Was Saltburn Ending's FANTASTIC or too Far-Fetched??? I know I'm negative on it in this video, but I really want to hear why people do or don't agree. Let me know!
This is an excellent analysis - I disagree with your core assertion concerning the ending, but I appreciate the strength of your argument and supporting evidence. For me, a lot of the ambiguity in Saltburn stems from when Ollie's plan went into motion. Had he researched Felix and his family before he ever met Felix? Obviously, Ollie intended to insert himself into Felix's life (sabotaging the bike tire, etc.), but was taking over the estate always his endgame? Or did he simply arrive at Saltburn, observe the vulnerability/instability of everyone there, and change his plans on the fly? And then there's the grave scene - was Ollie grief-stricken and trying to consummate his love for Felix postmortem, or was he symbolically violating his fallen foe? I don't have solid answers to any of these questions, I'm simply arguing that the film is rife with ambiguity and open to interpretation.
@marcuscrawford585 hey thats a really great point actually. I think its hard for me to tell what abiguity is on purpose and whats on accident so its hard for me to credit it at times, but youre right it absolutely is there. Also sorry for the delayed response. I wanted to make sure i really acknowledged this. It means a lot that you were able to appreciate the analysis and not agree with it. I always want to start a discussion and my goal is never to "be right" but rather just to share my thoughts. Film discussion online can be really binary, but i really adore when a discussion can be productive even without agreeing. Thanks for taking the time to comment. Really made my day
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial I'm happy to hear that I made your day! You're a very gifted, thoughtful content creator and I'm really happy to have stumbled upon your page. Keep doing what you're doing!
Are the last 7 minutes really a twist? The fact that everyone dies immediately after some kind of intense, call out style conversation with Oliver makes it pretty obvious they’re being killed 🤷🏻♂️
I think the use of flashback makes it clear that the director thinks they are revealing something to us that we didn’t know already. Whether or not it’s a twist is up for debate, but I think it was intended as a twist
Exactly. The sinister character reveal started long before that, after he gets to Saltburn and starts being manipulative/controlling to everyone. When he gets found out by Felix and is taken to his home, you can expect what was next. This was a sociopath thriller like Talented Mr. Ripley. I guess most people haven't seen a film like this in a long time
I enjoyed the movie, besides that. I knew Oliver was trying to take Felix's place in the family, and trying to eliminate everyone, but I didn't know he started plotting everything from the beginning. So this was a twist for me.
It was intended to be a twist, but it’s really not. Like it was so obvious that Oliver killed Felix to prevent him from telling anybody else the truth about Oliver’s family and make him leave Saltburn. IMO the only thing in that sequence that was actually a twist was the bike tire puncture. I feel like they could’ve only shown that in the flashback that would’ve been enough, showing that literally the first interaction those two had was based on a lie, just showing that one scene would’ve been enough to provoke thought and interpretation without making Ollie into a bond villain
Yes. But the ending suggests that was his plan all along [although I do feel further viewings will steer us away from that truth], whereas the film itself implies it was more of an opportunity that evolved organically.
I feel like the movie does give us glimpses into Oliver's disdain towards Felix. That scene where Felix and Oliver were hanging out in Felix's dorm room is what comes to mind. To me, this scene when I first watched it felt a little out of nowhere. Now thinking back, I think Oliver showing disgust at how lazy Felix is in cleaning up after himself and the smell of the room bothers him so much because it speaks to how accustomed Felix is in not having to clean up after himself. Also the body language in the scene. Oliver seems to grow more annoyed looking at Felix all sprawled out on the floor, languidly unbothered by the mess growing around him. Just how I saw it, anyway
his mimetic desire of wanting to be Felix or be with Felix was constantly at odds with with his personal sensibilities. It overpowers every instinct he has.
When I first saw the film, I assumed it was the disdain someone in a different wealth class would feel towards the rich and how lazy they are. However, when rewatching the film, I saw this scene as another point of how intricately plotted Oliver's scheme was since he later uses the excuse of the filth of his home for why he can't ever go back. In the scene, he's blankly nodding along with what Felix is saying before springing into cleaning up the room and making a big show of it, and in retrospect it seems like he's deciding on a new tragic fact to add to his past in order to garner more sympathy from Felix. I agree that it was definitely a glimpse into his disdain, but I think Oliver is even more calculated than what's assumed.
Psychopaths know that they need to mask their tendencies, but they need someone to know that they have masterfully planned and executed a plot. The more sinister the better. This is why it was such a great idea that the writer had the first person Oliver met at college tell him that he's a genius. And then he needed to prove that he was a genius, but when Oscar wouldn't give him a sum he yelled at the top of his lungs to give him a sum so that he could prove himself a genius. This goes to show that geniuses also need people to know that they are a genius. The exposition at the end of the movie was Oliver proving to us that he's a genius. We started the movie with a man needing to prove he was a genius and ended it with the protagonist proving to his audience that he is a genius - in his mind. After all just because you can multiply quickly doesn't mean you're a genius. And now I think I've said the word "genius" enough times to prove that I am not one. 😆
This is a great explanation and for sure the best defense of the end monologue ive heard. I still dont love that direction for the character, but this definitely provides a sense of logic to why he would reveal all this. Cheers!
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial in my eye... Ollie wants to be known and seen and wanted by someone... He wanted to be cool and people's favorite by making this elaborate story of his past... He is thirsty for a different life... And sometimes a psychopath is a psychopath for shit and giggles and must make the world know them... Some of them even had elaborate specialty moves like keeping the victims hair.
In regards to the movie, you're probably right. But in "real" life, true geniuses don't "need people to know". Regardless of what the great "very stable genius" likes to claim
What’s weird is that this movie was so REAL except for Oliver’s characterisation. I went to Oxford (recent graduate) and the first half hour of the movie was really, really jarring and uncanny to me because it was literally exactly what my Oxford experience was like. It didn’t help that most of the scenes were filmed in my college and in my favourite spots, literally down to my favourite tree stump 😭 But I KNEW (still know) people like Felix and Farleigh at Oxford. They were real characters. On the other hand, Oliver never seemed real. His character didn’t entirely make sense, it was so inconsistent.
Amazing, that the people like this really exist. Probably only in Britain. (I know, I see them everywhere in this country). Yes, I know that rich and entitled are everywhere, but British culture gives them another level. Supressed feelings, appearances over everything else, money orientated openly, dark, sad sorroundings, any real joy turned into Tim Burton type of sinister, lack of closeness or/and connection with others - what a perfect recepie for loneliness and depression...
I felt the same way. Oliver never felt fleshed out to me. I didn’t go to Oxford, but I’ve met plenty of people like Farleigh and Felix. The scene where Farleigh ignores Oliver and talks over him to the professor felt so real to me. Like I know that guy. I went to school with that guy and he sucks
I'm guessing that due to his loner childhood, he didn't really have any character. But going to university helps people to develop their character, and he was developing his own throughout the film. Human behaviour is 99% mimicry.
Had oliver just married felix's mom and got the estate through marriage would have made the ending more believable. Her just signing it away was absurd.
I suspect he and Elspeth did start a romantic relationship. However it would have been taboo for her marry him (class/mourning reasons). She had to list a successor for the estate and Oliver was the person closest to her considering the cousin was excommunicated from the family.
That's your imagination. The movie did not demonstrate anything romantic between them. Basically, she had no heirs left and always felt close to him for whatever reason so he became the heir.@@Wildtingz
@@jrgnc1 yes that’s why I said I suspected. Given that he uses sex as a form of manipulation and that he had already attempted to hit on her during his first moments alone with her it isn’t too far fetched to think they went down that path. If she just simply needed a successor it likely would have been farleigh and his mother as they are a part of the Catton bloodline.
Did they not do an autopsy on Elspeth? Oliver was the only one with her at the end and her breathing tube was extubated, leading to her death. She dies and he inherits everything because she signed it off before her death. It’s easy to determine foul play.
The writer went full Harlan Coben. Fuck logic. Shock SHOCK *SHOCK* is all the audience needs! More twists! More death! More fake deaths! AAHHH A character as smart as the first two hours Oliver would have given her an overdose of drugs or insulin, or mashed the emergency button after her death and broken some ribs to fake an resuscitation attempt. It also made no sense to kill her to begin with, since she was a total enabler and tolerated him from the beginning and would have been a perfect passive accomplice. He could have still danced naked.
Yeah it's not that kind of movie. They wouldn't even have had to do an autopsy when her breathing tube had clearly been yanked out and thrown on the floor.
My theory is that Emerald Fennel wanted to create an anti-establishment “eat the rich” type of narrative, but she doesn’t know how to write middle class people. Her upper class characters were incredible, but I didn’t relate to Ollie at any point.
Had he not confessed his crimes to Elspeth on her deathbed. Had he merely said that he hated them all but couldn´t keep away from them, it would´ve been perfect. The audience would been forced to project themselves into the story, and some would condemn him while others would say just because he hated them doesn´t mean anything concrete: some people hate the environment they live in while still benefiting from it.
The lack of ambiguity in the end ruined it for me, too. The second big twist at the end didn't work for me for another, different reason. I was only surprised by the first twist that he misrepresented his family background. The final twist that he was manipulating the family was obvious to me from the moment he gave his little veiled confession to Elsbeth when he was laying into Pamela to get the family to trust him. He was obviously scheming and shmoozing. The final twist montage that reveals every little detail just felt condescending like it was overly impressed with itself and was begging me to be impressed too. I respect ambition. I give a but of a free pass to anything that tries to swing for the fences even if it doesn't always land. What i don't like is when something is up its own backside, and Saltburn absolutely was. The ending made it feel like everything leading up to it was more concerned with using cheap shock value to get people talking (which seems to have worked) instead of concerned with telling a nuanced story that's trying to make the audience to speculate and ask questions. Not everything needs clean cut answers, and the fact that the ending feot the need to give answers to what already seemed obvious through context clues suggests to me that the storyteller doesn't trust that the audience is capable of thinking and figuring things out for themselves. Subtlety is a virtue, and while I'm not averse to purposeful and well executed shock value, the ending's complete lack of subtelty just felt a bit cheap.
I believe Elspeth would be interested in the tragic details of this poor, poor rich family, even if it were her own. A little gossip on the way out. And I think Ollie honors that.
@@Senate300 Agreed, up to that point the director did a great job with the balancing act of revealing how much manipulation did Oliver really do? How far did he actually go off screen to execute his plans. Did he or didnt he kindve stuff. And then boom a big blatant killing montage. It quickly betrayed its own quality of directing up to that point.
@@sergeantbigmac The excessive use of depository flashbacks was a condescending, self indulgent show and tell moment that help Saltburn defeat itself as a psychological thriller because in exchange for the big reveal it gave up the implication game which is to be sold, not to be told plus, even without the flashbacks there was evidence for filmgoers to tie Oliver into the Catton Sibling Murders.
@@TheWritersBlockOfficialyes, and all along you think he’s obsessed with Felix and his family but somehow it falls flat that he’s just…jealous of the house?? Like, he still hasn’t become one of them
Towards the middle I realized we are actually watching the villain this whole time. So the ending wasnt surprising to me. It was just confirming to me he really is the villain.
The way I understood this movie is he never actually planned taking the manor for himself. He planned creating a friendship with Felix and nothing else. He was genuinely obsessed with him & being his BBF. Once Felix found out it was all planned and manipulated and that he'd never get his friendship again, that moment in the maze is when Oliver changed his plans.
This is how I saw it too. Too many people claim Oliver was out to destroy the family from Day One, but no - he just had an unhealthy crush on Felix and went out of his way to endear himself. He went in the maze with a bottle of poisoned wine but held it close while making a last-ditch effort to win Felix' trust back. When he failed he agonizes as he hands the bottle over. Felix didn't have to drink it, just like Venetia didn't have to use the razor blades left by the tub. Oliver only physically kills one person, and that is at the very end. The birthday party scene plays like a nightmare because it IS for Oliver - he knows this could be the end of his life with Felix and is terrifed to reach the end.
@Senate300 Thats definitely true, I believe Felix was the only person that Oliver had romantic and sexual feelings for. I mean, Felix seemed to be interested too, at least a little bit, like the kiss on Olivers cheek, like which straight guy does that to a new friend?
@@vessagroker98 Many straight men in a bromances kiss their friends on the cheek and not on the lips. Do you think Felix would've took it there with Oliver if he wasn't such a fraud? I believe Felix's interest in Oliver was in the charity case he pretended to be.
That's how I viewed it!! I saw it as him trying to justify his actions after doing them when in fact it was spur of the moment, mostly because of how Barry interpreted Oliver and how he seemed so in love with Felix.
I agree with your ending line of “I intend to take care of Saltburn” and maybe the funeral but also people are saying drop the flashback and keep the dance sequence and I totally agree. I thought Venetia dying in that same bath tub immediately after we see them speaking was all but confirmation that Ollie was doing the killing trying to become the defacto heir. Even the cut to elspeth in a coma was fine confirmation that he was behind everything.
The question is did Oliver kill Venetia himself or simply give her the tools to kill herself? You're right? The flashbacks helped the movie defeat itself as a psychological thriller. Did he or didn't he was the game and Saltburn gave up the game.
I think the flashback should’ve been done differently. I think they only should’ve kept the flashback of him puncturing Felix’s tire. Because that shows that Oliver was already lying to Felix, even before he spoke to him. The entire relationship was completely based on lies even before Oliver said a word about his family. If they just kept that one flashback scene, that could’ve still been a nice twist to recontextualize their entire relationship, to show that Oliver was *always* lying, even before he lied about his parents. That would’ve still left a lot open to interpretation without being too on the nose.
@@bebop2523 Oliver's a Charlatan as well as a murderer. You're perfectly right. That one scene where Ollie punctured Felix's tire was all we needed. The rest of the flashbacks were unnecessary.
I think it's worth noting that Emerald Fennel has explicitly stated that Oliver was NOT a mustache twirling villain who planned it all from the jump. She has said he has acted on several desires in the moment, which have escalated to the next thing and the next thing and the next. Each time he HAS been manipulative and twisted a particular outcome, but they are individual incidents that escalate. NOT somehow Oliver wanting Saltburn from the start. I would even go as far to say that he only really starts wanting Saltburn when Farleigh rubs it in that this is "his house".
I came to say exactly this! His obsession starts with felix, then the family, then saltburn itself. I absolutely loved watching the progression of his desire and obsession grow more and more intensely throughout the movie
Oh it absolutely is. Apologies if you thought I was trying to counter that argument. I think she must have intended that reading, since she makes everyone in that family so very detached from reality. The fact Felix doesn't even cotton on that Oliver's story was BS the moment he saw the house speaks to how he probably thinks that's the kind of house a 'poor' former street dealer/ addict could afford on their own. Not to mention the countless other examples of poor-tourism they seem to take part in. I think somewhere else she said if they were doing their job properly we would all side with Ollie. Like she apparently was trying to portray him as a likeable villain, but in a 'positive' way that "an audience would side with" which I think is what she actually failed to do for a lot of people watching. @@TheWritersBlockOfficial
Oh ok got it thats a great point! Sorry i respond from the youtube app on my phone and sometimes the nuance of which specific comment is being responded to or the tone of that comment can be misinterpreted. Especially when some folks have been pretty aggro (just got accused of exhibiting characteristic american baseness recently today). Thanks for taking the time to clarify. I really appreciate it
He doesn't just throw Pamela under the bus, he picked up on Elspeth's frustration with Pamela constantly being around. He gave Elspeth permission to admit how she truly felt without feeling guilty about it.
I think a confrontation of any sort post Elspeth between Farleigh and Ollie would have been awesome. Their dynamic was the most compelling in my opinion. Farleigh really embodied the idea of class as an identity.
Meaning farleigh views himself as upper class even though he himself doesn't have money of his own. Hes only able to indulge in the lifestyle because of Félix and the family. But he has crafted his identity around the symbols of the weath regardless of his own lack of weath. Thus, he believes he's entitled to saltburn and is "one of them" even though technically he's just as much of an outsider
Compelling? He was an insecure and envious do nothing who clung to his donated "rich guy" status. His personal character is worse than any of the real rich people for that alone. He comes from poor but shames others for it.
