Film Criticism : High Rise - Social Class Analysis
In Film Criticism series, we discuss what is meant in movies. This series includes film reviews than film proposals. Of course you may want to watch the movies after you read posts about it in these series. But do not forget that these articles contain Spoilers.
Previous posts:
- Film Criticism : Blade Runner (1982) - Reality in Dystopia
- Film Criticism : Sarmaşık - Society Classes [TR]
- Film Criticism : Abluka (Frenzy) - Resistance To All [TR]
British director Ben Wehatley is known from "Sightseers" and "Kill List" He is a successful director. But he chose a difficult subject in this film. High Rise was first shown at the Toronto Film Festival. The audience split in two in the movie. Some of them found the film uncomfortable and left and some of them watched whole film applauded the movie. There are many opinions about the movie. High Rise can not be classified as successful or unsuccessful. I will try to analyze the pluses and minuses here. Let's have a look this debated film.
First, the film was adapted from science fiction writer J. G. Ballard's 1975 edition of the same named novel. It's wrong to compare the film with the novel. But the novel is a perfect work in every way. The same issue was also mentioned in the film. There are a group of people living in the skyscraper. There is an is an architect named ''Antony Royal'' at the top of this high rise. He is the architect and owner of this skyscraper. The richest families of the skyscraper lives on his lower floors. They are loyal to the architect. They just want to live in silence. Because they have everything. The middle class families lives on lower floors. Some of them loyal to the architect but some of them not. They do not have everything. There are many problems for them. Some of them ignor problems. Some of them gettin angry to the archhitect because of this situations. The poorest people live on the lowest floors. They even don't have basic needs. That's why they are always angry. They want to bring down the architect.
The main character is portrayed by Tom Hiddleston. His name is Laing in the movie. He's an observer in the movie. He observes all classes. He's having a relationship with all of them. He joins to partys and listens to the problems. When the lower classes revolt, he has to choose a side. He also join in those who oppose the architect. There have been many slaughters in the skyscraper. This is a problem that can be experienced in all societies. The director is expressing a social problem here. It is great in this perspective. But some scenes are so extended. The audience can lost the main subject of the film. The director is so much focused on the main character. They give a big budget to Tom Hiddleston and he has to show it to the audience of course. But the main subject is more important. Ben Wehatley should have been more focused on the social classes. The film was not exactly successful because of this. He had a great topic on hand and he wasted it. But the visuals and acting are enormous. The movie never bores you. Those who love analysis on social classes should definitely watch it.
High-Rise, the latest film by the director Ben Wheatley, adapts J.G. Ballard’s classic science-fiction novel of the same name to gruesome, dark-humored excess. (The film opens in wide release Friday; check out the trailer at the end of this post.)