MSCU Review: "The Ruling Class"

Lady Clair Gurney: "How do you know you're God?"

Lord Jack Gurney: "Simple. When I pray to Him, I find I am talking to myself."

When I sat down to watch this movie, I wasn’t sure what to expect. With only a recommendation from Dr Kluge (a man with eclectic tastes) and a bizarre Youtube trailer to colour my expectations, I doubted how much I would enjoy it. Now, after seeing the The Ruling Class, I can make an informed opinion – I really liked it.

This is a dark film. At first glance it may appear merely as light and quirky, but this changes quickly in the second act. The Ruling Class ends on a very dark and disturbing note. While I won’t completely divulge its ending here, let me just say that I haven’t been as disturbed by a film’s conclusion for quite some time.

But wait, I’m rushing things, let’s give a brief summation. After the sudden death of the 13th Earl of Gurney, the title is given to the late Earl’s young and mentally disturbed son, Jack Arnold Alexander Tancred Gurney (Peter O’Toole).

Jack is a special boy. He is thought to be insane because he believes himself to be Christ incarnate. As a result of this belief, the young lord Gurney spent a good portion of his life in a mental institution.

Without going too far into plot, Jack relatives decide to cure him of his 'affliction' by going to rather extreme measures. After being 'cured' Jack abandons his persona of love, charity and brotherhood for one of violence, punishment and retribution - he is pushed from one extreme to the other.

Within Jack's treatment and eventual transformation lies the biting social critique of the film. In the upper reaches of British society, a man who speaks of love and brotherhood is thought to be mad, but a man who speaks of punishment and retribution is lauded. Jack is transformed to resemble his society. Even though Jack is no more 'cured' at the end of the film than he was at the beginning, to the corrupt and violent British nobility, the new corrupt and violent Jack seems 'normal.'

Few movies end with evil vanquishing good. At the conclusion of The Ruling Class, however, Jack's darkest impulses have completely eradicated any sense of goodness left in him. Men receive the God they deserve. The British nobility deserve the wicked Jack. The film concludes with Jack's victory. He has draped himself a cloak of respectability and can now engage in the most wicked of acts without fear of punishment. British society, in essence, has killed Christ only to be left with Lucifer.

This pervasive darkness is what disturbed me the most. The first half of the movie is just so silly; characters burst out into song, Jack makes jokes and mostly plays the fool. The viewer becomes so used to the lightness of the first act that the darkness of the second act is chilling.

With a lesser actor the dichotomy between Jack's two personas could have been dreadful, but Peter O'Toole is magnificent in the role. O'Toole changes so dramatically in the second act that one tends to forget that the same actor played both roles. He is simply a wonder to behold in both roles. The fact that O'Toole for nominated in 1973 by the Academy for his role in The Ruling Class is a testament to performance.

All in all, The Ruling Class is a film worth watching. While I found that it did drag in places, it masterfully combines comedy and tragedy in a manner not often seen.

MSCU Rating: A