Alfred Hitchcock's Rope
Patrick Massey
Professor Knight
Rhetoric II, Section 26
March 14, 2011
Often, works of fiction are based on actual events, and this is the case with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 thriller, Rope, and the 1924 murder trial of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Hitchcock envelops the audience in suspense in his portrayal of the bizarre murder case of Leopold and Loeb in which they murdered a fourteen-year-old boy for no apparent reason. In the movie, Brandon and Philip, two wealthy, smart men, decide to kill their former classmate, David Kentley. When Flannery O’Connor wrote her essay on the definitions of the grotesque, she was referring to the characteristics that make a fictional work of literature grotesque; however, these same definitions can be applied to a non-fiction event to a certain extent. These guidelines must be used cautiously, for the events in a work of fiction, even if based on true events, are often exaggerated and are designed to be grotesque. Because of the realism in the movie, the nature and details of the actual crime and the fictional crime can be compared. Both Leopold and Loeb 's murder and Brandon and Phillip 's fictional murder are grotesque because O 'Connor 's definition and characteristics of the grotesque apply to both fact and fiction. Both the Leopold and Loeb case and Brandon and Phillip’s fictional murder story contain events that the ordinary man never experiences in his ordinary life. A murder is out of the ordinary at the most basic form, but these two murders are much more bizarre and disturbing than a regular killing. In Brandon and Phillip’s fictional murder of a classmate, the fact that they murder a friend just to commit the “perfect crime” is very shocking and bizarre (Linder, Paragraph 5). One of the most unordinary details of the fictional murder occurs when Brandon and Phillip decide to hide David’s body in a chest in the center of their living room. Two killers have a greater chance for success if they dispose of
Professor Knight
Rhetoric II, Section 26
March 14, 2011
Often, works of fiction are based on actual events, and this is the case with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 thriller, Rope, and the 1924 murder trial of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Hitchcock envelops the audience in suspense in his portrayal of the bizarre murder case of Leopold and Loeb in which they murdered a fourteen-year-old boy for no apparent reason. In the movie, Brandon and Philip, two wealthy, smart men, decide to kill their former classmate, David Kentley. When Flannery O’Connor wrote her essay on the definitions of the grotesque, she was referring to the characteristics that make a fictional work of literature grotesque; however, these same definitions can be applied to a non-fiction event to a certain extent. These guidelines must be used cautiously, for the events in a work of fiction, even if based on true events, are often exaggerated and are designed to be grotesque. Because of the realism in the movie, the nature and details of the actual crime and the fictional crime can be compared. Both Leopold and Loeb 's murder and Brandon and Phillip 's fictional murder are grotesque because O 'Connor 's definition and characteristics of the grotesque apply to both fact and fiction. Both the Leopold and Loeb case and Brandon and Phillip’s fictional murder story contain events that the ordinary man never experiences in his ordinary life. A murder is out of the ordinary at the most basic form, but these two murders are much more bizarre and disturbing than a regular killing. In Brandon and Phillip’s fictional murder of a classmate, the fact that they murder a friend just to commit the “perfect crime” is very shocking and bizarre (Linder, Paragraph 5). One of the most unordinary details of the fictional murder occurs when Brandon and Phillip decide to hide David’s body in a chest in the center of their living room. Two killers have a greater chance for success if they dispose of
Cited: Linder, Douglas. “Illinois v. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb.” Famous America Trials. UMKC School of Law. 1997. Web. 4 Mar. 2011. O’Connor, Flannery. “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Literature.” Mystery and Manners. Ed. Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Farrar, 1986. Riniolo, Todd C.. “The Attorney and the Shrink: Clarence Darrow, Sigmund Freud, and the Leopold and Loeb trial.” Skeptic 9.3 (2002): 83-89. “Rope.” Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Star James Stewart. Transatlantic Films. 1946.