The Ruling Class (1972)

Peter Medak's "The Ruling Class" stars Peter O'Toole as Jack Gurney, a nobleman who inherits a relative's wealth and estate. As Gurney's family are emblematic of Britain's ruling class – aristocratic, powerful, duplicitous and uncaring – Gurney undergoes a mental breakdown. Refusing to be complicit with the "reality" of the social class he was born into, a "reality" that he deems inhumane, Gurney starts believing himself to be Jesus Christ.As the adage goes, 'the ruling ideas of every epoch are the ideas of the ruling class'. Refusing to abide by this anymore, Gurney begins to embody values, principles and beliefs that are antithetical to those of his family (love, peace, equality etc). They find his "virtues" disgusting, he finds their world intolerable. The film climaxes with Gurney's family members restoring "sanity" to Gurney, at which point he believes himself to be Jack the Ripper. As a murderous madman, Gurney is embraced by the British establishment. Like most political, British, post-war theatre, the film thus aligns conservative, post-war capitalism to a goofy ruling class who specialise in crushing souls. Final act? Gurney murderously cutting ties with loved ones whilst communists (a butler who reads Marx, Lenin and Mao) are scapegoated by the rich. Final scene? Gurney applauded by his peers and standing at the heart of a British parliament populated with zombies. The symbolism speaks for itself.Like "Heaven's Above!" (1963), a similar British film, "The Ruling Class" finds two ideologies vying for control. On one hand we have what might be called "Christian" or "liberal" values, and on the other, more traditional, conservative values. In the film, these strands are incompatible. In the real world, beneath our civilised Jesus tends to lie The Ripper, and vice versa. More importantly, the latter can't get away with its crimes unless it perceives itself as anointed, sanctified and righteous.Based on a play by Peter Barnes, "The Ruling Class" is an overlong and at times dull film. There are nevertheless many interesting passages peppered about, some very good surreal moments, some wonderfully blunt/gross satire (evocative of Bunuel) and another good performance by O'Toole, whose role seems to critique the kings and rulers he played earlier in his career ("Becket", "The Lion in Winter"). It's a shame that Medak's film isn't more focused, because he has very interesting material to work with.7.5/10 – Worth one viewing. See "They Might Be Giants" and "A Thousand Clowns".

'rich knobs and privileged a***holes can afford to be bonkers … 'The first 10 minutes or so of this film are quite interesting, with a good cast of British eccentrics (especially the splendid Alastair Sim and Arthur Lowe). I quite enjoyed the gathering at the start with the reading of the will and the arrival of the new Lord (and even the subsequent surreal song and dance routine with the ladies organising the local fête) – but it then descends into a complete pretentious mess. Very disappointing considering the talented actors deployed here. I nodded off just after Peter O'Toole had stopped thinking he was God and decided he was Jack the Ripper instead - this was partly because I'd had some wine with my meal, and not entirely down to the reactions this film provoked in me. The odd sequence at the end in the House of Lords reminded me of the final 2 episodes of the TV series 'the Prisoner' made 4 years prior to the release of this film.

The Ruling Class (1972)This is a peculiar, long, hilarious and tedious movie, depending on your taste and probably your age. Parts of it have always made me perk up and laugh, but it works the same theme (of the exhaustion of the old British ways) to death.Peter O'Toole lets it all hang out here, for sure, as Jesus, and as a crazed new British Lord (including a famous final section where he gives a speech to the House of Lords, which is filled with cobwebbed skeletons). It's not really supposed to be haunting or scary, but it's slightly gruesome comedy is pointed, for sure. And funny. If you don't laugh or at least give a crooked smile to the battle between two men who think they are god--O'Toole as the Jesus God and Nigel Green as an Old Testament God, and the Electric Messiah (both). It's crazy and crazed and yet what else do you expect?Someone said it perfectly when they called it a "comedy with tragic relief." O'Toole won an Oscar for his efforts (and he played his part for free). The American version of the movie has 6 minutes missing, though probably the wrong 6 minutes. A good editing might remove an hour and have a faster and more punchy movie. Still, it is what it is, and there's nothing quite like it.

I have heard about this film from one of my teachers in high school and when I saw it yesterday in a video club I immediately recognized it, since I remembered that the protagonist thought of himself as Jesus. Peter O' Toole is so good in this movie that he made me think the unthinkable, that Lawrence of Arabia is not his best role ever. This movie is black comedy,musical, farce, political satire , parable all in one. It has some terrific moments as the one where the hero and the representative who came to see whether he is insane or not, sing together the Eton boat song-I remembered Churchill in Great Contemporaries who wrote of a British political personage who died singing the Eton or Harrow boat song- I can not recollect this detail. Anyhow for someone who has an idea of British class conventions derived from reading, papers and films as opposed from actual experience this movie is a rare treat.The scene where the House of Lords is presented as a house full of corpses and skeletons through the eyes of the protagonist is a haunting scene, not at all comic, although it is ironic.The scene with the two Gods in a room is also brilliant.I wonder if the Tatler for example could present such a character for an interview, when it presents representative samples of British socialites.I think that someone must be very sure of his strength in order to produce so savage satire and criticism. I wonder if we could see equally successful representations of American WASPS or French Enarques.This movie has everything and I can not classify it. I also have not seen or read the play which I am going to buy in order to form an impression although a written text is not the same as a live performance.Still a society that produces such self-criticism must be very sure of itself.