I don't think the film was about subverting expectations. I think, in every way, it was about surfaces and lust. Emerald Fennell herself said you weren't supposed to be surprised by what happens, you know Oliver is untrustworthy from his first sentence. The whole text was right on the surface to ogle and covet, with no depth at all, and that is the point. I read Oliver's confused look at the news of Dear Pamela's death as a re-calibration. He was still learning the family at that point, and I think their reaction set a new floor for their callousness. ETA: That said, I agree with you that the bones of a much more compelling film are close at hand with this one.
IMO they could’ve shown only the bike tire puncture in the flashback at the end. That would’ve shown that this one small action lead to everything else. How one small “white lie” from a lonely teen who just wanted a friend lead to all this death and destruction. I totally agree that going farther than that with the flashbacks turned Ollie into a Bond villain rather than a normal guy who told a fib that got way out of hand and then ran with it. If they only showed the bike tire puncture, that plus the twist with the parents could still leave the viewers imagination open to interpret what else in the plot was or was not a result of Oliver‘s machinations.
I don't think Oliver's expression after learning of Pamela's death was of emotional conflict, I think it was surprise. He planned for everything but this wasn't part of it and there was a flicker of disappointment on his face.
I want to point something very specific out. During Oliver’s reaction to Pamala’s death, you can subtly see him smile. It’s a subtle twitch of the mouth, yet clearly an expression of happiness.
I think the ending act was actually great because it implored you to rewatch the movie again and see all of the examples they likely sneaked in of the interpretations towards loving and hating, and inflections and etc. etc.
I think they did too much though. Too many flashbacks. I feel like if they only showed the bike tire puncture scene in a flashback that would’ve recontextualize a lot of other scenes and still encouraged a rewatch without turning Ollie into an over-the-top Bond villain.
@@bebop2523 I mean that is kind of what he was though he was 100% a villain, and he planned his entire escapade from the start from the moment he met Felix, maybe even knew about Felix before and that's why he went to Oxford, had plans existing already to get into Saltburn etc.
@@bebop2523true- but we wouldn’t seen Oliver use Farley phone to send txt to Sothebys after sleeping with him - we wouldn’t have seen his clearly using the weath he got from the pay off by Dad to have a comfortable life - we wouldn’t necessacrily conclude he tracked the mother down to her new flat location and coincidentally found the coffee shop she was in to meet him again - and i just think the movie is always going to be a rewatch and having to explain to audiences what happened in a otherwise potentially confusing set of circumstances is probably required - especially US audiences that wont get a lot of the English comedy and sarcasm through the film- that my opinion anyways
@@DaveHammondDublin was it not obvious to you at the time it happened that Oliver was the one who sent the email about the plates? Those were the plates that Oliver had feigned interest in earlier in the movie to suck up to Sir James. It was so obvious that Farleigh was not the one who sent the email, and that Oliver had somehow pulled it off because this was the day after Farley had humiliated Oliver by making him sing the Pet Shop Boys song. The timing + Oliver‘s previous interest/research in the plates made it so obvious that Oliver was behind it.
I completely disagree. The ending of Saltburn felt, to me, like when your therapist points out patterns of self-destructive behaviour that you were sort-of aware of but didn't fully want to acknowledge, and then you go "oooohhhh", you kind of knew, but having another person make you confront it makes it different in some way. The explicit explanation of the ending makes all the viewers have to acknowledge what happened in no uncertain terms. It also shows how repression can manifest into very real endings. It is important that we know Oliver is cunning and calculating. On a second viewing, it is interesting to try and pinpoint exactly when Oliver turns from a manipulative liar to a calculating murderer. I think the ambiguity you mention as the film unfolds still holds even with the last 7 minutes. I don't think the end shows us what Oliver has been all along, it shows what he is destined to turn into.
I think that’s a really cool take, but it kind of doesn’t make sense because Oliver is the one revealing all of it to us. If another character like a police investigator or maybe even Farley was the one to piece everything together, the audience could have felt vindicated or blindsided, having to confront the reality that they were rooting for a murderer. Instead, Oliver tells us through flashbacks he’s a psycho and then we watch him dance.
@@Asteroids50 Sure, but even a therapist wants us to make our own connections, they ;ead us, they don't tell us. To me, this is more about the peace you have to make with yourself than others determining what is right and what is wrong
I think thats an excellent point. I think id be more ok with the finale if the class dynamics were a bit different. Mainly because i still think the themes about entitlement and identity are more fleshed out and interesting than the obsession/deception angle. Either way its an excellently crafted film and this is why the ending is so fascinating and divisive. It makes the movie something else entirely
@@yakuzzi35Can you explain your point a little more? I genuinely don’t get it. I wasn’t in denial about Oliver being a killer. It was just ambiguous, so I wasn’t sure yet. Telling me definitively didn’t make me re-examine my feeling about Oliver. It made me feel like the ending was spoiled because now there was no room for me to read in my own interpretation of his actions. I already knew he was cunning because of the interactions with Elsbeth and the sister.
@@Asteroids50 Sure, so these are my own personal feelings from watching the film. The climax of the film was, for me, in the very middle when we find out that Oliver has been lying about his parents, to me this expose is as unambiguous and as in-your-face as the last scene. Everything Oliver has done up until this point can sort of be justified considering his "past", when we find out his past is a fiction, all his weaknessess, humiliations and short-comings become schemes, plots, his desperation changes. I had to re-examine all my moralising, the middle made the Cattons more vulenrable and more human. And to me, that was a bitter pill to swallow, so the ending negates that - his confession should make me feel absolved BUT it doesn't entirely. To an extent I can still justify some of his behaviour, on a second viewing I can judge the morality of the Cattons, knowing full-well Oliver is a murderer, how does that change how I see the Cattons, and specifically Felix? We also know Oliver is a liar, so in the final scene how truthful is he? I believe his retelling of how things unfolded, but | don't believe his own self-analysis, he says he wasn't in love with Felix when it seems like he clearly was, was that all an act? Is he lying to himself in the end? It still seems ambiguous to me. How self aware is he? Which of his actions was he conscious of and which bubbled-up from underneath, is he explaining the ending to us, the viewers or to himself? If you felt certain that he was a murderer, why does the ending spoil it by confirming what you already knew, could you possibily not have been too harsh in your judgement WITHOUT the ending? Our worst fears were confirmed and that felt underwhelming - what does that say about us then? What would the movie be like of we leave out the middle where we find out about his parents, but keep the ending? Sorry for the long response
I couldn't tell if the writer/director thought the end was a twist as it was VERY clear Oliver was killing them. The ending would have been more interesting if they didn't play it out with some big confession and showing. It would have felt so much darker and interesting if they just left a bunch of the details in the dark and just showed him dancing at the end. It would have cleared up any question and make him seem so much more sinister. If they really wanted a twist ending, they could have shown Oliver to be completely innocent of the actual murders. Edit: wrote this comment before getting through the video... yeah on the same page.
Thank you for this video because I've also been sort of stuck on the ending of saltburn, and this has helped put into words why that is. I think it was mainly the flashback scenes and how they give an air of "it was all part of his master plan", which I felt didn't really make much sense in relation to the rest of the movie. The ending/flashbacks makes Oliver seem like he knew what he was plotting this entire time, as if everything was falling perfectly into place, when so much of the movie was Oliver discovering things and almost realizing his potential as a cunning manipulator. Also with the flashbacks, it makes you question more like "ok wait, did Oliver always know saltburn existed and he was trying to get close to felix in order to get the house?" that doesnt entirely explain the lust/love he seems to have for felix. I just agree with you in that the ending doesn't leave much up to interpretation, and instead makes us see Oliver as some evil mastermind rather than a manipulative psychopath realizing his power throughout the film.
Actually this is probably what I was *trying* to say in my own roundabout way with my response. I think you spelled it out more clearly. The version of reality suggested to us at the end simply didn't match up with everything else we'd seen. I mean, I wasn't surprised that he was "the bad guy", I just wondered how he could have planned for that ending all along. It didn't quite gel.
yes yes! i liked that oliver felt like a fish out of water at oxford and feels special because felix picks him and starts to lie / exagerate to "keep him" as his friend, and you see this keep going at saltburn, the "big reveal" that he popped felixes bike just make it seem like oliver knew about felix and saltuburn the whole time The nuance of an awkward, not as rich guy doing anything to stay in the graces of the most popular rich guy makes more sense than this "mastermind" reveal at the end
Exactly, so the grave-fucking scene makes no sense!! I thought it was supposed to be a genuine psychosexual obsession with Felix that led him to do that. I liked it better when he was just a pathetic little freak who would rather kill the man he pined for rather than have that man hate him. I think he was much better characterized as a desperately shy boy who was so captivated by the bright shining star that was Felix to the point that he would lie just to get closer to him. Making it about a house was so anticlimactic
It’s weird because the ending made it seem like he was more obsessed with the house and the money than with the family, which contradicts the entirety of the movie before that
I liked the ending because the whole movie he wanted, wanted, wanted, to the point of becoming obsessed. But he didn't get what he wanted. Felix rejected him. The family kicked him out. No matter what role he played and how much he gave everyone what they wanted, he just reframed the narrative in the end after 15 years to make himself look like a mastermind rather than admit that he never got what he wanted. The truth is that if he couldn't have Felix like he wanted, he would just become him. That's what he made himself believe he wants. He just pretends, because everyone pretended. The family pretended they cared about people. They pretended Felix was not dead. Farley pretended that he belonged there even after being kicked out. Felix pretended that he was better than he actually was. What I thought was funny is that even when Felix is naked in Saltburn, he is trying so hard to convince himself that he belongs there and doesn't have to give anyone what they want. He can just be himself. Naked. And that he got what he wanted. That box. Saltburn. BUT you know he killed her, he's alone and there's no real reason to believe there's a happily ever after for him, but you are on his side if only a little even after he did rip out that tube out which is twisted, but it's meant to be like that. Honestly this movie reminded me a bit of Parasite which I liked too.
As someone from a very old and once very influential family, I think this may have been the most pro upper-class film I’ve ever seen (by accident). It presented middle-class people as striving and clawing ruthlessly to get into a group which is impossible to enter except by blood, desperate to achieve an impossible goal and going to such lengths as murder to get there (vampire references in the film, blood sucking etc, calling middle class people vampires). If at any point it was supposed to be about destroying the class system in the UK, it failed in putting that point across and if anything creates sympathy for aristocrats in a political scene where there is none.
Certainly agree with a lot of what's said here, Ollie was actually a pretty sympathetic character through most of the film, even after the parents reveal. But if he wasn't responsible for the deaths of Felix/his sister, who was? They both just happened to expire while he was there, seems sus! As I left the theater, I started to feel shades of "Talented Mr Ripley"... Barry's performance was first rate.
Absolutely he was responsible for their deaths, but it should’ve been left ambiguous how exactly he killed them. Like it’s so obvious that he killed Felix because the timing was too perfect, Felix is the only one who knows Oliver‘s secret and he dies right before he’s going to reveal the truth to his family and get Oliver kicked out of Saltburn. But the way they show all of her killing Felix was just pure, dumb luck, like how did Oliver know for sure that Felix is going to drink from the bottle? What if Felix hadn’t sipped from it, or hadn’t drink enough to actually OD, what would Oliver have done? Or with Venetia, how did Oliver know for sure that she was going to actually use the razor blades to slit her wrists? What if she hadn’t done it, what was he going to do? Oliver‘s Bond villain master plan leaves way too much up to chance, if we’re supposed to believe he is this Machiavellian mastermind then he wouldn’t have killed them in ways that could’ve so easily failed.
@@bebop2523yeah the Venetia one is especially sus because why did she kill herself? How could he have known she would kill herself? The other thing that gets me is the house was CRAWLING with servants including the creepy butler who seemed to hate Oliver from the start. How on Earth did he get away with it all without someone seeing what he was doing?
I completely agree that the finale should have been cut to have a more profound story. With the final "reveal" it feels like Fennel didn't trust the audience enough to connect the dots together. I remeber thinking (when the first reveal happened) about every scene that made the audience (and Felix) feel bad for Oliver and thinking: "wow, Oliver really did trick us all". I even related it to The Sixth Sense's twist, where the answer is always laid before you but the story cuts and camerawork make them difficult to notice on a first watch but extremely obvious on the following ones. The finale dumbs down the story; Fennel not trusting her story enough for the audience to "get it". I wish it would have ended with Oliver on the grave and go out with a bang (literally lmao), leaving the audience wanting to re-watch the movie and look at Oliver's actions in every scene, questioning which was a performance and which was real. As a last thought, I think it would've been way better if Felix's death was left ambiguous as well. Not every "villain" has to have everything planned out, especially in a movie set in a real-world place and time. Having Oliver's dumb luck being a possibility, the story would have even more layers of profoundness showing that luck treats them all the same regardless of wealth or moral compass (reiterating your previous points).
What I thought the story was getting at with Ollie was a message about class--and about how much better the lives of the upper class are than everyone else, but when there is a weak link, those of lesser classes can exploit that weakness and take over, and re-establish that class structure so they can enjoy the lifestyle they've been envious of the entire time. Oliver is a poor, pathetic person who sees this affluence at Saltburn in the hands of weak people, and tries to take it for himself. The great twist with Oliver's family negated his class motivations, and I think made the movie more specifically about Oliver's psychopathy I thought that the parents were stereotypical upper-class people: Too self-obsessed and concerned with appearances and ritual to see what's in front of them. (forcing themselves to eat lunch as their son's body is literally being carried past them) They're so privileged that the idea of danger is completely foreign to them, and they never realize that they have invited a monster into their home. What I liked about Oliver's character is that he's mostly very secretive and hard to read, but as the movie progresses you start to notice the small things that he does to slowly ingratiate himself into the family, like termites slowly eating their way into a home. A good point was when Oliver arrives to Saltburn, the butler mentions that he never knew Oliver was coming and would've opened the gate, but Oliver found a way inside anyway. I thought it was a subtle way of showing how Oliver can slowly burrow his way inside of people's lives, and through his manipulation he slowly begins to control the lives of the people at Saltburn. I think the line that describes Oliver best is the first romance scene with V, where he says that he "is a vampire". I was expecting a little more of a crazy twist with Felix's family possibly being some kind of cult or something, but I think Saltburn itself represents excess and affluence, and once Oliver got a taste of it, he became "Lost in Saltburn." But Oliver wants more, and slowly consumes more and more around him with no real objective -- he lies to Felix about his relationship with Felix's sister, which is ridiculous because of how easy it would be to debunk, but he does so to make Felix happy. I didn't like the ending that portrayed Oliver as some villain killer--and when Felix died I had a feeling the movie was going to lose steam for me. What I was hoping would happen was that after Felix discovers Oliver's lies, Oliver can either gaslight him into not believing it matters, or finds a way to manipulate Felix's family into outing him from Saltburn.
I thought it was pretty obvious that Oliver killed Felix because the timing was too perfect. Just like it was so convenient that Oliver‘s father died exactly when Felix was becoming distant from him and this was the perfect thing to get Felix’s attention back at the perfect time. Of course later on we find out that this was all perfectly orchestrated by Oliver. So how convenient is it that Felix just happens to die right before he is going to tell his parents the truth about Oliver and get Oliver sent home from Saltburn? And how convenient is it that he dies in such a way that puts the blame on Farleigh? They could’ve just left it ambiguous as to how he did it, though they didn’t have to show exactly him putting the cocaine in the bottle, because how did he know Felix would drink from it? Same with leaving the razor blades for Venetia, how did he know 100% that she would slit her wrists? They should’ve just implied that Oliver killed the siblings but not shown exactly how because the explanations that they show left way too much room for error. I do think that the one flashback that really worked well was the tire puncture. That shows that literally from the first moment they met everything was based on Oliver’s lies, before Oliver even said a word to Felix. They could’ve just cut the tire puncture at the end and that would’ve been enough of a flashback to recontextualize everything and have a nice aha moment without overexplaining.
