Alfred Hitchcock's Rope

To this day Rope, Alfred Hitchcock’s first color film, remains one of the most original motion picture dramas. With the exception of the opening credits, Rope was shot on one individual set located within a soundstage, similar to as if a play was being performed on stage. Despite the confined space the film occupied, the atmospheric anxiety carried on up until the very end. Furthermore, Hitchcock successfully created a deception, of the same repetitive shot. Nonetheless, during the one hundred and eight minute film, it’s hard not to notice the closeness Phillip and Brandon shared sexually together, making them homosexuals.

The movie opened up on a street in the afternoon, directed towards an apartment where two young men were strangling another man with a rope. From the moment David had been killed and stuffed into a trunk, it was clearly visible that Brandon and Phillip shared an intimate relationship. Robin Wood discussed much of the films “Fascination from the equivocal relationship between the two murderers (the whole action can be seen as a working out of suppressed homosexual tensions)” (66). However, it’s a bit ironic that Alfred Hitchcock casted Farley Granger and John Dall, both homosexuals, to play the roles of two gay college students. What’s even more scandalous than the strangulation was the party Brandon had planned shortly after. Guests arrived to the scene of the crime, a stunning apartment with an incredible view that overlooked downtown New York. Shortly after, Brandon began to express his superiority by believing he could get away with hiding David in a large chest that would provide as the party’s centerpiece. The unknowing housemaid carried on, setting the entrée on top of the chest, which contained the co...

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...mission when wanting a drink. These are stereotypical roles and behavior that followed the murder, representing sexual characteristics as a result to the experience having to do with the murder. In the end, when Rupert told the two men that they would die, it showed them how karma works. Meaning, they would be killed just like they killed David.

While viewing this film, most of the audience may not be as fortunate and sophisticated as Phillip and Brandon were, but we all have the same rights as they did within the freedom of our own happiness. Between the two main characters, one is egotistical and the other a self-assured psycho. It’s clear that the two men shared a close homosexual relationship. Although, nothing is said straightforwardly, the snippy attitude and at times, loving wordplay between Brandon and Phillip imply the intimate communication of lovers.