Review of Rope (1948) by Al M — 03 Dec 2010

A true Hitchcock masterpiece that demonstrates the power of film as a medium to delve into our psyches and interrogate the nature of our reality. Plus, Rope is a profound interrogation of morality in the vein of Dostoevsky and Nietzsche.

The film concerns a pair of philosophically-inclined friends who decide to commit murder because their intellect places them above the common herd of people--the, somewhat tragically, believe themselves to be Nietzsche's ubermensch.

Except for a brief establishing shot at the beginning, Rope functions as a bottle film--the character remain trapped in the same two-room set throughout the film, and Hitchcock heightens this claustrophobic feel by gi8ving the illusion that film is one long take.

By cutting only at very specific points, Hitchcock makes the film seem like it never cuts (except for the brief establishing shot). We the viewers enter this apartment and stay there until the action is finished--we are much a part of the story as the characters are.

Ultimately, Rope is about the dangers of placing ourselves on a pedestal above the "common man"--it concerns the dangers of philosophizing freely without a moral compass to guide one. The duo's philosophy ultimately leads them past Nietzsche and into the realm of Sadean philosophy in which another's body becomes the subject of my whims.

In Kantian terms, perhaps they fail to consider the other person as anything but a means instead of being an end in themselves. In summation, Rope is a powerful, philosophical, and suspenseful film that not only explores the darker recesses of philosophy and psychology but also exhibits the inherent power of the filmic medium.