@@Blexg the thing is when you look throughout history at revolutions, it’s not really the lower class that is the threat to the upper class, it’s the middle class. The French revolution was orchestrated by the bourgeoisie, not the peasants. However, the bourgeoisie revolutionaries aligned themselves with the peasants, even though the peasants were by and large loyal to the king and actually opposed to the revolution. Even to this day the French revolution is often portrayed as a peasant uprising, the bourgeoisie propaganda is still effective over 250 years later. Same can be said with more recent revolutions like the Arab Spring, which was also mostly orchestrated by the middle-class, not the impoverished. The middle-class are just educated enough to be a real threat to the upper class, but not rich enough to be upper class themselves.
@@bebop2523 I'm not gonna get into the specifics of class struggle because I don't really think it's applicable here, I just thought the movie was initially a commentary on how people that have nothing have every incentive to infiltrate the lives of those who have everything and steal it from them, so that they can enjoy these awesome lives for themselves. But the twist in the movie was that Oliver isn't a helpless poor guy, and he's actually more of a maniac that wants everything
I liked that the final 7 minute twist makes the character we're supposed to root for the 'baddie'. For me, it enhances the film's theme of the ugliness of pursuing wealth and social status. Again, in my opinion, it asked the question of 'what is all that wealth worth if this is what you had to do to get it?'. And if you still want an 'eat the rich' slant to it, then look at the fact that the relatives of Saltburn just had to be born, where as Oliver had to murder and scheme and sacrifice so much in order to have the same as them. I also liked how the Oliver we see for most of the film is different from the 'actual Oliver' at the end mirrors the 'keeping up appearances' that the Saltburn family are obsessed with. I do understand and agree with your thoughts about the exposition horizon though.
You make great points. I think overall i was more interested in the film before the recontextualization, but i also get why people really enjoy the film it "reveals itself" to be. I know youtube titles arent very nuanced but i want to be clear i recognize the validity and value of perspectives opposite to mine. "3 Reasons Saltburns Ending wasnt to my personal taste" just doesnt drive clicks as a title unfortunately 😔
Completely agree. Up until the final reveal I was caught up in trying to figure Oliver out. The finale took all of the mystery away and it's made it so that I have no interest in re-watching. Where as I think I would have re-watched it otherwise, to try to further explore his character and the mystery.
Exactly! Like going through the footage for editing i was like "this is the best" and then id be editing footage from the finale and just go "oh right this is why i didnt go see this is theaters again..."
I felt the same way. I was really excited to talk with my friends and debate whether or not Ollie killed Felix and then the movie just told me and I was really bummed. Everything else was so spooky and mercurial in the film
I disagree. When I rewatched the film I got to see Oliver clearly lying and grasping at straws, making it up as he goes when he was talking about his Father dying for instance. Unlike The Talented Mr Ripley where you are let in on what is going on the entire time, with this film (since you are only vaguely aware of what he's doing) it's fun to see how blind I was watching this little liar the first time. Also, I completely disagree with the assessment that Oliver felt bad when Pamela died, or felt bad about his part in it. He even cracks a smirk in the clip you showed. But since we read it two different ways it just shows that there is PLENTY the audience can still disagree on that wasn't spelled out. I see people saying the graveyard scene doesn't make sense after the ending because he wasn't in love. I mean, he clearly was in love, and was tortured by the fact that he had to kill who he loved when it went south (in my mind). Someone could disagree, because there is still a lot there.
@@neil2179I haven’t watched Saltburn a second time yet, but I find it really interesting that you noticed all these points where Ollie is just making it up as he goes along. This is Oliver’s story and he’s the narrator, so at least on my first viewing I felt like he was purposely trying to paint himself in a certain light. All the moments where he stumbles or grasps for words are supposed to endear him to Felix and the audience.
I have been waiting for someone with this take, literally watching the last bit in the theater I was completely shocked. Not shocked by the ending of "oh! it was his master plan all along!", but rather in the sense of exactly what you said, as it just didn't make sense for the movie and completely undermines the message and characters. I enjoyed the movie but was surprised by such a typical ending from an otherwise interesting film.
brilliant summation , the end felt very hollywood interference and having watched many interviews with the director you are spot on about her approach from her being more upper class herself. i feel like that is this issue in the ending, that it wasnt Ollies ending it was the directors chosen ending thrust onto the character, made it feel inconsistent.
When you first watch this thru you think, "Wow he's been playing them all along" then you think about it and you kind of realize that the writer mixed two different villains together, in the first part he seems to be an obsessed psychopath wanting to be part of this family, the two weird scenes with the Bath tub and the fresh grave (this last one Way over the top by the way) support this. Then the wrap up paint him as a sociopathic grifter. And I am left thinking "pick a psycho and stick with it" Good video thanks for sharing.
He was always a sociopath obsessed with taking Salburn as his own. Everything that at first we thought conveyed his obsession with the people/the family, was always just his obsession with Saltburn itself. The reveal changes the context of what came before, that was the intent.
Yes, I knew he was hollow and motivated by the desire to for social acceptance, but his psychopathology was all over the place. Parasitic like in the Talented Mr Ripley and artistic expression like in America Psycho. Maybe he’s just a top tier (genius) psycho? 😂
Saltburn is my favorite movie of 2023. I do wish the ending had been left more ambiguous. I expected the movie to end when Oliver was told by Felix’s father that his presence at Saltburn was no longer welcome. I think a final shot of Oliver returning to his parent’s home to spend the rest of the summer would have been a good way to end it. Still, I love the movie as it is!
It was also quite predictable. The fundamental catalyst (the first person’s passing) was predictable. I didn’t predict that it was all organised / premeditated. I just felt like I was watching a creep for a few hours. The acting was great though 👌
I 100% agree with you. It took a very thoughtful film, full of subtlety and nuance, and then just went "Ahaaahhh, bet you never saw THAT coming?" To me, it shows a lack of confidence. The funny thing is, this film could be recut easily and would be much more effective for it. The last 7 minutes could have been a deleted alternative ending, I would bet that a lot of people would find it interesting, but detracting from the film: 'I really enjoyed this ending but I can see why they didn't use it' kinda thing. I used to get frustrated with films that were ambiguous, but it really does depend on the subjects covered and the themes explored, and these themes are very strong in their own right, with no definitive answer needed... more a meditation. This film deserved some ambiguity so that it lived on long after you finish viewing it. "All my friends Hate Me" is a similar film, but executed more confidently in my opinion.
I can't say I agree completely. He reminded me immediately of Ripley. It's either because his acting was great or Russell Crowell style. He looked, acted and had the body language of a sociopath from the start. The one scene that threw me off that exact ending was when he went to the bathtub after Felix releaved himself. I can't say I loved rhe movie, but it was highly entertaining. It just felt rushed at the end
At the risk of sounding anti-intellectual, I don't think this movie was ever the major work you preamble it to be. I thought all the reveals were set up very early in the film. The film doesn't transform or become something "no longer". It's a pulpy romp of middle-class ambition as upper-class nightmare. Instead of comparing its exposition to things like John Wick or Star Wars, it begs to be compared to something way smaller like The Talented Mr. Ripley Edit: don't get it twisted, I also don't think this was the greatest movie ever. It was a very good film from 2023 and probably my personal favorite, not even the best tho. But I think it's ambitions were much simpler than most here are saying. It's Friday the 13th where rich people are the camp counselors having sex by the lake and Jason Voorhees is an unassuming twink you like
Also, check out the music video of Murder on the Dance Floor. It's about someone working their way up the ladder in a dance competition by being a murderous cutthroat, and they're not being particularly subtle about it. They even tell the judges to their faces what they're doing.
I agree that you can see signs early on, but I think that’s different from having a film come right outright and tell you what the answers are. I suspected Ollie might have killed Felix, but I didn’t know how and I was excited to try to figure it out or discuss it with friends, but then the movie squashed all my curiosity by showing every single step he took to get close to Felix. It felt like the movie was keeping a secret for 2 hours and then in the last 10 it got bored and spilled the beans just to be gratuitous.
@@Asteroids50 it sounds like everyone wanted a movie with an open-ended mystery, and that's not what the movie is or even really what marketing would lead anyone to believe. I also already fundamentally disagreed that it doesn't feel like the "movie was keeping a secret for 2 hours". They tell you with the narration that there's a bomb under the table for the entire movie, and when there's nothing left to conceal, it goes off.
@@2muchteeveei thought the weakest aspect was Oliver x Felix not having more flare. Let Felix flirt! The whole time I was waiting for that quintessential "I don't do labels, I don't want a relationship" for Oliver to have a REAL taste of that relationship only to have it cleanly cut off. Give Oliver a reason to fully turn right.
@@nailinthefashion nooooooo. Felix was a user of people. Sexuality is secondary to his appetites. You are not supposed to feel sorry for Oliver. The whole point is to get you to empathize for a second with the rich who got eaten. Oliver is a broken human being. Felix is just a rich douche.
Totally agree with this. Unfortunately, too many directors have little faith in their audience and demonstrate this by having to spell out HOW Oliver manipulated the family and showing how he REALLY is a bad guy, rather than leaving ambiguities as to the method or motivation. The latter of which is far more interesting and thought provoking. The last few minutes deflated what was very compelling story.
I don't think the second twist was much of a twist at all... It seemed pretty obvious that He was involved with the deaths. He's a pathological liar and as every person to notice that, dies shortly afterwards...
I think the flashback montage is just Oliver lying to us the audience, and maybe himself. I don't think he planned to do any of that. He was just really obsessed with Felix but Felix didn't love him back so he killed him. Oliver is a lying insecure narcissist.
I 100% disagree. The ending was perfect, especially Oliver's "celebration dance". I feel that, if you were paying attention, there was no ambiguity, even before the ending. I already knew Oliver was responsible for what happened. The only thing the ending did was to spell out how. He was obviously the bad guy. Yes, he does care. As Emerald said, we're meant to root for him. Even though we know he's the bad guy, we still want to see him win. That's how I felt. The only problem I have with this film is that I've seen it labeled as a dark comedy/thriller. I love dark comedy, and I didn't find this at all funny. There were smirks along the way, but never did I find myself laughing. I think I'd call it a psychological drama.
While the final scene of Oliver dancing while "Murder on the dancefloor" plays is truly iconic, meaningful and cinematically perfect, I think the ending should have culminated with Felix's death, as Oliver is thus left frustrated by killing the "perfection" he so longed for and can never be a part of.
Man, you totally beat me to it! Thank you for making this video, because I felt the exact same way! It bugged me so much, that I wrote my own little essay right after finishing the movie. You literally just voiced everything that I thought was wrong with an otherwise brilliant film. Beautiful video, keep it up and you've got a new subscriber. Thank you!
Just gonna add this little note: Wouldn't it have been more interesting for a second rewatch, if the final twist was just ingraned into the narrative? Like for example, when Ollie pretends not to have enough money to buy the shots, they could have shown a brief glimpse of his wallet, showing he clearly had enough cash. You'd miss this detail the first time around, but maybe caught it on a second rewatch. Thus giving the audience all the clues nescessariy to puzzle it all together themselves, without making us feel dumb by straightup showing it in the final shots. Also would have given plenty of creators the ammuniton to make an "explaining Saltburn" videos that I definetely would have gobbled up.
This is my favorite video I've seen on Saltburn. I absolutely agree that this movie ended up being more style than substance. The actors and the cinematography were amazing but the writing and storytelling were horrible imo. It had so much potential but it felt half baked. There were many lines that I thought were foreshadowing that ended up going nowhere. I couldn't help but compare it to Inventing Anna, which I ended up watching after I finished Saltburn. Ollie and Anna are both liars trying to achieve status and they lie about their backgrounds to seem more powerful and impressive than they actually are. Ollie wants to seem impressive with how he's overcome hardships in his life while Anna wants to seem impressive with her knowledge of inner circles and her born status. Inventing Anna's storytelling is amazing to me, and I love how they make a point of saying "what's the point of this story?" "I don't know... something about middle class anxiety... or identity under capitalism..." Saltburn lacked that sense of questioning for me. From what I've seen online, a lot of people love the final scene because it provides a sense of fantasy. People like the idea of dancing naked in a mansion that they own. It's glamourous. But it highlights the psychopathy of Ollie and makes him seem simultaneously more villainous and more aspirational. (Similar to how some people online see Patrick Bateman as both villainous and aspirational. ) That doesn't lend kudos to the director but it does say something about "identity under capitalism" and "middle class anxiety." It also makes me wonder if the idea of "success" in our culture is designed to be psychopathic intentionally. I might make a video on this as well because you just opened a whole can of worms my friend.
I feel like the scene with Pamela isn’t him showing empathy or any other charismatic feeling but just processing information and figuring out how to better blend into the family. And he’s aided in that when Felix is like don’t bring it up anywhere else and then he lives through that when everyone would rather talk about the weather or very quickly dismiss her in conversation. I feel like that scene shows a change in goal. Where he was obsessed with Felix because it was easy to be close with him, apear to be dependent to him, to wanting to take over the lifestyle of the family as it was easy to understand what who had importance and who needed what to feel a need to have him around. Also when the dad offered Oliver money I wonder if he took some kind of bribe. I feel like yes he could’ve but also not taking any money would’ve been even more interesting because it’s like well if you are struggling and dealing with things so badly it’d make sense (in the family’s eyes) to just accept something and in the dads case to especially get him the hell out of the house
Just watched it last night, I was pretty disappointed. My biggest issue was the several references to the "friend" from the summer before. There are multiple cryptic lines about the last guy that Felix brought home and how their friendship ended poorly, but none of that leads anywhere. We never find out who the friend was or what he did or what happened to him, it's just dialogue filler. Chekhov's Gun is an absolutely essential part of storytelling and making that obvious of a mistake just really brings the whole thing into question.
It did sound a bit ominous at first but that could just serve as a red herring as to who was in the real danger here. What it really did was show Ollie he was but an expendible toy for and charity for the family, but the others as well which opened pathways for slander. I don't think it's against the rules of story telling to temporarily mislead the audience, in fact I'd say that's a great ploy and there is too little of it in this story as we come to distrust Ollie pretty soon and, to me, the big reveal of the end fell quite flat. Funny how predictable it was for being so unbelievable really.
I literally just finished watching the movie and you posted this lol. I really liked the film and I was surprised by the ending, but in the end, I do agree a more subtle one would've worked better
I really liked the film too. Thats whats so weird to me. Like the last seven minutes feel like a crazy fan theory attached a fantastic film. Even then. Its a well crafted ending. Just doesnt feel like it doesnt fit with the rest of the movie
PS He did not start out with intentions of killing anyone. He discovers his dark capabilities along the way when he realizes he lost Felix forever. The red flags on his ability to plot and plan and lie were there. Then he gave into that side entirely in the end.
Pamela's death: That Oliver looks troubled upon hearing about Pamela's death confused me - it would _seem_ that he felt bad for her which in turn suggests empathy. *BUT* I now think he seemed upset about it because it drove home the fact that without the Catton's 'protection' Pamela was left to die. Oliver realises that without the Cattons, he too, will be thrown to the wolves for an uncertain future. So it cements Oliver's determination to remain at Saltburn and part of the family *no matter what* and he can't allow anyone to stand in his way - even someone he 'loves.' I also think the 'exposition' (i.e. the last few minutes) is clumsily handled. It reminds me of those old 'who done it' tv shows where Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher treats the audience like imbeciles as they launch into cheesy explanations. Shame really, but I still love this film.
I absolutely loved this movie! Oliver, is the best if psychopaths! He endured every twist and turn rising above those he stepped on to get there. I love that Olive, sought them out and by every odd got everything he wanted. He always was what we see in the end however my take is that when he went into the bathwater that was the turning point of not going back. He was in love with the idea of Felix because when it came to it nothing and no one could stop him. I love the ending. I love the character and the song ties it all up for me in a bow. Thank you Sir, for your perspective.
