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.