"Swoon"

In the 1990s reading, I read about Queer Theory’s politics, its concern for expressing sexuality “as multiplicity and not as fixed or essentialized.” Queer theory encourages the reader or viewer to view the work “from a new and different angle.” In the first ten minutes, voiceovers of Leopold and Loeb reading letters and diary entries are paired with them showing affection, exchanging rings, having sex and planning their crimes; the text alone could be understood as straight, but when combined with these homosexual images the meaning changes.

Like Compulsion and Rope, Swoon emphasizes Leopold’s aloofness. The scenes of him in the fields alone, transfixed in the taxidermy shop looking at new specimens and looking grim in his room with his collection of dead birds all speak to his remoteness from the real world. Loeb, however, is playful, sociable and constantly grinning. Non-diegetic images of birds and non-diegetic sounds of flapping bird wings throughout the film suggest Leopold is the protagonist even though Loeb receives more attention and esteem in social settings. After Loeb’s death, Leopold’s screams are heard echoing down the hall as the camera works its way to Leopold’s cell. Leopold’s anguish is so great he must be physically subdued. Leopold’s story closes the film—he is the last thing the audience focuses on.

Blog: "Compulsion"

Compulsion brought Leopold and Loeb to life; it was fascinating to see how the characters measured up to my imaginative ideas about the boys. Their interactions with each other and their friends and families make Artie out to be charismatic and manipulative, whereas Judd is more innocent and intellectual. According to the film, Artie is the true psycho: he watches sheep go to slaughter, he persuades Judd to rape Ruthie, he orders Judd to run down the drunk and he generally acts like a maniac. Artie makes all the decisions and seeks danger whenever possible. He enjoys attention from a crowd or his mother’s friends, and will do anything to be the life of the party. The state prosecutor calls him a “wise-guy” because of all the jokes he makes and the schmoozing he gushes out.
The film also emphasizes Judd’s evolving humanism through Ruthie Evans; she evokes the audience’s sympathy when Judd tells her his mother died when he was a boy and that he doesn’t get along with his father. She makes him feel ashamed when he tries to rape her, drawing real emotion from the closed-off Nietzsche fanatic. She tells Sid Judd is no more than a confused child. When Judd turns away from hitting the drunk in the street, Artie threatens to go through with other experiments alone, but Judd blanches and begs Artie to include him. Judd cannot bear losing their perfect relationship; he admires and feeds off of Artie’s intelligence too much. Judd defends Artie to his brother even after Artie abuses him.

After viewing "Rope"

Rope was not what I expected. I can see now the ties to Leopold and Loeb; two prep school friends commit what they deem the perfect murder in order to feel powerful and alive. They believe themselves superior to their victim, and are thus privileged to commit murder. The allusions to Nietzsche’s Superman and Freud were reminiscent of the Tribune articles detailing the psychoanalysis on Leopold and Loeb. I found the arrangements of the credits very interesting. The first character listed is David, then every character after is titled in their relation to him; Janet is “David’s girl”, Kenneth is “David’s rival” and Brandon and Phillip are “David’s friends”. This reminded me of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The play is named after Caesar even though he dies with half of the story still remaining. Shakespeare does this to show the power Caesar has over the characters even in death; his assassination weighs on the consciences of the murderers throughout the entire play. In this same vein, David is the central character or theme; everything in the film comes back to David. His power, his influence are heightened by his death.
In the film, Brandon is clearly in charge; he orders Phillip around, he argues most passionately for his cause, he invites Rupert to challenge his intellect and skill and he is less affected by the murder than is Phillip. The Tribune articles show both Leopold and Loeb as the manipulator of the other; each boy’s role in the relationship is never completely clear. Even though Rupert predicts both boys will suffer for their act, I think the film portrays Brandon as the true villain; Phillip seems more human because of his fear and regret. Brandon is more convinced of his own infallibility, which is even more enforced when Rupert utters “Did you think you were God?!”
The use of off-screen sound in this film emphasizes the suspenseful, uncertain plotline. As the party questions how best to find David, the camera pans away from the circle of friends to Mrs. Wilson who is clearing the chest of the dinner things. The audience anxiously awaits her discovery of David’s body as she slowly removes the plates, then one candelabra, then the next, and finally the tablecloth but is shocked when Brandon suddenly stops her just as she is about to open it; we could not see that he noticed her because he was outside the shot. In addition, as a character has an epiphany of sorts, the rest of the party is out of shot, but we hear them carrying on with the night’s activities.

