Customer Reviews

Ruling Class [VHS]

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The Ruling Class achieves something that is almost completely unheard of in film comedy. It hits the ground running with an unforgettable cameo by the great Harry Andrews and almost never loses its kinetic pace for 2 1/2 hours. Peter O'Toole is best remembered as Lawrence Of Arabia and by later generations as the eccentric dandy in My Favorite Year & Creator. But in this gem of a "Only in the 70's" satirical comedy O'Toole gives what will probably rank as his best film performance. It is certainly the best script he has ever had to work with in his brilliant, if erratic, film career.

A star turn in every sense of the word, O'Toole is beatific, haughty, a song and dance man, warm, wise, petulant, frightened and VERY terrifying in his incarnation as Jack The Ripper. He is positively electric in the same way that the 1950-1954 era Brando was. Except that what is so marvelous about O'Toole here is his focus and articulate nature. When he's on top of his game, O'Toole comes across as the most intelligent and the most gloriously insane actor ever caught on film. Whether delivering a long speech or tossing off a one-liner, O'Toole makes Barnes' great words beautiful to hear.

And what a supporting cast! Alastair Sim was at the end of a magnificent career and this gave the actor a truly great send off as a bumbling, didactic Bishop. The scene where he feebly attempts to preside over O'Toole's nuptials is perhaps the most hilarious moment ever captured on film. Coral Browne and a host of great British character actors round out the flawless ensemble. And steering the ship with a steady hand is the underrated Peter Medak. Much like how Spike Jonze brought a dark, melancholy reality to Being John Malkovich, Medak deserves credit for maintaining a consistent reality to ground us in the world of these insane characters and circumstances.

The Ruling Class is almost peerless among screen comedies. Only the best of Buster Keaton, the Marx Bros. WC Fields, Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story and top-flight Preston Sturges can stand toe-to-toe with it. It was once noted that all great comedies are either very intelligent or incredibly low brow. The Ruling Class, along with those other giants of screen comedy, succeed in achieving both and make it look effortless.

I will eschew the plot summary which ye will find in other reviews above . . . as well as a few spoilers!

This is one of my favorite films that examines a number of issues, particularly what is "acceptable" in a religion. It is extremely well-cast, with Peter O'Toole turing in one of his best performances. It is a pleasure to watch Alister Sim--the best Scrooge ever--as a befuddled Anglican bishop. Fans of the Blackadder will enjoy seeing "Nursey" as a village busy-body who wishes to bring back flogging.

The DVD is a wonderful treatment. The US release--and subsequent videos--lacked some scenes lost for length. This is a film that is based on a play, and every character had a soliloquy--until someone cut them! Here, finally is the complete film. Visually, it is beautiful.

A big suprise is the "goodies." The running commentary includes the director, Peter Medak, the playwright/screen writer Peter Barnes, and even Peter O'Toole. It is an excellent addition to the movie rather than voices blathering about themselves.

The insert also has a nice essay from a British film professor.

Fans of the film need this DVD.

A review above complained it was not "funny." How one cannot laugh at Harry Andrews in a tutu, military garb, hanging himself in order to [CENSORED--Ed.] I do not know?! However, it is NOT a comedy. It is a play that has social satire, some comedy, a fair amount of farce and darkness and tragedy.

The only warning that I give is the DVD back-notes reveals some spoilers! If you have NOT seen the film or stumbl'd upon them in some reviews above, make sure you do not read the back!

The Ruling Class is a brilliant film, based on a brilliant play. The story is simple enough. The Earl of Gurney dies, his heir is mad, and thinks he is Jesus Christ. The other members of the family attempt to dislodge the new nutty earl so that they can keep the cash. Their attempts to commit the earl trace the flaws in the English class system with unpleasant accuracy and a great deal of sometimes very black humour. It all comes to a sticky and very black ending.

It says alot that Peter O'Toole is continually upstaged by just about everyone else in the cast. His Christ figure is very well delivered but, all in all, lacks some level of "humanness" that the other characters, particularly Arthur Lowe as the butler, have in abundance. Arthur Lowe literally steals scene after scene with one or two lines while the vast tracts of dialogue that O'Toole's character must deliver can quickly alienate a less than motivated viewer.

The above said, this can be a very funny film and is directed with enough aplomb that one is not continually reminded of the scripts start as a stage play. While it was obviously controversial when it was made and while the ideas it traces are just as pertinent now, somehow time seems to have dealt poorly with it and left it less a "searing indictment" and more of a historical curiosity.