And thank you for yours. Even if i dont like the ending for THIS film. Theres not a moment on its own that i dont like. So i love hearing qll the different opinions on why people did or didnt like how the ending recontextualized the narrative
The ending itself, gave the movie another twist and another layer. Even more food for thought. I think it is added value, rather than the ruin of the movie.
I loved this so much. I don't think this is an eat the rich at all, maybe in a few literal of the sense scenes but I think the ending was perfect. It was his full unmasking and you see the evil joy of a long con complete.
The final scene is inspirational! It’s gone viral on TikTok, people uploading their own versions - feeling that freedom that Oliver felt, dancing. King of his own castle
You want to like him. You want the ambiguity so that you can continue liking him. I didn't, so the ending wasn't a surprise to me. It was clear to me he was a severely broken person post Act-I. I've seen the Talented Mr. Ripley, so his eat the rich motive didn't shock.
I just don’t see the “eat the rich” narrative. What I see instead is a mix up of a Patrick Bateman from American Psycho and Lou from Nightcrawler. He got a glimpse of the riches and wanted it all for himself. He’s narcissistic, ambitious and egoistic. He’ll do whatever it takes to get what he wants and in the end he gets it. There doesn’t have to be a political message at the end…. Now if the director wanted that then she failed massively
It's just a really muddled story that can't work out whether it wants to be The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Servant or The Little Stranger and isn't as good as any of them. And I honestly think that final scene is only there out of the same childish sensationalism that drove the earlier sex with the grave scene, which in every other respect is totally inconsistent with it.
Thank you! This is EXACTLY what put me off from an otherwise intriguing movie. The end scene was great, but I'd happily trade it in for a more ambiguous story.
I definitely can agree with your take in-so-far as the director's point of view being one of a fear of the middle class, and therefore having to represent the protagonist as unambiguously evil. I wouldn't go so far as it being classist but what I would say is that it is somewhat a subconscious attempt to reconcile her extremely privileged background with her left-wing politics. Which is such as shame because up until the finale, (or at the very least in the first half), I thought she was doing a really good job of representing what it's like for working class people on scholarships to attend Oxford. Speaking anecdotally, I come from a town that is only a few miles away from Prescot (the town where Oliver is from)- That whole area of North West England is essentially working and lower-middle class. In other words, it's a world away from the upbringing Fennel had. When me and my mates were watching it we couldn't help but root for Ollie in the beginning half, to be honest. Especially when Richard E. Grant's character answers flippantly the word: "North", to Elspeth's question of where the city of Liverpool is. (side note: a fun gaff we laughed at was that Ollie doesn't realise he's being driven all the way to Prescot by Felix, only when he sees a sign for the town being a few miles away on an A-road, he twigs on. In reality, the journey between Saltburn, which is meant to be set in Northamptonshire, and Prescot, comes to about 2 and a half hours, sometimes 3 hours if traffic is bad... That's a fucking long drive to take on your birthday, to not ask "where are we going?". What's more, the editing in the film makes it seem like the took a 20 minute joyride up there. It's a nit-pick but worth pointing out to viewers who don't live in the UK. Not the worst thing ever, just funny). Anyway, this is all too real a relationship between the elites of England and the working class. Funnily enough, one of my friends from my hometown was a scholarship student at Oxford. We visited him a few times during his years there (fun fact: he was residing in the same college that they used as the filming location for the Oxford scenes in Saltburn!). I can say, thankfully, that all of the friends he had made there, privileged background or otherwise- were perfectly hospitable towards us. We did have a few sobering reminders of how our worlds were so vastly different, though. Especially when we met the daughters and sons of lords, (fucking hell they were some of the rudest and most snobbish people I'd ever met. If you think representations of the elite in Salburn are exaggerated for thematic effect, they aren't. These are the kinds of people you get as a result of centuries of wealth and land hoarding. Don't forget- the British aristocracy still own a third of the UK's land!) Farley reminded me a lot of them. Anyway I've gone off on a bit of a tangent, just thought it was worth highlighting the themes of the British class system represented in this film, from a first-hand perspective.
My thoughts exactly. It's still a terrific film, but Fennell's need to overexplain -- to endow Oliver with nefarious underpinnings from the jump -- nearly capsizes the narrative. If it had simply been about a "have not" who unwittingly blossoms into full horror, it would have been crushingly great. The ending as it stands more or less panders to an audience who, admittedly, might have entirely turned away from the experience if they had to grapple with the esoteric outcomes for themselves instead of being spoon fed a "plot." The beauty of true art is, indeed, ambiguity, but that's okay. I can still dig Fennell's Saltburn while adoring what might have been.
For me, it was very clear Olli was faking it all. But I got disappointed that the movie thought this of me "The audience won't know that it was Olli who did it all, so we must show them". This kinda ruined the ending for me, except for the dance. Like, what if we were given the benefit of the doubt? Would be really nice. "Was it really all an accident?"
The movie starts with Oliver asking the question about whether he loved Felix or was in love with him, and I think the ending exists for the purpose of that. Everything before the ending, the bathtub scene , the grave scene , even the twist about the family make it seem like Oliver was obsessed and would do anything to be around Felix , but the ending suggests that he had a different goal the entire time. The way I see it Oliver just wants attention and to be wanted by people around him but in a twisted way. He wants to be an only child so all attention from parents can be on him , he lies to them about his achievements so they can love him more , he wants friends but can never have them because of the way he is, so he puts on an act. In the beginning he "loved Felix" in the sense that he wanted to be him, to be a person that was loved and wanted by everyone BUT after spending time with him he started to actually fall in love with Felix and wanted to be with him. His goal was ALWAYS to take over Saltburn but his feelings for Felix were also true. When his lies gets exposed he realizes that he has no choice but to kill him and replace him since he cant have him anymore. Him asking the question about whether he loved Felix or was in love with him is a way to deny his feelings. "Everybody loved Felix" is a way for him to cope and invalidate his feelings for Felix since he is not supposed to have them because he 'hates' the class Felix belongs to (based on his words to Elsbeth in the end) Although it could've been better and more ambiguous the ending still serves its purpose of making us wonder about Oliver's true intentions before he became friends with Felix.
Don’t they say trust the intelligence of your audience? The ending flashbacks were unnecessary in my option if you were paying attention throughout the movie.
When oliver was pretended to be drunk and telling "i gave you what you wanted" who was that performance for? He was toing to kill him from the start so at this point why bother? Also why didn't the police question more about the death? That girl seen Olly in there
Simply because the creators did not want to explore logic but fantasy. It's all about Oliver just doing and getting what he wants, for better or worse, it's supposed to mirror Felix being aloof and free, but my god, SAY MORE
I'd say the police not looking into it further is a comment on how there is one rule for the poor, and another for the rich. How they seem to get away woth a lot less scrutiny than the general public because of their status and money.
Great video! I had the same reaction- brilliant movie except for the ending. I disagree that the ending is really even a "second twist". Is there a viewer in the world who wasn't already suspecting that Oliver had something to do with the email to the auction house, after all the manipulating that Oliver had been engaging with on screen the whole time? And then when the deaths start piling up after Oliver's big secret was revealed, could there possibly be a single person in the world that didn't already suspect that Oliver was behind them? But without the atrocious ending, the viewer could have spent days reflecting on when and where Oliver "turned". Had it started relatively innocently as a ploy for an in with the popular kids? Did it start with a genuine love for Felix? Was Oliver's newfound confidence a commentary on feeling empowered by proximity to the rare wealth and status of Saltburn, or was it all sociopathic manipulations from the start? Were Oliver's schemes and eventual murders at Saltburn a commentary on the insider plots of powerful people and here was an outsider "beating them at their own game", managing to kill them before they could discard him? "It was all a sociopathic masterminded plan from the start" is the worst possible explanation. It doesn't even make sense. He didn't even know Saltburn or Felix's family before he went there, and he was already planning on stealing it all from the start? How?
Hard agree, like, Oliver being the weird kid at oxford and getting "tapped" / "adopted" by the most popular guy and he start to lie / deceive when he notices he's loosing him and keeps doing this at saltburn is so much more interesting than "mr evil mastermind"
No, I don’t think it ruined the movie. It just continued the unreliable narration, which was the heart of the story. Ollie is telling a story that is much different than the real one. He’s not a mastermind, he’s a delusional psychopath.
Should be called Oliver the Twisted, thought the family was grooming him to be a victim for Felix and they were all in on it, until the first twist. Then Ollie turned into a bad guy from that point on.
Oh dope! A big part of my goal with these videos are to help put words to what people are feeling or help get at the "why" behind our resctions to story
should you feel satisfied with the acts of a manipulative psychopath? are we supposed to feel satisfied after a film, especially about this kind of thing? psychopathy isn't remarkable or sensational or satisfying. it's horrifyingly banal. it's just another day of destruction. the ending montage and dance sequence suggests both the arrogance of his murderous psychopathy and the mundane banality of psychopathy itself. it's just another day wilding out in all his apathetic glory.
The thing that’s missing in this analysis and most critical analyses I’ve seen of this movie is this: The movie is not meant to be understood from Ollie’s perspective even if it’s written as such. The movie is actually a horror story - a campfire faerie tale told by the elite to the elite - the story of the changeling who crashes and burns the structures of the elite. Burn and salt the earth. The movie references the spooky story of the man who drowned after meeting that person, later they’re terrified by The Ring. Ollie is The Ring, the Minotaur, the spooky monster used to scare Elite children. Everyone who watches the movie who is of the non-elite class sees the movie through Ollie’s eyes because that’s their frame of reference.
Actually this was what I was referencing when I said you can feel Emerald Fennel's background shine through -- this is a story that views the middle class as a boogeyman. It's HIGHLY sympathetic to the rich people, so much so that it makes them the victims with the final twist. Hence why the movie feels so toothless. It largely punches down when viewed as a whole. Whether it was intentional or not, the film is, like you said, a warning for the rich rather than a more universal story
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial isn’t that fascinating, though? Is punching down as a whole a bad thing to make a movie about when it’s framed as a horror story? We’re used to seeing horror stories from the POV of the protagonist who wins in the end. Not the POV of the monster who wins in the end.
Also I disagree with the premise of the need for survival of the fittest. For the elite, survival’s only requirement is of *inclusion*. They don’t need to do *anything* to ensure their survival. Survival of the fittest is a lower class fantasy in the world of the true elite. Ollie isn’t entitled to anything if he wasn’t born already included.
@@TheWritersBlockOfficialI think that’s fair but I’m not sure how much of a difference that makes. As an aside, one thing I think is a wrench in the “illogic” of the story is the patriarch. It’s never revealed or implied that Ollie had anything to do with the patriarch’s death. Which presumably means Ollie’s villainy plot ended for a decade. His plans were actually foiled by the continued structure of the elite family unit. Ollie’s aping of the elite doesn’t work. His villainy only succeeds in the end because the matriarch decides to ape middle class-hood. A different message, left IMO for the discovery of the viewer. It is no longer “beware who you trust”, it’s “beware of trying to play poor”
In my opinion, the biggest flaw of the film is the pacing of the deaths. Fennell should have EITHER ended it with Felix's death, then have Oliver successfully replace him as rightful heir of Saltburn, with no other deaths necessary *OR* made it a bit more murder mystery-esque and have Felix's death occur earlier, followed by Venetia and the father (also no need to bring Farleigh back), and HIDE the true nature of Oliver's homecoming sequence until the very end along with his other Talented Mr Ripley machinations.
I totally agree. It was a like a soap opera, and instead of 'recontextualising', whatever that means, perhaps reframing is better, it just undermines the entire movie. The driving force of the movie was his love for Felix, and his desire to not be working class (subplot). The killing spree at the end was pulled off with panache but makes zero sense.
This is literally what I was saying to my friends about the movie! What the movie is trying to say is that a twisted system survives on lies and alternates people’s emotions and desires, but the ‘grand reveal’ just turns it into a biography of a downright psychopath who’s hard to empathize with, no character’s arc, no weakness whatsoever. In fact it turns the rich into the people that are actually worth pitying and the middle class the innate bad guys which kinda implies how the director sees the middle class in the first place…
Your perspective has given me food for thought and I actually agree, thinking about it, the sudden reveal of Oliver's character is a jarring tacked on and unnecessary plot line. I was left wondering, the above notwithstanding , how Saltburn would end up like a fallen down, abandoned ruin now under Oliver's stewardship. He wouldn't have the knowledge to keep it up, keep the house running, and it would eventually crumble around him.. now that's an ending I'd have liked to see! He grasps for the prize and the prize turns to dust. Saltburn and the Catton family are inextricable. Plus, he'd never be able to recreate that magic no matter how much money he had, because the upper classes don't let insiders in , not really. He could never even buy his way into that world.. thanks for that interesting video, great insight!
I think you didn't like bc it didn't end the way you wanted. I don't think Ollie is an intelligent character in his manipulation and murders. When he narrates everything as if it had always been his plan, I feel like it's more of a way to create an image of how he always had control and power, but we as an audience know that's not true. Ollie is just an invisible boy who, to satisfy his greatest desires, did everything to have it all.
Honestly, the movie isn’t brilliant even before the first 7 minutes. The tonal balance is off so much, the party scene goes on too long, the twist of Oliver’s parents being alive and healthy was stupid because it makes Oliver a villain way too early. The movie is predictable and I’m sorry, I wanna be surprised when it comes to a twist.
Yes i felt the exact same way! The ending made Oliver to be this evil genius mastermind, but I found him to be so much more compelling as a character without that. It made him the main villain when really they all were two faced. To me the movie went from being original to cliche just from the last couple minutes. I wish they left it more ambiguous
As Venetia said Oliver is not a spider he's just a moth and he didn't plan everything. Throughout the movie Oliver tries to get closer to the feeling of being unconditionally loved because everyone, including his own parents, uses him to stroke their own egos. Oliver tries to fit in and be loved but he gets broken every time, even by Felix who he hoped to forgive him and be his friend unconditionally, so Oliver's internal conflict ends, he no longer debates wether he loves or hates Felix; as he points out "It was the end of everything" so he gives up on unconditional love and proceeds to get rid of everyone to be alone without people making him feel ashamed or used. In my opinion the end works veery well.
When the ending revealed he was really typing nothing in the cafe I was like, how stupid does this film thing we are lol. Your giving us this whole montage of how he schemed from back at Oxford, at this point the audience doesn’t believe in coincidences so it was kinda pointless scene. I would have been more shocked. His mastermind plan seems less genius and more luck, who knew that if you gave Felix your bike he would feel gratitude to the point of letting you in his inner circle. Or leaving razor blades would be just enough to push his sister over the edge. I would have liked a “then there were none” situation for the sister, like constant psychological oppression rather than one instance. I think it would have been better to see how he took out players like Duncan, or poor Pamela, things that take more than luck to accomplish. Oliver in the end is just like the rich that he critiqued in that he didn’t really work it just worked out that way
Thank you! I thought that was so stupid too! Like even if he is being a criminal mastermind why wouldn’t he type real words? What if Elsbeth looked over his shoulder for 1 second when she invited him to come back with her?
I loved the ending. It was one of the only 'upbeat' moments of the film which was significant after he ironically managed to kill of the last family member and get away with it, this was his twisted celebratory moment where he had beaten everyone and not just gained the house and wealth but satisfaction of it all. It happened right after the viewer was left in a state of shock and questioning everything he had just confessed, to me it felt like he was mocking the fact that if you hadn't figured out his intentions already, this was it and he was fine about it. And then changed the mood enough for you to reflect on everything and/or forget entirely for a moment like Ollie was, as if it could make up for all the fucked up things he had done. And it honestly was fun to watch lol. Additionally the flashbacks at the end were important too, the ending is still ambiguous as it leaves you to question what happened to the surviving characters (We know Duncan realised early on Ollie wasn't what the others believed him to be and there were moments between the two that were interesting to pick apart.) as well as process the past events again and rethink them from the real perspective. Maybe it could have worked without the flashbacks or end scene but I think it improved it, still making you utterly conflicted and in awe at the same time. I just really enjoyed this movie and will continue to defend it. I love to look at the broader view that made you rethink it all as it unfolded and pick apart the intentions of the characters especially as one as interesting as Ollie.
