masterpiece

DVDs:

Rope

	Rope James Stewart Warner Bros. Pictures, 2006 average customer review:based on 128 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Hitchcock scores again.

Hitchcock's Rope is a great movie. It's a great plot and wonderful Hitchcock suspense. This is also a very experimental film in Hitchcock's cinematography. You see, this film was made up of 10 minute takes where the camara never cuts. It just follows the charactars around. Hitchcock used this technique to make it more suspenseful and, I guess, to make it seem that you were in the building where it takes place. The plot is where two students take the incomperable James Stewart's lecture on Nietzche's theories where the intellectuals could kill without being caught because they were smart and the two students kill a fellow classmate, Bentley, for intellectual thrills. After that, they throw a dinner party for Bentley's parents and their teacher, James Stewart. When Bentley doesn't show, the two killers engage in a conversation about the perfect murder which makes Stewart's charactar suspicious. It's a classic film that showcases the immeasurable talent of not only Alfred Hitchcock, but the great James Stewart. This movie has great moments all around, especially the scene where the two charactars strangle poor Bentley. This is a great Hitchcock classic that you should definatley see today.

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early masterpiece

"ROPE" was one of Hitchcock's early masterpieces. it was also Hitchcock's first attempt at a new pioneering technique in filmmaking. the technique consisted of shooting the film in 10 minute takes to achieve the effect of one long uninterrupted sequence. he was semi-successful. upon viewing the film one will realize why. however, the film still remains a powerful experiment in the macabre. with innuendos of homosexuality and the deranged misguided philosophy of Freidrich Nietzche rampant throughout, the film's sinister premise (loosely based on the famous 1924 Loeb-Leopold murder case) make it an essential part of any Hitchcock fan's library.

as for the DVD, the picture manifests some signs of age but is overall good. the audio is mono but is excellent for a film over 56 years old. the extras include an excellent documentary entitled "Rope Unleashed".

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Not a second too long

This was an important cinematic experiment, and a gem in Hitchcock's collection. Still, I have to say thank God it was only an hour and a half; not that its premise gets old quickly, but any premise is bound to age considerably over the course of a single, hour-and-a-half-long scene.

Basically - in a scenario _very_ loosely based on the Leopold-Loeb murder case - two young men murder a third and put his body in a trunk, minutes before hosting a dinner party, and they use the trunk as their table to serve the guests. Among these guests are the parents of the murdered boy, and a canny old teacher of theirs (played by Jimmy Stewart) who proves to be a threat. The gimmick is that the film seems to be shot in a single, fluid take; it's as though the audience isn't allowed to look away from this grotesque happening. Hitchcock used various tricks to disguise reel changes and so on.

Rope does have many weaknesses. The script is very good but not quite dynamic enough, considering that the movie is really all script, moving from one dialogue to another, mostly in a single room. Also, Jimmy Stewart's final monologue is a disaster far surpassing the idiot psychoanalyst's expostion in Psycho, making you want to slap him and destroying most of the film's emotional impact. Still, I can't give it less than four stars, just because it's such a unique and conceptually brilliant film. Just be warned that it should be appreciated on its own terms.

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Measure your words carefully. They may be taken seriously

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Format: Color
Studio: Universal Studios
Video Release Date: May 23, 1995

Cast:

James Stewart ... Rupert Cadell
John Dall ... Brandon Shaw
Farley Granger ... Phillip Morgan
Cedric Hardwicke ... Mr. Kentley
Constance Collier ... Mrs. Atwater
Douglas Dick ... Kenneth Lawrence
Edith Evanson ... Mrs. Wilson
Dick Hogan ... David Kentley
Joan Chandler ... Janet Walker
Alfred Hitchcock ... Man walking in street after opening credits
The Three Suns ... Group cast appearance (radio sequence)

Two young men decide to kill a friend for kicks. ala Leopold and Loeb, because one of them, Brandon Shaw (John Dall) thinks he is a superior human being, and above the rules, and the victim is inferior and therefore fair game. He quotes a former professor, Rupert Cadell (James Stewart) who has verbalized such a proposition in class.

They do, indeed, strangle the other young man, David Kentley (Dick Hogan), place his body in a trunk, and then throw a party to which they invite Bentley's parents, his girl friend, Prof. Cadell and others, and serve food and drinks from the trunk in which the body lies. Cadell, a bright man, realizes that something funny is going on and investigates.

This is an entertaining movie. Hitchcock. the director, admitted that he made the film on a lark, and that it was not a serious endeavor, but given his genius it came out very well anyway. It rates 4 stars with me, at least.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre

author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books

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The Dawn of a New Genre: Suspense

Suspense is a genre that today's many films are categorized into. Different than horror, the audience looks for elongated moments of tension, created by increased curiosity. But this whole genre should be tributed to Alfred Hitchcock, who told us that one's nerves could be tested to unconventional limits without the showing of blood-sucking vampires, or slice-and-dicing killers.

The whole movie, but the whole of it, is acted in a single room: a living room. That may seem odd at first. However, the acting is done so well, that you won't be thinking of that detail as the suspense climbs on. The film is about two young gentlemen, who have a hard time hiding their victim in a closed chest at the time when they have guests at home. The feeling of guilt, as in all Hitchcock movies, will cause our main characters to feel uncomfortable and at stress, which will cause tension among the other characters and them.

'Rope' may not have many modern techniques that we are used to nowadays; but it definitely provides the suspense elements, that contemporary suspense films are based onto. I recommend this movie to every suspense-lover, but especially to those who are aiming to get sophisticated about where the roots of suspense came from.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, page 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

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