The DVD master is brilliant, sharp and without any artifacting, and as one expects from Criterion, in the correct aspect ratio. If you want to see this film this is a magnificent way to do it.

As far as owning it goes, Arthur Lowe's performance will delight anyone with a sense of humour for years to come.

Quite highly recommended but a bit self indulgently black.

and those expectations were totally wrong. I read reviews that tried to be overly critical of exactly what was satirized in the film. I read the attempts to place this in its status as a classic film and to categorize it. All of that misled. In the first few minutes of the film, I began to understand what The Ruling Class was for me. It was (and is) a hilarious masterpiece. I came in with a little more plot knowledge than I wanted, but even with that extra knowledge of some of the big jokes, I found myself with a smile on my face for the majority of the film. It was intelligent enough to keep me occupied for it's 2 and 1/2 hours. It was eccentric enough to fit my tastes and to break out of the norm of so many movies that just don't stand up to multiple viewings (plus it completely changed my view of Peter O'Toole). This is a movie I will re-visit time and again.

"The Ruling Class" is the kind of sharp, intelligent, vicious satire that only the Brits can do this well. It is by turns, curious, silly, dry, sharp and nasty as a cat's litter box. The plot twists are as crazy as the main character, and the movie's theme, "the idle rich have a way of protecting themselves" is as pertinent today as it was in 1972. Indeed, this is the type of movie which could only be made in the 1970's, the last time when the authority structures and "the ruling classes" were regarded with general suspicion by the rest of society.
In a bravura performance which should have won him an Oscar, Peter O'Toole plays Jack Gurney, heir to an English earldom. There's only one problem: Jack is in the looney bin because he thinks he's Jesus Christ. The plot revolves around how the rest of Jack's relatives plan to "cure" him so he's just "sane" enough to inherit and then manipulate him to their own ends. Needless to say, sly, cynical jokes about religious and social hypocrisy are abundant, and they're all right on the money.
Like the very best of British satires, the more you bring to this movie, the more rewards it holds. A knowledge of Verdi operas, 19th Century French Romantic literature, English music hall traditions, and English public school songs will enhance one's enjoyment of this movie immeasurably, although none of it is necessary to appreciate the wit and silliness of what's going on here. Alistair Sim, as the nervous, confused and senile archbishop is a gem throughout, a man whose conflicts are all too obvious because they're all too human.
Eventually, Jack is "cured," and the change his personality undergoes is radical, to say the least. To tip it off would be to give things away, but its rather remarkable what the filmakers have to say is a socially acceptable alternative to wanting to be Jesus Christ.
Watch out for the ending of this movie. It's violent, vicious and totally uncompromising. It's meant to repel the viewer and does so effectively. Don't let that prevent you from enjoying the rest of all the brilliance and wit this film has in such abundance, however. Yes, the scene in Parliament is over-long, overdone and the one flaw in the movie, but, that aside, this film will make laugh, make you cry, make you think and make you angry, all at the same time. How many movies today can you think of that manage to do all that?

Jack may be an English Lord, but he's clearly nuts: he thinks he's Jesus Christ. And then he's "cured" and comes to believe that he is in fact Jack the Ripper. Peter Medak directs and Peter O'Toole stars in "THE RULING CLASS," an irreverent and hysterical black comedy from 1972 based on the notorious play by Peter Barnes. A truly outrageous film of ideas both caustic and urbane. The three brilliant Peters share the incredibly funny and insightful commentary track. This is the 154 minute director's cut. Cool extras include Medak's home movies shot during production. An esteemed cult classic that still delivers.

The Ruling Class remains a unique film in many ways. Totally iconoclastic, brilliantly concieved and executed, original in style and tone from start to finish, it is both hilarious and touching in its story of the 14th Earl of Gurney (played by Peter O'Toole) who believes himself to be Jesus Christ. The picture painted of the British upper classes is mercilessly biased but the comedy that is mined from their shallowness and greed is as funny as when the film was made. O'Toole's performance is delightful. He gets to do a little bit of everything in this film, including sing and dance. The cast of supporting players is brilliant, especially Alister Sim as a tongue tied Bishop trying to perform a wedding between 'Christ' and the bride picked for him by his family so they can control his fortune. Other standouts include such characters as 'The Master in Lunacy', who decides that the Earl is sane because he has the right school pretensions. The pivotal twist of the plot comes in the 'healing' sequence when the Earl is transformed from 'Christ' into 'Jack'. Unfortunately, the Jack in question is Jack the Ripper. This new persona seems so much more sane, but violently less so.