There was apparently an alternate ending where the butler served Oliver runny eggs once again but this time as he sits alone at the breakfast table. I love this ending more because its like sure, you have Saltburn, but you still aren't welcome.
absolutely phenomenal piece of genuine and professional critique on what I thought was a really strong motion picture, right up until the final twist. I feel like Oliver's shame and moment childish fear when Felix is driving them to Oliver's parents should have turned into something much more hysterical and violent, if Oliver is supposed to be this villainous master mind at the end?
Was Saltburn Ending's FANTASTIC or too Far-Fetched??? I know I'm negative on it in this video, but I really want to hear why people do or don't agree. Let me know!
You're just upset because it wasn't about an odd-gay love story.
Um no. What are you even talking about?
This is an excellent analysis - I disagree with your core assertion concerning the ending, but I appreciate the strength of your argument and supporting evidence.
For me, a lot of the ambiguity in Saltburn stems from when Ollie's plan went into motion. Had he researched Felix and his family before he ever met Felix? Obviously, Ollie intended to insert himself into Felix's life (sabotaging the bike tire, etc.), but was taking over the estate always his endgame? Or did he simply arrive at Saltburn, observe the vulnerability/instability of everyone there, and change his plans on the fly? And then there's the grave scene - was Ollie grief-stricken and trying to consummate his love for Felix postmortem, or was he symbolically violating his fallen foe?
I don't have solid answers to any of these questions, I'm simply arguing that the film is rife with ambiguity and open to interpretation.
@marcuscrawford585 hey thats a really great point actually. I think its hard for me to tell what abiguity is on purpose and whats on accident so its hard for me to credit it at times, but youre right it absolutely is there.
Also sorry for the delayed response. I wanted to make sure i really acknowledged this. It means a lot that you were able to appreciate the analysis and not agree with it.
I always want to start a discussion and my goal is never to "be right" but rather just to share my thoughts. Film discussion online can be really binary, but i really adore when a discussion can be productive even without agreeing.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Really made my day
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial I'm happy to hear that I made your day! You're a very gifted, thoughtful content creator and I'm really happy to have stumbled upon your page. Keep doing what you're doing!
Are the last 7 minutes really a twist? The fact that everyone dies immediately after some kind of intense, call out style conversation with Oliver makes it pretty obvious they’re being killed 🤷🏻♂️
I think the use of flashback makes it clear that the director thinks they are revealing something to us that we didn’t know already. Whether or not it’s a twist is up for debate, but I think it was intended as a twist
Exactly. The sinister character reveal started long before that, after he gets to Saltburn and starts being manipulative/controlling to everyone. When he gets found out by Felix and is taken to his home, you can expect what was next.
This was a sociopath thriller like Talented Mr. Ripley.
I guess most people haven't seen a film like this in a long time
I enjoyed the movie, besides that. I knew Oliver was trying to take Felix's place in the family, and trying to eliminate everyone, but I didn't know he started plotting everything from the beginning. So this was a twist for me.
It was intended to be a twist, but it’s really not. Like it was so obvious that Oliver killed Felix to prevent him from telling anybody else the truth about Oliver’s family and make him leave Saltburn. IMO the only thing in that sequence that was actually a twist was the bike tire puncture. I feel like they could’ve only shown that in the flashback that would’ve been enough, showing that literally the first interaction those two had was based on a lie, just showing that one scene would’ve been enough to provoke thought and interpretation without making Ollie into a bond villain
Everyone except for Farleigh…which seems like a pretty big plot hole lol
I loved the ending. Oliver wanted to possess the whole family, and in the end, he did (stones and all)
The stones served as a nice touch to symbolise how he conquered Saltburn over dead bodies of it's previous occupants.
Ur a sicko
I agree after Venetia died I was thinking he did so I like when they wrap it up
@@dallasmiles2751 Don't you think his naked dance through the house would have been better if you had just a pinch of uncertainty?
Yes. But the ending suggests that was his plan all along [although I do feel further viewings will steer us away from that truth], whereas the film itself implies it was more of an opportunity that evolved organically.
I feel like the movie does give us glimpses into Oliver's disdain towards Felix. That scene where Felix and Oliver were hanging out in Felix's dorm room is what comes to mind. To me, this scene when I first watched it felt a little out of nowhere. Now thinking back, I think Oliver showing disgust at how lazy Felix is in cleaning up after himself and the smell of the room bothers him so much because it speaks to how accustomed Felix is in not having to clean up after himself. Also the body language in the scene. Oliver seems to grow more annoyed looking at Felix all sprawled out on the floor, languidly unbothered by the mess growing around him. Just how I saw it, anyway
his mimetic desire of wanting to be Felix or be with Felix was constantly at odds with with his personal sensibilities. It overpowers every instinct he has.
From the moment he tried sleeping with that chick that was trying to make Felix jealous, I knew!
Yeah, that scene was trying to show us something, I thought about that tension, seemingly for no reason. Good catch
When I first saw the film, I assumed it was the disdain someone in a different wealth class would feel towards the rich and how lazy they are. However, when rewatching the film, I saw this scene as another point of how intricately plotted Oliver's scheme was since he later uses the excuse of the filth of his home for why he can't ever go back. In the scene, he's blankly nodding along with what Felix is saying before springing into cleaning up the room and making a big show of it, and in retrospect it seems like he's deciding on a new tragic fact to add to his past in order to garner more sympathy from Felix. I agree that it was definitely a glimpse into his disdain, but I think Oliver is even more calculated than what's assumed.
He was also acting out his idea of a wife cleaning up around a lazy husband, in my opinion. He was backing Felix into the role of a domestic partner.
Psychopaths know that they need to mask their tendencies, but they need someone to know that they have masterfully planned and executed a plot. The more sinister the better. This is why it was such a great idea that the writer had the first person Oliver met at college tell him that he's a genius. And then he needed to prove that he was a genius, but when Oscar wouldn't give him a sum he yelled at the top of his lungs to give him a sum so that he could prove himself a genius. This goes to show that geniuses also need people to know that they are a genius. The exposition at the end of the movie was Oliver proving to us that he's a genius. We started the movie with a man needing to prove he was a genius and ended it with the protagonist proving to his audience that he is a genius - in his mind. After all just because you can multiply quickly doesn't mean you're a genius.
And now I think I've said the word "genius" enough times to prove that I am not one. 😆
This is a great explanation and for sure the best defense of the end monologue ive heard. I still dont love that direction for the character, but this definitely provides a sense of logic to why he would reveal all this. Cheers!
Yes great comment
“That’s the frailty of genius- it needs an audience.”
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial in my eye... Ollie wants to be known and seen and wanted by someone... He wanted to be cool and people's favorite by making this elaborate story of his past... He is thirsty for a different life... And sometimes a psychopath is a psychopath for shit and giggles and must make the world know them... Some of them even had elaborate specialty moves like keeping the victims hair.
In regards to the movie, you're probably right. But in "real" life, true geniuses don't "need people to know". Regardless of what the great "very stable genius" likes to claim
What’s weird is that this movie was so REAL except for Oliver’s characterisation. I went to Oxford (recent graduate) and the first half hour of the movie was really, really jarring and uncanny to me because it was literally exactly what my Oxford experience was like. It didn’t help that most of the scenes were filmed in my college and in my favourite spots, literally down to my favourite tree stump 😭 But I KNEW (still know) people like Felix and Farleigh at Oxford. They were real characters. On the other hand, Oliver never seemed real. His character didn’t entirely make sense, it was so inconsistent.
Amazing, that the people like this really exist. Probably only in Britain. (I know, I see them everywhere in this country). Yes, I know that rich and entitled are everywhere, but British culture gives them another level. Supressed feelings, appearances over everything else, money orientated openly, dark, sad sorroundings, any real joy turned into Tim Burton type of sinister, lack of closeness or/and connection with others - what a perfect recepie for loneliness and depression...
I felt the same way. Oliver never felt fleshed out to me. I didn’t go to Oxford, but I’ve met plenty of people like Farleigh and Felix. The scene where Farleigh ignores Oliver and talks over him to the professor felt so real to me. Like I know that guy. I went to school with that guy and he sucks
I thought this movie was filmed in the midlands?
I'm guessing that due to his loner childhood, he didn't really have any character. But going to university helps people to develop their character, and he was developing his own throughout the film. Human behaviour is 99% mimicry.
But, he wsn't a loner - he had 2 (or was it 3?) sisters. @@happinesstan
Had oliver just married felix's mom and got the estate through marriage would have made the ending more believable. Her just signing it away was absurd.
I suspect he and Elspeth did start a romantic relationship. However it would have been taboo for her marry him (class/mourning reasons). She had to list a successor for the estate and Oliver was the person closest to her considering the cousin was excommunicated from the family.
That's your imagination. The movie did not demonstrate anything romantic between them. Basically, she had no heirs left and always felt close to him for whatever reason so he became the heir.@@Wildtingz
Naw they definitely were romantically involved. She literally says "the coast is clear" in reference to her husband having passed
right i was lowk waiting for them to do something (wild maybe) and then she just,, gave him the house?????
@@jrgnc1 yes that’s why I said I suspected. Given that he uses sex as a form of manipulation and that he had already attempted to hit on her during his first moments alone with her it isn’t too far fetched to think they went down that path. If she just simply needed a successor it likely would have been farleigh and his mother as they are a part of the Catton bloodline.
Did they not do an autopsy on Elspeth? Oliver was the only one with her at the end and her breathing tube was extubated, leading to her death. She dies and he inherits everything because she signed it off before her death. It’s easy to determine foul play.
The writer went full Harlan Coben. Fuck logic. Shock SHOCK *SHOCK* is all the audience needs! More twists! More death! More fake deaths! AAHHH
A character as smart as the first two hours Oliver would have given her an overdose of drugs or insulin, or mashed the emergency button after her death and broken some ribs to fake an resuscitation attempt.
It also made no sense to kill her to begin with, since she was a total enabler and tolerated him from the beginning and would have been a perfect passive accomplice. He could have still danced naked.
My guess is it's one rule for the rich and another for the classes below them.
you can raise that point against all the deaths, but being completely realistic is not relevant for the story
Yeah it's not that kind of movie. They wouldn't even have had to do an autopsy when her breathing tube had clearly been yanked out and thrown on the floor.
I was thinking that the whole thing was so…amateur? Not the right word for it but it didn’t seem particularly careful
My theory is that Emerald Fennel wanted to create an anti-establishment “eat the rich” type of narrative, but she doesn’t know how to write middle class people. Her upper class characters were incredible, but I didn’t relate to Ollie at any point.
This movie was extremely self indulgent and had nothing to say.
What's sad is it did have something to say but by accident. The ending to me suggests the filmmakers didnt realize what they were making
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial I couldn’t of said it better
If she wanted to create an eat the rich narrative, why did she make Oliver and his family middle class and not working class? That's my only critique.
this is one of the most unbelievably wrong takes I've ever read
Had he not confessed his crimes to Elspeth on her deathbed. Had he merely said that he hated them all but couldn´t keep away from them, it would´ve been perfect.
The audience would been forced to project themselves into the story, and some would condemn him while others would say just because he hated them doesn´t mean anything concrete: some people hate the environment they live in while still benefiting from it.
Yes, totally agree, the reveal kinda ruins it for me
The lack of ambiguity in the end ruined it for me, too. The second big twist at the end didn't work for me for another, different reason. I was only surprised by the first twist that he misrepresented his family background. The final twist that he was manipulating the family was obvious to me from the moment he gave his little veiled confession to Elsbeth when he was laying into Pamela to get the family to trust him. He was obviously scheming and shmoozing. The final twist montage that reveals every little detail just felt condescending like it was overly impressed with itself and was begging me to be impressed too. I respect ambition. I give a but of a free pass to anything that tries to swing for the fences even if it doesn't always land. What i don't like is when something is up its own backside, and Saltburn absolutely was. The ending made it feel like everything leading up to it was more concerned with using cheap shock value to get people talking (which seems to have worked) instead of concerned with telling a nuanced story that's trying to make the audience to speculate and ask questions. Not everything needs clean cut answers, and the fact that the ending feot the need to give answers to what already seemed obvious through context clues suggests to me that the storyteller doesn't trust that the audience is capable of thinking and figuring things out for themselves. Subtlety is a virtue, and while I'm not averse to purposeful and well executed shock value, the ending's complete lack of subtelty just felt a bit cheap.
Exactly my thoughts to the T. Glad someone agrees
I agree 100%
hard agree, i didnt need to see oliver k working everyone, it was more that implied, leaving it ambigous would have made the movie 100 times better
Yap yap yap yap
Completely agree.
I believe Elspeth would be interested in the tragic details of this poor, poor rich family, even if it were her own. A little gossip on the way out. And I think Ollie honors that.
You know whatever is left if her in that coma is making THE MOST biting passive aggressive commentary
Only thing I was upset with was him hitting us over the head with "look at me look at what I did do you know what I did let me repeat it"
@@Junksaint The flashbacks detailing his every act fucked it up for me.
@@Senate300 Agreed, up to that point the director did a great job with the balancing act of revealing how much manipulation did Oliver really do? How far did he actually go off screen to execute his plans. Did he or didnt he kindve stuff. And then boom a big blatant killing montage. It quickly betrayed its own quality of directing up to that point.
@@sergeantbigmac The excessive use of depository flashbacks was a condescending, self indulgent show and tell moment that help Saltburn defeat itself as a psychological thriller because in exchange for the big reveal it gave up the implication game which is to be sold, not to be told plus, even without the flashbacks there was evidence for filmgoers to tie Oliver into the Catton Sibling Murders.
I thought him doing the grave would have been a better and more heartbreaking ending but the ending we got was at least fun and crazy.
Ooh thats a great point. Especially since emerald fennel says she views the film as being primarily about obsession.
This would have been the perfect, crazy ending.
But it would have changed the overall motive of his last series of actions/buildup.
@@TheWritersBlockOfficialyes, and all along you think he’s obsessed with Felix and his family but somehow it falls flat that he’s just…jealous of the house?? Like, he still hasn’t become one of them
I feel like that would take away from the power he’s obtained completely
Towards the middle I realized we are actually watching the villain this whole time. So the ending wasnt surprising to me. It was just confirming to me he really is the villain.
The way I understood this movie is he never actually planned taking the manor for himself. He planned creating a friendship with Felix and nothing else. He was genuinely obsessed with him & being his BBF. Once Felix found out it was all planned and manipulated and that he'd never get his friendship again, that moment in the maze is when Oliver changed his plans.
Oliver clearly wanted more than to be Felix's friend. He was hopelessly attracted to him and would've done and said anything to stay in his orbit.
He had the poison that killed Felix with him when he got to the maze, which makes it premeditated though
This is how I saw it too. Too many people claim Oliver was out to destroy the family from Day One, but no - he just had an unhealthy crush on Felix and went out of his way to endear himself. He went in the maze with a bottle of poisoned wine but held it close while making a last-ditch effort to win Felix' trust back. When he failed he agonizes as he hands the bottle over. Felix didn't have to drink it, just like Venetia didn't have to use the razor blades left by the tub. Oliver only physically kills one person, and that is at the very end. The birthday party scene plays like a nightmare because it IS for Oliver - he knows this could be the end of his life with Felix and is terrifed to reach the end.
@Senate300 Thats definitely true, I believe Felix was the only person that Oliver had romantic and sexual feelings for. I mean, Felix seemed to be interested too, at least a little bit, like the kiss on Olivers cheek, like which straight guy does that to a new friend?
@@vessagroker98 Many straight men in a bromances kiss their friends on the cheek and not on the lips. Do you think Felix would've took it there with Oliver if he wasn't such a fraud? I believe Felix's interest in Oliver was in the charity case he pretended to be.