Before viewing "Rope"

I’m not sure what to expect from this film. I know Alfred Hitchcock films are usually dark and suspenseful, but I have never heard of this film before and know nothing about it. I imagine sound effects, like offscreen sound, diegetic versus non-diegetic sound and sound perspective, will be very important in a suspenseful film. Also, low key lighting and high contrast add a dark mood to a scene, so it would not surprise me if Hitchcock relied on those effects as well.
1948 America was a post-World War II country, so factories and industrialization were at their peak, but many women who had picked up the slack during the War were now competing with returning soldiers for jobs. Also, the start of the Cold War heightened these inter-culture tensions; paranoia among neighbors, friends and coworkers led to an anxious general population.

Leopold and Loeb chapters 16-18

It is not difficult for me to understand how Leopold and Loeb were constantly confused for one another; the boys are represented in so many different manners I have a hard time trying to keep them separate. They really were a team; “One was Leopold and one was Loeb, but they became Leopold and Loeb. Though possessing different personalities, they became the sum of those personalities” (20). The Tribune was quick to point to Leopold as the evil genius and hypnotist and Loeb as gentle and sensitive Dickey, but then they just as quickly changed their story to “Loeb ‘Master of Leopold’ Under Solemn Pact Made: Sex Inferiority is Factor”. Experts debated which one of the boys actually killed Bobby Franks. Alienists portrayed Leopold as the more intelligent of the two boys, whereas “Loeb is pictured as little more than a crude criminal” (220). The many experts “spent twice as much time dissecting Leopold as Loeb. The result has been a distorted and oversimplified picture of Richard Loeb” (219).
The alienists said Leopold, even though the more cunning, saw his friend as “Superman” (210). He was infatuated with Loeb, and apparently initiated homosexual tendencies: “Loeb admitted them but claimed he” only “submitted in order to have Leopold’s aid in carrying out his criminal ideas” (215). The power dynamic again shifts; who was manipulating whom? Higdon believes “there was genius and criminality in both” (220).
The alienists speculated on how the relationship functioned, arguing it was very possible “this friendship between the two boys was not altogether a pleasant one to either of them…Their friendship was not based so much in desire as on need, they being what they were. Loeb did not crave the companionship of Leopold, nor did he respect him thoroughly. But he did feel the need of someone else in his life. Leopold did not like the faults, the criminalism of Loeb, but he did need someone in his life to carry out this king-slave compulsion” (225).

Chicago Tribune Packet (Leopold and Loeb)

In reading these articles on the murder investigation and subsequent trial of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, I noticed how different the journalism seemed compared to articles we’ve read from more recent issues of The New York Times. In every article there is a new expert being interviewed, a new theory being developed and more “clews” to be deciphered. The journalists sound more like crime novel authors than journalists. Is it at all newsworthy that the triangle part of the A is larger than normal? How does that in any way indicate that the murderers were intelligent? Many of these experts and sources are unnamed; one girl cries into her tea because she is so sad for Dickey Loeb’s troubles, and yet she is not identified in the slightest. I wonder if the journalists have any grounds for these claims, or if they are merely creating stories to sell issues. The public certainly seemed to stay interested if stories were continuing on the matter four months later, so maybe this extra drama was just playing to that.
Many of the articles discuss the mental states of the boys; their lack of Jewish faith, lack of community, heightened intelligence, parents, lack of discipline and regular consumption of moonshine are all mentioned as explanations for the violent crime these boys committed. There was also great debate to whether or not Leopold and Loeb were sane when they kidnapped Robert Franks. The defense and prosecution go back and forth presenting evidence to support their own claim, including reasons as bizarre as “autohypnosis”. In addition, while one article describes Loeb as the “King” and Leopold the “slave”, yet another says it was Leopold who manipulated the gentle Loeb. The different journalists have their own biases that shine through in their work.

Comments on Unit II Blogs

My blogs for Unit II are much more consistent than my blogs for Unit I. After being duped by journalistic tricks and biases in Unit I, I think I was more critical in my readings of Schanberg’s New York Times articles, and also in my comments on the film. This unit, I tried to go deeper than just noticing interesting aspects of the writings or the film and ask myself why they were interesting or what purpose they served. While extensive and sometimes confusing, the website about film analysis was extremely helpful in my understanding of the different possibilities certain visual or sound effects had on a single shot. For instance, in analyzing the use of shallow focus in the scene at the Coca-Cola factory, I tried to imagine how the scene would be different if the director used deep or raking focus instead. I also tried to trace several themes throughout all the mediums; this helped me when I was writing my screening report because I felt like I had concrete examples to draw on from my blogs. I hope the same will prove true for my essay.