This is a strange concoction but never fails to amuse. Everything about it continues to be fresh because nothing about it has ever been copied. It is a one of a kind film that deserves a place in any serious video collection of great, original movies.

As brilliant as this movie is, I can only give it 4 stars because its pacing often drags. However, if viewed with patience, this is a very worthwhile film to watch and a wonderful satirical examination of classism (specifically British).

Peter O'Toole, playing Jack Gurney, inherits an estate and a title from his eccentric father. This is much to his relatives' horror since Jack believes that he is Jesus/the God of Love. They come up with a scheme to marry him to a prostitute so she will bear him an heir, then they can lock him away for life, thus avoiding any embarrassment to his title. Jack starts out as a harmless eccentric who loves and accepts all people and rejects materialism (which frightens visiting snobs). However, as the result of the interference of his relatives and his psychiatrist, he begins to believe instead that he is Jack the Ripper/the God of Wrath.

While Jack's new personality is far more disturbing than his original harmless eccentricities, he is now accepted by the ruling class as one of them. Since he now answers to his own name (Jack) and begins to act like a racist and snobby bigot, his relatives believe him to be perfectly sane. The upper class applauds his newfound goal of reintroducing capital punishment and torture to the corrections system in order to restore a grip of fear over the lower classes and restore dignity to Britain. The fact that he refers to himself as the Lord also no longer draws attention since, through his inheritance, he is now a member of the House of Lords. One particularly striking scene has Jack perceiving the House of Lords as a decayed hall occupied by rotting corpses even as the members wildly applaud his speech, a very biting commentary on that institution's nature.

Sure, the satire is a bit one-sided, but I have had enough personal experience with members of the elite who are completely out of touch with reality to recognize that there is little exaggeration in it, and I find great personal satisfaction watching this movie. O'Toole's performance is also excellent and fun to watch. Highly recommended.

This movie is certainly abnormal- the feeling it engenders is resembles bizzare synthesis of Monty Python, a Clockwork Orange, and Wooster and Jeeves, and it slides wildly from cruelty to satire to farce to oddity and back. Nonetheless, it holds together, and is immensely watchable. In the first half, O'Toole's God of Love is a comedic creation to rank with the best, a bizzare, befuddled Jesus given to outcries of "I put it in my galvanised pressure cooker! Hroom!" Nonetheless, the machinations of his aristocratic family, and the knowledge that these madmen are in power, give even this exuberantly fun part something of an edge. In the second half, his transformation into Jack the Ripper marks the movie's descent into something out of a Philip K. Dick novel, showing a world where madness and violence abound, and viciousness is the key to high society. While such an abrupt turn would be fatal to most movies, but this one carries, maintaining its sense of black humor and hatred of the upper classes.
The movie has its faults, most notably the unavoidable feeling that one is watching a play on film, and not a movie, and I can easily see myself skipping the second half when in a lighthearted mood, but it is nonetheless a great and well executed piece of cinema. Well worthy of the Criterion collection.

This is a great film, one that polarises audiences even today. Some say it's outdated, that its targets (the stuffy upper class British snobs, the House of Lords, etc., etc.) are old news. Yet I feel that it hasn't dated at all, that we will always have these stuffy upper class bastards (whether they are British, American, French, or what have you) with us. Many have had problems with the mise-en-scene of the film, stating that it's too stagey because it's based on a play. I didn't find this at all. Peter Medak's direction is very good, and his compositions are quite good. I recently saw a film called Butley, which was based on a play and was really boring cinematically (but was well written and acted). This film doesn't feel like a filmed play at all. The performances are all top notch, especially O'Toole and Arthur Lowe as the butler. The film ranges from light farce to dark, dark humour. It has a very English air about it, and that may not sit well with many viewers. Much of English humour can be cruel, dark, heartless, and cynical, and this film has it in spades. It doesn't always translate well to American audiences (or other audiences). I think this film is an underrated masterpiece. I was very happy when Criterion released the full, truly uncut version. It was initially released in a 130 minute version, then later in an "uncut" 141 minute version (which obviously wasn't the full length version). This cut is. The film is a classic British farce played to perfection, a very rich film that can be viewed over and over again.