I like to believe that Oliver is completely unreliable and just imagines in retrospect that he masterminded everything. 😂
That is absolutely what the story is saying. The director basically confirmed it.
@@lumenx7499 Interesting. I haven’t seen that particular interview. Would you happen to be able to point me there?
That's how I viewed it!! I saw it as him trying to justify his actions after doing them when in fact it was spur of the moment, mostly because of how Barry interpreted Oliver and how he seemed so in love with Felix.
I agree with your ending line of “I intend to take care of Saltburn” and maybe the funeral but also people are saying drop the flashback and keep the dance sequence and I totally agree. I thought Venetia dying in that same bath tub immediately after we see them speaking was all but confirmation that Ollie was doing the killing trying to become the defacto heir. Even the cut to elspeth in a coma was fine confirmation that he was behind everything.
The question is did Oliver kill Venetia himself or simply give her the tools to kill herself? You're right? The flashbacks helped the movie defeat itself as a psychological thriller. Did he or didn't he was the game and Saltburn gave up the game.
I think the flashback should’ve been done differently. I think they only should’ve kept the flashback of him puncturing Felix’s tire. Because that shows that Oliver was already lying to Felix, even before he spoke to him. The entire relationship was completely based on lies even before Oliver said a word about his family. If they just kept that one flashback scene, that could’ve still been a nice twist to recontextualize their entire relationship, to show that Oliver was *always* lying, even before he lied about his parents. That would’ve still left a lot open to interpretation without being too on the nose.
@@bebop2523 Oliver's a Charlatan as well as a murderer. You're perfectly right. That one scene where Ollie punctured Felix's tire was all we needed. The rest of the flashbacks were unnecessary.
I think it's worth noting that Emerald Fennel has explicitly stated that Oliver was NOT a mustache twirling villain who planned it all from the jump. She has said he has acted on several desires in the moment, which have escalated to the next thing and the next thing and the next. Each time he HAS been manipulative and twisted a particular outcome, but they are individual incidents that escalate. NOT somehow Oliver wanting Saltburn from the start. I would even go as far to say that he only really starts wanting Saltburn when Farleigh rubs it in that this is "his house".
I came to say exactly this! His obsession starts with felix, then the family, then saltburn itself. I absolutely loved watching the progression of his desire and obsession grow more and more intensely throughout the movie
Obsession over material wealth, property, and the lifestyle of the uber wealthy is inherently commenting on class weather fennel intended that or not
Oh it absolutely is. Apologies if you thought I was trying to counter that argument. I think she must have intended that reading, since she makes everyone in that family so very detached from reality. The fact Felix doesn't even cotton on that Oliver's story was BS the moment he saw the house speaks to how he probably thinks that's the kind of house a 'poor' former street dealer/ addict could afford on their own. Not to mention the countless other examples of poor-tourism they seem to take part in. I think somewhere else she said if they were doing their job properly we would all side with Ollie. Like she apparently was trying to portray him as a likeable villain, but in a 'positive' way that "an audience would side with" which I think is what she actually failed to do for a lot of people watching. @@TheWritersBlockOfficial
Oh ok got it thats a great point! Sorry i respond from the youtube app on my phone and sometimes the nuance of which specific comment is being responded to or the tone of that comment can be misinterpreted. Especially when some folks have been pretty aggro (just got accused of exhibiting characteristic american baseness recently today). Thanks for taking the time to clarify. I really appreciate it
He doesn't just throw Pamela under the bus, he picked up on Elspeth's frustration with Pamela constantly being around. He gave Elspeth permission to admit how she truly felt without feeling guilty about it.
I actually found Farleigh to be the most compelling character and wanted him to come out on top at the end and take Ollie down.
I think a confrontation of any sort post Elspeth between Farleigh and Ollie would have been awesome. Their dynamic was the most compelling in my opinion. Farleigh really embodied the idea of class as an identity.
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial " the idea of class as an identity." Can you expand on this?
Meaning farleigh views himself as upper class even though he himself doesn't have money of his own. Hes only able to indulge in the lifestyle because of Félix and the family. But he has crafted his identity around the symbols of the weath regardless of his own lack of weath. Thus, he believes he's entitled to saltburn and is "one of them" even though technically he's just as much of an outsider
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial gotcha, thanks.
Compelling? He was an insecure and envious do nothing who clung to his donated "rich guy" status.
His personal character is worse than any of the real rich people for that alone. He comes from poor but shames others for it.
I don't think the film was about subverting expectations. I think, in every way, it was about surfaces and lust. Emerald Fennell herself said you weren't supposed to be surprised by what happens, you know Oliver is untrustworthy from his first sentence. The whole text was right on the surface to ogle and covet, with no depth at all, and that is the point.
I read Oliver's confused look at the news of Dear Pamela's death as a re-calibration. He was still learning the family at that point, and I think their reaction set a new floor for their callousness.
ETA: That said, I agree with you that the bones of a much more compelling film are close at hand with this one.
IMO they could’ve shown only the bike tire puncture in the flashback at the end. That would’ve shown that this one small action lead to everything else. How one small “white lie” from a lonely teen who just wanted a friend lead to all this death and destruction. I totally agree that going farther than that with the flashbacks turned Ollie into a Bond villain rather than a normal guy who told a fib that got way out of hand and then ran with it. If they only showed the bike tire puncture, that plus the twist with the parents could still leave the viewers imagination open to interpret what else in the plot was or was not a result of Oliver‘s machinations.
I don't think Oliver's expression after learning of Pamela's death was of emotional conflict, I think it was surprise. He planned for everything but this wasn't part of it and there was a flicker of disappointment on his face.
I want to point something very specific out. During Oliver’s reaction to Pamala’s death, you can subtly see him smile. It’s a subtle twitch of the mouth, yet clearly an expression of happiness.
I think the ending act was actually great because it implored you to rewatch the movie again and see all of the examples they likely sneaked in of the interpretations towards loving and hating, and inflections and etc. etc.
A key example is when the sisters rock is thrown into the lake, Felix's is already missing.
I think they did too much though. Too many flashbacks. I feel like if they only showed the bike tire puncture scene in a flashback that would’ve recontextualize a lot of other scenes and still encouraged a rewatch without turning Ollie into an over-the-top Bond villain.
@@bebop2523 I mean that is kind of what he was though he was 100% a villain, and he planned his entire escapade from the start from the moment he met Felix, maybe even knew about Felix before and that's why he went to Oxford, had plans existing already to get into Saltburn etc.
@@bebop2523true- but we wouldn’t seen Oliver use Farley phone to send txt to Sothebys after sleeping with him - we wouldn’t have seen his clearly using the weath he got from the pay off by Dad to have a comfortable life - we wouldn’t necessacrily conclude he tracked the mother down to her new flat location and coincidentally found the coffee shop she was in to meet him again - and i just think the movie is always going to be a rewatch and having to explain to audiences what happened in a otherwise potentially confusing set of circumstances is probably required - especially US audiences that wont get a lot of the English comedy and sarcasm through the film- that my opinion anyways
@@DaveHammondDublin was it not obvious to you at the time it happened that Oliver was the one who sent the email about the plates? Those were the plates that Oliver had feigned interest in earlier in the movie to suck up to Sir James. It was so obvious that Farleigh was not the one who sent the email, and that Oliver had somehow pulled it off because this was the day after Farley had humiliated Oliver by making him sing the Pet Shop Boys song. The timing + Oliver‘s previous interest/research in the plates made it so obvious that Oliver was behind it.
I completely disagree. The ending of Saltburn felt, to me, like when your therapist points out patterns of self-destructive behaviour that you were sort-of aware of but didn't fully want to acknowledge, and then you go "oooohhhh", you kind of knew, but having another person make you confront it makes it different in some way. The explicit explanation of the ending makes all the viewers have to acknowledge what happened in no uncertain terms. It also shows how repression can manifest into very real endings.
It is important that we know Oliver is cunning and calculating. On a second viewing, it is interesting to try and pinpoint exactly when Oliver turns from a manipulative liar to a calculating murderer.
I think the ambiguity you mention as the film unfolds still holds even with the last 7 minutes. I don't think the end shows us what Oliver has been all along, it shows what he is destined to turn into.
I think that’s a really cool take, but it kind of doesn’t make sense because Oliver is the one revealing all of it to us. If another character like a police investigator or maybe even Farley was the one to piece everything together, the audience could have felt vindicated or blindsided, having to confront the reality that they were rooting for a murderer. Instead, Oliver tells us through flashbacks he’s a psycho and then we watch him dance.
@@Asteroids50 Sure, but even a therapist wants us to make our own connections, they ;ead us, they don't tell us. To me, this is more about the peace you have to make with yourself than others determining what is right and what is wrong
I think thats an excellent point. I think id be more ok with the finale if the class dynamics were a bit different. Mainly because i still think the themes about entitlement and identity are more fleshed out and interesting than the obsession/deception angle. Either way its an excellently crafted film and this is why the ending is so fascinating and divisive. It makes the movie something else entirely
@@yakuzzi35Can you explain your point a little more? I genuinely don’t get it.
I wasn’t in denial about Oliver being a killer. It was just ambiguous, so I wasn’t sure yet. Telling me definitively didn’t make me re-examine my feeling about Oliver. It made me feel like the ending was spoiled because now there was no room for me to read in my own interpretation of his actions. I already knew he was cunning because of the interactions with Elsbeth and the sister.
@@Asteroids50 Sure, so these are my own personal feelings from watching the film. The climax of the film was, for me, in the very middle when we find out that Oliver has been lying about his parents, to me this expose is as unambiguous and as in-your-face as the last scene. Everything Oliver has done up until this point can sort of be justified considering his "past", when we find out his past is a fiction, all his weaknessess, humiliations and short-comings become schemes, plots, his desperation changes. I had to re-examine all my moralising, the middle made the Cattons more vulenrable and more human. And to me, that was a bitter pill to swallow, so the ending negates that - his confession should make me feel absolved BUT it doesn't entirely. To an extent I can still justify some of his behaviour, on a second viewing I can judge the morality of the Cattons, knowing full-well Oliver is a murderer, how does that change how I see the Cattons, and specifically Felix? We also know Oliver is a liar, so in the final scene how truthful is he? I believe his retelling of how things unfolded, but | don't believe his own self-analysis, he says he wasn't in love with Felix when it seems like he clearly was, was that all an act? Is he lying to himself in the end? It still seems ambiguous to me. How self aware is he? Which of his actions was he conscious of and which bubbled-up from underneath, is he explaining the ending to us, the viewers or to himself? If you felt certain that he was a murderer, why does the ending spoil it by confirming what you already knew, could you possibily not have been too harsh in your judgement WITHOUT the ending? Our worst fears were confirmed and that felt underwhelming - what does that say about us then? What would the movie be like of we leave out the middle where we find out about his parents, but keep the ending?
Sorry for the long response
I couldn't tell if the writer/director thought the end was a twist as it was VERY clear Oliver was killing them. The ending would have been more interesting if they didn't play it out with some big confession and showing. It would have felt so much darker and interesting if they just left a bunch of the details in the dark and just showed him dancing at the end. It would have cleared up any question and make him seem so much more sinister. If they really wanted a twist ending, they could have shown Oliver to be completely innocent of the actual murders.
Edit: wrote this comment before getting through the video... yeah on the same page.
Thank you for this video because I've also been sort of stuck on the ending of saltburn, and this has helped put into words why that is. I think it was mainly the flashback scenes and how they give an air of "it was all part of his master plan", which I felt didn't really make much sense in relation to the rest of the movie. The ending/flashbacks makes Oliver seem like he knew what he was plotting this entire time, as if everything was falling perfectly into place, when so much of the movie was Oliver discovering things and almost realizing his potential as a cunning manipulator. Also with the flashbacks, it makes you question more like "ok wait, did Oliver always know saltburn existed and he was trying to get close to felix in order to get the house?" that doesnt entirely explain the lust/love he seems to have for felix. I just agree with you in that the ending doesn't leave much up to interpretation, and instead makes us see Oliver as some evil mastermind rather than a manipulative psychopath realizing his power throughout the film.
I'm so glad I could help verbalize what you were fealing
Actually this is probably what I was *trying* to say in my own roundabout way with my response. I think you spelled it out more clearly. The version of reality suggested to us at the end simply didn't match up with everything else we'd seen. I mean, I wasn't surprised that he was "the bad guy", I just wondered how he could have planned for that ending all along. It didn't quite gel.
yes yes! i liked that oliver felt like a fish out of water at oxford and feels special because felix picks him and starts to lie / exagerate to "keep him" as his friend, and you see this keep going at saltburn, the "big reveal" that he popped felixes bike just make it seem like oliver knew about felix and saltuburn the whole time
The nuance of an awkward, not as rich guy doing anything to stay in the graces of the most popular rich guy makes more sense than this "mastermind" reveal at the end
Exactly, so the grave-fucking scene makes no sense!! I thought it was supposed to be a genuine psychosexual obsession with Felix that led him to do that. I liked it better when he was just a pathetic little freak who would rather kill the man he pined for rather than have that man hate him. I think he was much better characterized as a desperately shy boy who was so captivated by the bright shining star that was Felix to the point that he would lie just to get closer to him. Making it about a house was so anticlimactic
It’s weird because the ending made it seem like he was more obsessed with the house and the money than with the family, which contradicts the entirety of the movie before that
I liked the ending because the whole movie he wanted, wanted, wanted, to the point of becoming obsessed. But he didn't get what he wanted. Felix rejected him. The family kicked him out. No matter what role he played and how much he gave everyone what they wanted, he just reframed the narrative in the end after 15 years to make himself look like a mastermind rather than admit that he never got what he wanted. The truth is that if he couldn't have Felix like he wanted, he would just become him. That's what he made himself believe he wants. He just pretends, because everyone pretended. The family pretended they cared about people. They pretended Felix was not dead. Farley pretended that he belonged there even after being kicked out. Felix pretended that he was better than he actually was. What I thought was funny is that even when Felix is naked in Saltburn, he is trying so hard to convince himself that he belongs there and doesn't have to give anyone what they want. He can just be himself. Naked. And that he got what he wanted. That box. Saltburn. BUT you know he killed her, he's alone and there's no real reason to believe there's a happily ever after for him, but you are on his side if only a little even after he did rip out that tube out which is twisted, but it's meant to be like that. Honestly this movie reminded me a bit of Parasite which I liked too.
I agree. Despite his psychopathy I found myself rooting for him even after pulling out Elsbeths tube.
As someone from a very old and once very influential family, I think this may have been the most pro upper-class film I’ve ever seen (by accident). It presented middle-class people as striving and clawing ruthlessly to get into a group which is impossible to enter except by blood, desperate to achieve an impossible goal and going to such lengths as murder to get there (vampire references in the film, blood sucking etc, calling middle class people vampires). If at any point it was supposed to be about destroying the class system in the UK, it failed in putting that point across and if anything creates sympathy for aristocrats in a political scene where there is none.
Certainly agree with a lot of what's said here, Ollie was actually a pretty sympathetic character through most of the film, even after the parents reveal. But if he wasn't responsible for the deaths of Felix/his sister, who was? They both just happened to expire while he was there, seems sus! As I left the theater, I started to feel shades of "Talented Mr Ripley"... Barry's performance was first rate.
Agreed
Talented Mr Ripley is exactly what I thought of too after I finished watching it!
You could say Saltburn was The Talented Mr. Ripley's Trueborn son.
Absolutely he was responsible for their deaths, but it should’ve been left ambiguous how exactly he killed them. Like it’s so obvious that he killed Felix because the timing was too perfect, Felix is the only one who knows Oliver‘s secret and he dies right before he’s going to reveal the truth to his family and get Oliver kicked out of Saltburn. But the way they show all of her killing Felix was just pure, dumb luck, like how did Oliver know for sure that Felix is going to drink from the bottle? What if Felix hadn’t sipped from it, or hadn’t drink enough to actually OD, what would Oliver have done? Or with Venetia, how did Oliver know for sure that she was going to actually use the razor blades to slit her wrists? What if she hadn’t done it, what was he going to do? Oliver‘s Bond villain master plan leaves way too much up to chance, if we’re supposed to believe he is this Machiavellian mastermind then he wouldn’t have killed them in ways that could’ve so easily failed.
