Saltburn

Big spoilers almost immediately, beware

Saltburn is probably the most right wing film in the last decade, even more so than Barbie.

The film follows a Middle Class Striver whose name I don't recall as he fakes an oppressed identity in order to attract the interest of an aristocrat. Once he's in, he engages in a Gormenghastesque rise to power, murdering and conning his way to inheriting the mansion. He also has a bunch of weird sex stuff going on.

For the initial half of the film it seems like the aristos are the real villains. Our striver is invited to stay in their massive house where they employ a frightening butler and dress in black tie for dinner. They also have a massive maze with a huge demonic statue in the middle. Of course, the scene after we see this statue is when we realise that there is no dark secret behind the aristocrats. They aren't secretly sacrificing peasants of anything like that. All the mystique, the constant warnings that they will eventually get tired of the main guy, all the rituals and servants all turn out to be mere inherited appearance, no longer actually functioning defence mechanisms. R E Grant's childlike enthusiasm to wear his suit of armour at a party is a case and point: armour once worn by greater men which kept them safe and allowed them to defeat their foes is now mere ornament for brief amusement.

Elsewhere the defences of the aristocracy have fallen into decay. They are fascinated by interesting people which proves to be a terrible error as our anti-protaganist demonstrates — contrast him with the druggy Russian lady who is boring and harmless but suffers for the former sin. The cold but loyal butler is laughed at rather than trusted and respected as an essential guard.

This is probably all pretty obvious, and becomes explicit when mr Striver makes his big speech at the end about how the aristos are lazy puppies who have been without natural predators for too long. This is all very Darwinan and sort of surprising for a modern film (aren't we all about being nice now?). I've never read Spengler, but I'd bet this os exactly the sort of thing he goes on about, wealth breeding degeneracy breeding opportunities for more ruthless classes to emerge from the gutters, well not quite the gutters but relatively speaking. This strikes me as anti-Marxist because Marx assumes that the hegemonic class possesses all the ruthlessness it needs to employ it's resources to defend itself. Not so for the Saltburners whose easy lifestyle has rendered them weak and eager for amusement.