@@bebop2523yeah the Venetia one is especially sus because why did she kill herself? How could he have known she would kill herself?
The other thing that gets me is the house was CRAWLING with servants including the creepy butler who seemed to hate Oliver from the start. How on Earth did he get away with it all without someone seeing what he was doing?
I completely agree that the finale should have been cut to have a more profound story. With the final "reveal" it feels like Fennel didn't trust the audience enough to connect the dots together. I remeber thinking (when the first reveal happened) about every scene that made the audience (and Felix) feel bad for Oliver and thinking: "wow, Oliver really did trick us all". I even related it to The Sixth Sense's twist, where the answer is always laid before you but the story cuts and camerawork make them difficult to notice on a first watch but extremely obvious on the following ones.
The finale dumbs down the story; Fennel not trusting her story enough for the audience to "get it". I wish it would have ended with Oliver on the grave and go out with a bang (literally lmao), leaving the audience wanting to re-watch the movie and look at Oliver's actions in every scene, questioning which was a performance and which was real.
As a last thought, I think it would've been way better if Felix's death was left ambiguous as well. Not every "villain" has to have everything planned out, especially in a movie set in a real-world place and time. Having Oliver's dumb luck being a possibility, the story would have even more layers of profoundness showing that luck treats them all the same regardless of wealth or moral compass (reiterating your previous points).
What I thought the story was getting at with Ollie was a message about class--and about how much better the lives of the upper class are than everyone else, but when there is a weak link, those of lesser classes can exploit that weakness and take over, and re-establish that class structure so they can enjoy the lifestyle they've been envious of the entire time. Oliver is a poor, pathetic person who sees this affluence at Saltburn in the hands of weak people, and tries to take it for himself. The great twist with Oliver's family negated his class motivations, and I think made the movie more specifically about Oliver's psychopathy
I thought that the parents were stereotypical upper-class people: Too self-obsessed and concerned with appearances and ritual to see what's in front of them. (forcing themselves to eat lunch as their son's body is literally being carried past them) They're so privileged that the idea of danger is completely foreign to them, and they never realize that they have invited a monster into their home.
What I liked about Oliver's character is that he's mostly very secretive and hard to read, but as the movie progresses you start to notice the small things that he does to slowly ingratiate himself into the family, like termites slowly eating their way into a home. A good point was when Oliver arrives to Saltburn, the butler mentions that he never knew Oliver was coming and would've opened the gate, but Oliver found a way inside anyway. I thought it was a subtle way of showing how Oliver can slowly burrow his way inside of people's lives, and through his manipulation he slowly begins to control the lives of the people at Saltburn.
I think the line that describes Oliver best is the first romance scene with V, where he says that he "is a vampire". I was expecting a little more of a crazy twist with Felix's family possibly being some kind of cult or something, but I think Saltburn itself represents excess and affluence, and once Oliver got a taste of it, he became "Lost in Saltburn."
But Oliver wants more, and slowly consumes more and more around him with no real objective -- he lies to Felix about his relationship with Felix's sister, which is ridiculous because of how easy it would be to debunk, but he does so to make Felix happy.
I didn't like the ending that portrayed Oliver as some villain killer--and when Felix died I had a feeling the movie was going to lose steam for me.
What I was hoping would happen was that after Felix discovers Oliver's lies, Oliver can either gaslight him into not believing it matters, or finds a way to manipulate Felix's family into outing him from Saltburn.
I thought it was pretty obvious that Oliver killed Felix because the timing was too perfect. Just like it was so convenient that Oliver‘s father died exactly when Felix was becoming distant from him and this was the perfect thing to get Felix’s attention back at the perfect time. Of course later on we find out that this was all perfectly orchestrated by Oliver. So how convenient is it that Felix just happens to die right before he is going to tell his parents the truth about Oliver and get Oliver sent home from Saltburn? And how convenient is it that he dies in such a way that puts the blame on Farleigh? They could’ve just left it ambiguous as to how he did it, though they didn’t have to show exactly him putting the cocaine in the bottle, because how did he know Felix would drink from it? Same with leaving the razor blades for Venetia, how did he know 100% that she would slit her wrists? They should’ve just implied that Oliver killed the siblings but not shown exactly how because the explanations that they show left way too much room for error. I do think that the one flashback that really worked well was the tire puncture. That shows that literally from the first moment they met everything was based on Oliver’s lies, before Oliver even said a word to Felix. They could’ve just cut the tire puncture at the end and that would’ve been enough of a flashback to recontextualize everything and have a nice aha moment without overexplaining.
@@Blexg the thing is when you look throughout history at revolutions, it’s not really the lower class that is the threat to the upper class, it’s the middle class. The French revolution was orchestrated by the bourgeoisie, not the peasants. However, the bourgeoisie revolutionaries aligned themselves with the peasants, even though the peasants were by and large loyal to the king and actually opposed to the revolution. Even to this day the French revolution is often portrayed as a peasant uprising, the bourgeoisie propaganda is still effective over 250 years later. Same can be said with more recent revolutions like the Arab Spring, which was also mostly orchestrated by the middle-class, not the impoverished. The middle-class are just educated enough to be a real threat to the upper class, but not rich enough to be upper class themselves.
@@bebop2523 I'm not gonna get into the specifics of class struggle because I don't really think it's applicable here, I just thought the movie was initially a commentary on how people that have nothing have every incentive to infiltrate the lives of those who have everything and steal it from them, so that they can enjoy these awesome lives for themselves.
But the twist in the movie was that Oliver isn't a helpless poor guy, and he's actually more of a maniac that wants everything
I liked that the final 7 minute twist makes the character we're supposed to root for the 'baddie'. For me, it enhances the film's theme of the ugliness of pursuing wealth and social status. Again, in my opinion, it asked the question of 'what is all that wealth worth if this is what you had to do to get it?'. And if you still want an 'eat the rich' slant to it, then look at the fact that the relatives of Saltburn just had to be born, where as Oliver had to murder and scheme and sacrifice so much in order to have the same as them. I also liked how the Oliver we see for most of the film is different from the 'actual Oliver' at the end mirrors the 'keeping up appearances' that the Saltburn family are obsessed with. I do understand and agree with your thoughts about the exposition horizon though.
You make great points. I think overall i was more interested in the film before the recontextualization, but i also get why people really enjoy the film it "reveals itself" to be. I know youtube titles arent very nuanced but i want to be clear i recognize the validity and value of perspectives opposite to mine. "3 Reasons Saltburns Ending wasnt to my personal taste" just doesnt drive clicks as a title unfortunately 😔
Completely agree. Up until the final reveal I was caught up in trying to figure Oliver out. The finale took all of the mystery away and it's made it so that I have no interest in re-watching. Where as I think I would have re-watched it otherwise, to try to further explore his character and the mystery.
Exactly! Like going through the footage for editing i was like "this is the best" and then id be editing footage from the finale and just go "oh right this is why i didnt go see this is theaters again..."
I felt the same way. I was really excited to talk with my friends and debate whether or not Ollie killed Felix and then the movie just told me and I was really bummed. Everything else was so spooky and mercurial in the film
I disagree. When I rewatched the film I got to see Oliver clearly lying and grasping at straws, making it up as he goes when he was talking about his Father dying for instance. Unlike The Talented Mr Ripley where you are let in on what is going on the entire time, with this film (since you are only vaguely aware of what he's doing) it's fun to see how blind I was watching this little liar the first time.
Also, I completely disagree with the assessment that Oliver felt bad when Pamela died, or felt bad about his part in it. He even cracks a smirk in the clip you showed. But since we read it two different ways it just shows that there is PLENTY the audience can still disagree on that wasn't spelled out. I see people saying the graveyard scene doesn't make sense after the ending because he wasn't in love. I mean, he clearly was in love, and was tortured by the fact that he had to kill who he loved when it went south (in my mind). Someone could disagree, because there is still a lot there.
@@neil2179I haven’t watched Saltburn a second time yet, but I find it really interesting that you noticed all these points where Ollie is just making it up as he goes along. This is Oliver’s story and he’s the narrator, so at least on my first viewing I felt like he was purposely trying to paint himself in a certain light. All the moments where he stumbles or grasps for words are supposed to endear him to Felix and the audience.
I have been waiting for someone with this take, literally watching the last bit in the theater I was completely shocked. Not shocked by the ending of "oh! it was his master plan all along!", but rather in the sense of exactly what you said, as it just didn't make sense for the movie and completely undermines the message and characters. I enjoyed the movie but was surprised by such a typical ending from an otherwise interesting film.
Exactly! It feels like an easy out that doesnt match the previous complexity
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial That's because you both have misunderstood the film, there was no master plan until .....
brilliant summation , the end felt very hollywood interference and having watched many interviews with the director you are spot on about her approach from her being more upper class herself. i feel like that is this issue in the ending, that it wasnt Ollies ending it was the directors chosen ending thrust onto the character, made it feel inconsistent.
When you first watch this thru you think, "Wow he's been playing them all along" then you think about it and you kind of realize that the writer mixed two different villains together, in the first part he seems to be an obsessed psychopath wanting to be part of this family, the two weird scenes with the Bath tub and the fresh grave (this last one Way over the top by the way) support this. Then the wrap up paint him as a sociopathic grifter. And I am left thinking "pick a psycho and stick with it" Good video thanks for sharing.
He was always a sociopath obsessed with taking Salburn as his own. Everything that at first we thought conveyed his obsession with the people/the family, was always just his obsession with Saltburn itself. The reveal changes the context of what came before, that was the intent.
@@dragons_red ............Why eh.......Why did he Hump the grave?
Yes, I knew he was hollow and motivated by the desire to for social acceptance, but his psychopathology was all over the place. Parasitic like in the Talented Mr Ripley and artistic expression like in America Psycho. Maybe he’s just a top tier (genius) psycho? 😂
Saltburn is my favorite movie of 2023. I do wish the ending had been left more ambiguous. I expected the movie to end when Oliver was told by Felix’s father that his presence at Saltburn was no longer welcome. I think a final shot of Oliver returning to his parent’s home to spend the rest of the summer would have been a good way to end it. Still, I love the movie as it is!
It was also quite predictable. The fundamental catalyst (the first person’s passing) was predictable. I didn’t predict that it was all organised / premeditated. I just felt like I was watching a creep for a few hours. The acting was great though 👌
I 100% agree with you. It took a very thoughtful film, full of subtlety and nuance, and then just went "Ahaaahhh, bet you never saw THAT coming?" To me, it shows a lack of confidence. The funny thing is, this film could be recut easily and would be much more effective for it. The last 7 minutes could have been a deleted alternative ending, I would bet that a lot of people would find it interesting, but detracting from the film: 'I really enjoyed this ending but I can see why they didn't use it' kinda thing.
I used to get frustrated with films that were ambiguous, but it really does depend on the subjects covered and the themes explored, and these themes are very strong in their own right, with no definitive answer needed... more a meditation. This film deserved some ambiguity so that it lived on long after you finish viewing it. "All my friends Hate Me" is a similar film, but executed more confidently in my opinion.
I can't say I agree completely. He reminded me immediately of Ripley. It's either because his acting was great or Russell Crowell style.
He looked, acted and had the body language of a sociopath from the start.
The one scene that threw me off that exact ending was when he went to the bathtub after Felix releaved himself.
I can't say I loved rhe movie, but it was highly entertaining. It just felt rushed at the end
At the risk of sounding anti-intellectual, I don't think this movie was ever the major work you preamble it to be. I thought all the reveals were set up very early in the film. The film doesn't transform or become something "no longer". It's a pulpy romp of middle-class ambition as upper-class nightmare. Instead of comparing its exposition to things like John Wick or Star Wars, it begs to be compared to something way smaller like The Talented Mr. Ripley
Edit: don't get it twisted, I also don't think this was the greatest movie ever. It was a very good film from 2023 and probably my personal favorite, not even the best tho. But I think it's ambitions were much simpler than most here are saying. It's Friday the 13th where rich people are the camp counselors having sex by the lake and Jason Voorhees is an unassuming twink you like
Also, check out the music video of Murder on the Dance Floor. It's about someone working their way up the ladder in a dance competition by being a murderous cutthroat, and they're not being particularly subtle about it. They even tell the judges to their faces what they're doing.
I agree that you can see signs early on, but I think that’s different from having a film come right outright and tell you what the answers are. I suspected Ollie might have killed Felix, but I didn’t know how and I was excited to try to figure it out or discuss it with friends, but then the movie squashed all my curiosity by showing every single step he took to get close to Felix. It felt like the movie was keeping a secret for 2 hours and then in the last 10 it got bored and spilled the beans just to be gratuitous.
@@Asteroids50 it sounds like everyone wanted a movie with an open-ended mystery, and that's not what the movie is or even really what marketing would lead anyone to believe. I also already fundamentally disagreed that it doesn't feel like the "movie was keeping a secret for 2 hours". They tell you with the narration that there's a bomb under the table for the entire movie, and when there's nothing left to conceal, it goes off.
@@2muchteeveei thought the weakest aspect was Oliver x Felix not having more flare. Let Felix flirt! The whole time I was waiting for that quintessential "I don't do labels, I don't want a relationship" for Oliver to have a REAL taste of that relationship only to have it cleanly cut off. Give Oliver a reason to fully turn right.
@@nailinthefashion nooooooo. Felix was a user of people. Sexuality is secondary to his appetites. You are not supposed to feel sorry for Oliver. The whole point is to get you to empathize for a second with the rich who got eaten. Oliver is a broken human being. Felix is just a rich douche.
Totally agree with this. Unfortunately, too many directors have little faith in their audience and demonstrate this by having to spell out HOW Oliver manipulated the family and showing how he REALLY is a bad guy, rather than leaving ambiguities as to the method or motivation. The latter of which is far more interesting and thought provoking. The last few minutes deflated what was very compelling story.
He could never be comfortable in that house until he was the only one left and he was free to be himself without anyone judging him.
This!! 👏
I don't think the second twist was much of a twist at all...
It seemed pretty obvious that He was involved with the deaths.
He's a pathological liar and as every person to notice that, dies shortly afterwards...
I think the flashback montage is just Oliver lying to us the audience, and maybe himself. I don't think he planned to do any of that. He was just really obsessed with Felix but Felix didn't love him back so he killed him. Oliver is a lying insecure narcissist.
I 100% disagree. The ending was perfect, especially Oliver's "celebration dance". I feel that, if you were paying attention, there was no ambiguity, even before the ending. I already knew Oliver was responsible for what happened. The only thing the ending did was to spell out how. He was obviously the bad guy. Yes, he does care. As Emerald said, we're meant to root for him. Even though we know he's the bad guy, we still want to see him win. That's how I felt. The only problem I have with this film is that I've seen it labeled as a dark comedy/thriller. I love dark comedy, and I didn't find this at all funny. There were smirks along the way, but never did I find myself laughing. I think I'd call it a psychological drama.
While the final scene of Oliver dancing while "Murder on the dancefloor" plays is truly iconic, meaningful and cinematically perfect, I think the ending should have culminated with Felix's death, as Oliver is thus left frustrated by killing the "perfection" he so longed for and can never be a part of.
Man, you totally beat me to it! Thank you for making this video, because I felt the exact same way! It bugged me so much, that I wrote my own little essay right after finishing the movie. You literally just voiced everything that I thought was wrong with an otherwise brilliant film. Beautiful video, keep it up and you've got a new subscriber. Thank you!
Just gonna add this little note: Wouldn't it have been more interesting for a second rewatch, if the final twist was just ingraned into the narrative? Like for example, when Ollie pretends not to have enough money to buy the shots, they could have shown a brief glimpse of his wallet, showing he clearly had enough cash. You'd miss this detail the first time around, but maybe caught it on a second rewatch. Thus giving the audience all the clues nescessariy to puzzle it all together themselves, without making us feel dumb by straightup showing it in the final shots. Also would have given plenty of creators the ammuniton to make an "explaining Saltburn" videos that I definetely would have gobbled up.
This is my favorite video I've seen on Saltburn. I absolutely agree that this movie ended up being more style than substance. The actors and the cinematography were amazing but the writing and storytelling were horrible imo. It had so much potential but it felt half baked. There were many lines that I thought were foreshadowing that ended up going nowhere.
I couldn't help but compare it to Inventing Anna, which I ended up watching after I finished Saltburn. Ollie and Anna are both liars trying to achieve status and they lie about their backgrounds to seem more powerful and impressive than they actually are. Ollie wants to seem impressive with how he's overcome hardships in his life while Anna wants to seem impressive with her knowledge of inner circles and her born status. Inventing Anna's storytelling is amazing to me, and I love how they make a point of saying "what's the point of this story?" "I don't know... something about middle class anxiety... or identity under capitalism..." Saltburn lacked that sense of questioning for me.
From what I've seen online, a lot of people love the final scene because it provides a sense of fantasy. People like the idea of dancing naked in a mansion that they own. It's glamourous. But it highlights the psychopathy of Ollie and makes him seem simultaneously more villainous and more aspirational. (Similar to how some people online see Patrick Bateman as both villainous and aspirational. ) That doesn't lend kudos to the director but it does say something about "identity under capitalism" and "middle class anxiety." It also makes me wonder if the idea of "success" in our culture is designed to be psychopathic intentionally.
I might make a video on this as well because you just opened a whole can of worms my friend.
I feel like the scene with Pamela isn’t him showing empathy or any other charismatic feeling but just processing information and figuring out how to better blend into the family. And he’s aided in that when Felix is like don’t bring it up anywhere else and then he lives through that when everyone would rather talk about the weather or very quickly dismiss her in conversation. I feel like that scene shows a change in goal. Where he was obsessed with Felix because it was easy to be close with him, apear to be dependent to him, to wanting to take over the lifestyle of the family as it was easy to understand what who had importance and who needed what to feel a need to have him around.
Also when the dad offered Oliver money I wonder if he took some kind of bribe. I feel like yes he could’ve but also not taking any money would’ve been even more interesting because it’s like well if you are struggling and dealing with things so badly it’d make sense (in the family’s eyes) to just accept something and in the dads case to especially get him the hell out of the house
Just watched it last night, I was pretty disappointed. My biggest issue was the several references to the "friend" from the summer before. There are multiple cryptic lines about the last guy that Felix brought home and how their friendship ended poorly, but none of that leads anywhere. We never find out who the friend was or what he did or what happened to him, it's just dialogue filler. Chekhov's Gun is an absolutely essential part of storytelling and making that obvious of a mistake just really brings the whole thing into question.
It did sound a bit ominous at first but that could just serve as a red herring as to who was in the real danger here. What it really did was show Ollie he was but an expendible toy for and charity for the family, but the others as well which opened pathways for slander. I don't think it's against the rules of story telling to temporarily mislead the audience, in fact I'd say that's a great ploy and there is too little of it in this story as we come to distrust Ollie pretty soon and, to me, the big reveal of the end fell quite flat. Funny how predictable it was for being so unbelievable really.
I literally just finished watching the movie and you posted this lol.
I really liked the film and I was surprised by the ending, but in the end, I do agree a more subtle one would've worked better
I really liked the film too. Thats whats so weird to me. Like the last seven minutes feel like a crazy fan theory attached a fantastic film. Even then. Its a well crafted ending. Just doesnt feel like it doesnt fit with the rest of the movie
PS He did not start out with intentions of killing anyone. He discovers his dark capabilities along the way when he realizes he lost Felix forever. The red flags on his ability to plot and plan and lie were there. Then he gave into that side entirely in the end.
I LOVED the ending!! Especially his dance.
Pamela's death: That Oliver looks troubled upon hearing about Pamela's death confused me - it would _seem_ that he felt bad for her which in turn suggests empathy. *BUT* I now think he seemed upset about it because it drove home the fact that without the Catton's 'protection' Pamela was left to die. Oliver realises that without the Cattons, he too, will be thrown to the wolves for an uncertain future. So it cements Oliver's determination to remain at Saltburn and part of the family *no matter what* and he can't allow anyone to stand in his way - even someone he 'loves.'
I also think the 'exposition' (i.e. the last few minutes) is clumsily handled. It reminds me of those old 'who done it' tv shows where Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher treats the audience like imbeciles as they launch into cheesy explanations. Shame really, but I still love this film.
This is a really compelling and valid interpretation. I shall retreat to my tower and ponder it.
From a review I read on Letterboxd: "This is what rich people understood from Parasite"
It actually has almost nothing to do with class, you missed the point if you thought it was a social commentary
@@acetales148 That's kinda the joke
I absolutely loved this movie!
Oliver, is the best if psychopaths!
He endured every twist and turn rising above those he stepped on to get there.
I love that Olive, sought them out and by every odd got everything he wanted.
He always was what we see in the end however my take is that when he went into the bathwater that was the turning point of not going back.
He was in love with the idea of Felix because when it came to it nothing and no one could stop him.
I love the ending. I love the character and the song ties it all up for me in a bow.
Thank you Sir, for your perspective.
And thank you for yours. Even if i dont like the ending for THIS film. Theres not a moment on its own that i dont like. So i love hearing qll the different opinions on why people did or didnt like how the ending recontextualized the narrative
The talented Mr Ripley or American Psycho were more successful crazies to me, but I like this bi twist on the formula
It’s so boring
The ending itself, gave the movie another twist and another layer. Even more food for thought. I think it is added value, rather than the ruin of the movie.
I loved this so much. I don't think this is an eat the rich at all, maybe in a few literal of the sense scenes but I think the ending was perfect. It was his full unmasking and you see the evil joy of a long con complete.
The final scene is inspirational! It’s gone viral on TikTok, people uploading their own versions - feeling that freedom that Oliver felt, dancing. King of his own castle
You want to like him. You want the ambiguity so that you can continue liking him. I didn't, so the ending wasn't a surprise to me. It was clear to me he was a severely broken person post Act-I. I've seen the Talented Mr. Ripley, so his eat the rich motive didn't shock.
I just don’t see the “eat the rich” narrative. What I see instead is a mix up of a Patrick Bateman from American Psycho and Lou from Nightcrawler. He got a glimpse of the riches and wanted it all for himself. He’s narcissistic, ambitious and egoistic. He’ll do whatever it takes to get what he wants and in the end he gets it. There doesn’t have to be a political message at the end…. Now if the director wanted that then she failed massively
The primary theme was desire to the point of obsession. As seen with Oliver's infatuation with Felix. Anything else was secondary.
It's just a really muddled story that can't work out whether it wants to be The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Servant or The Little Stranger and isn't as good as any of them. And I honestly think that final scene is only there out of the same childish sensationalism that drove the earlier sex with the grave scene, which in every other respect is totally inconsistent with it.
Thank you! This is EXACTLY what put me off from an otherwise intriguing movie. The end scene was great, but I'd happily trade it in for a more ambiguous story.
I can't believe people are calling the end "a twist." It's like we can't accept a story where a "poor" person murders an innocent rich family.
I definitely can agree with your take in-so-far as the director's point of view being one of a fear of the middle class, and therefore having to represent the protagonist as unambiguously evil. I wouldn't go so far as it being classist but what I would say is that it is somewhat a subconscious attempt to reconcile her extremely privileged background with her left-wing politics. Which is such as shame because up until the finale, (or at the very least in the first half), I thought she was doing a really good job of representing what it's like for working class people on scholarships to attend Oxford.
Speaking anecdotally, I come from a town that is only a few miles away from Prescot (the town where Oliver is from)- That whole area of North West England is essentially working and lower-middle class. In other words, it's a world away from the upbringing Fennel had. When me and my mates were watching it we couldn't help but root for Ollie in the beginning half, to be honest. Especially when Richard E. Grant's character answers flippantly the word: "North", to Elspeth's question of where the city of Liverpool is. (side note: a fun gaff we laughed at was that Ollie doesn't realise he's being driven all the way to Prescot by Felix, only when he sees a sign for the town being a few miles away on an A-road, he twigs on. In reality, the journey between Saltburn, which is meant to be set in Northamptonshire, and Prescot, comes to about 2 and a half hours, sometimes 3 hours if traffic is bad... That's a fucking long drive to take on your birthday, to not ask "where are we going?". What's more, the editing in the film makes it seem like the took a 20 minute joyride up there. It's a nit-pick but worth pointing out to viewers who don't live in the UK. Not the worst thing ever, just funny).
Anyway, this is all too real a relationship between the elites of England and the working class. Funnily enough, one of my friends from my hometown was a scholarship student at Oxford. We visited him a few times during his years there (fun fact: he was residing in the same college that they used as the filming location for the Oxford scenes in Saltburn!). I can say, thankfully, that all of the friends he had made there, privileged background or otherwise- were perfectly hospitable towards us. We did have a few sobering reminders of how our worlds were so vastly different, though. Especially when we met the daughters and sons of lords, (fucking hell they were some of the rudest and most snobbish people I'd ever met. If you think representations of the elite in Salburn are exaggerated for thematic effect, they aren't. These are the kinds of people you get as a result of centuries of wealth and land hoarding. Don't forget- the British aristocracy still own a third of the UK's land!) Farley reminded me a lot of them.
Anyway I've gone off on a bit of a tangent, just thought it was worth highlighting the themes of the British class system represented in this film, from a first-hand perspective.
Daily reminder to watch The Talented Mr. Ripley 💃🏾
My thoughts exactly. It's still a terrific film, but Fennell's need to overexplain -- to endow Oliver with nefarious underpinnings from the jump -- nearly capsizes the narrative. If it had simply been about a "have not" who unwittingly blossoms into full horror, it would have been crushingly great. The ending as it stands more or less panders to an audience who, admittedly, might have entirely turned away from the experience if they had to grapple with the esoteric outcomes for themselves instead of being spoon fed a "plot." The beauty of true art is, indeed, ambiguity, but that's okay. I can still dig Fennell's Saltburn while adoring what might have been.
For me, it was very clear Olli was faking it all. But I got disappointed that the movie thought this of me "The audience won't know that it was Olli who did it all, so we must show them".
This kinda ruined the ending for me, except for the dance. Like, what if we were given the benefit of the doubt? Would be really nice. "Was it really all an accident?"
The movie starts with Oliver asking the question about whether he loved Felix or was in love with him, and I think the ending exists for the purpose of that. Everything before the ending, the bathtub scene , the grave scene , even the twist about the family make it seem like Oliver was obsessed and would do anything to be around Felix , but the ending suggests that he had a different goal the entire time. The way I see it Oliver just wants attention and to be wanted by people around him but in a twisted way. He wants to be an only child so all attention from parents can be on him , he lies to them about his achievements so they can love him more , he wants friends but can never have them because of the way he is, so he puts on an act. In the beginning he "loved Felix" in the sense that he wanted to be him, to be a person that was loved and wanted by everyone BUT after spending time with him he started to actually fall in love with Felix and wanted to be with him. His goal was ALWAYS to take over Saltburn but his feelings for Felix were also true. When his lies gets exposed he realizes that he has no choice but to kill him and replace him since he cant have him anymore. Him asking the question about whether he loved Felix or was in love with him is a way to deny his feelings. "Everybody loved Felix" is a way for him to cope and invalidate his feelings for Felix since he is not supposed to have them because he 'hates' the class Felix belongs to (based on his words to Elsbeth in the end)
Although it could've been better and more ambiguous the ending still serves its purpose of making us wonder about Oliver's true intentions before he became friends with Felix.
Excellent analysis!
Don’t they say trust the intelligence of your audience? The ending flashbacks were unnecessary in my option if you were paying attention throughout the movie.
When oliver was pretended to be drunk and telling "i gave you what you wanted" who was that performance for? He was toing to kill him from the start so at this point why bother? Also why didn't the police question more about the death? That girl seen Olly in there
Simply because the creators did not want to explore logic but fantasy. It's all about Oliver just doing and getting what he wants, for better or worse, it's supposed to mirror Felix being aloof and free, but my god, SAY MORE
I'd say the police not looking into it further is a comment on how there is one rule for the poor, and another for the rich. How they seem to get away woth a lot less scrutiny than the general public because of their status and money.
I LOVED the ending. It wrapped it up in a bow for me. It helps that the song is a banger.
TRUE! It certainly doesn't kill the groove
I think his reaction to Pamela's death is more about how he realises how disposable he is and that he has limited time.
Which is why he had to be as useful to each Catton Family Member as possible.
Great video! I had the same reaction- brilliant movie except for the ending. I disagree that the ending is really even a "second twist". Is there a viewer in the world who wasn't already suspecting that Oliver had something to do with the email to the auction house, after all the manipulating that Oliver had been engaging with on screen the whole time? And then when the deaths start piling up after Oliver's big secret was revealed, could there possibly be a single person in the world that didn't already suspect that Oliver was behind them? But without the atrocious ending, the viewer could have spent days reflecting on when and where Oliver "turned". Had it started relatively innocently as a ploy for an in with the popular kids? Did it start with a genuine love for Felix? Was Oliver's newfound confidence a commentary on feeling empowered by proximity to the rare wealth and status of Saltburn, or was it all sociopathic manipulations from the start? Were Oliver's schemes and eventual murders at Saltburn a commentary on the insider plots of powerful people and here was an outsider "beating them at their own game", managing to kill them before they could discard him?
"It was all a sociopathic masterminded plan from the start" is the worst possible explanation. It doesn't even make sense. He didn't even know Saltburn or Felix's family before he went there, and he was already planning on stealing it all from the start? How?
Hard agree, like, Oliver being the weird kid at oxford and getting "tapped" / "adopted" by the most popular guy and he start to lie / deceive when he notices he's loosing him and keeps doing this at saltburn is so much more interesting than "mr evil mastermind"
No, I don’t think it ruined the movie. It just continued the unreliable narration, which was the heart of the story. Ollie is telling a story that is much different than the real one. He’s not a mastermind, he’s a delusional psychopath.
I think if his monologue to a comatose Elsbeth was cut then the ending would be just fine. It was far too moustache-twirly
Should be called Oliver the Twisted, thought the family was grooming him to be a victim for Felix and they were all in on it, until the first twist. Then Ollie turned into a bad guy from that point on.
even tho i liked the movie a lot, there was something about it that didn't left me satisfied and in this videos you put it into words perfectly
Oh dope! A big part of my goal with these videos are to help put words to what people are feeling or help get at the "why" behind our resctions to story
should you feel satisfied with the acts of a manipulative psychopath? are we supposed to feel satisfied after a film, especially about this kind of thing? psychopathy isn't remarkable or sensational or satisfying. it's horrifyingly banal. it's just another day of destruction. the ending montage and dance sequence suggests both the arrogance of his murderous psychopathy and the mundane banality of psychopathy itself. it's just another day wilding out in all his apathetic glory.
The thing that’s missing in this analysis and most critical analyses I’ve seen of this movie is this:
The movie is not meant to be understood from Ollie’s perspective even if it’s written as such. The movie is actually a horror story - a campfire faerie tale told by the elite to the elite - the story of the changeling who crashes and burns the structures of the elite. Burn and salt the earth. The movie references the spooky story of the man who drowned after meeting that person, later they’re terrified by The Ring. Ollie is The Ring, the Minotaur, the spooky monster used to scare Elite children.
Everyone who watches the movie who is of the non-elite class sees the movie through Ollie’s eyes because that’s their frame of reference.
Actually this was what I was referencing when I said you can feel Emerald Fennel's background shine through -- this is a story that views the middle class as a boogeyman. It's HIGHLY sympathetic to the rich people, so much so that it makes them the victims with the final twist. Hence why the movie feels so toothless. It largely punches down when viewed as a whole. Whether it was intentional or not, the film is, like you said, a warning for the rich rather than a more universal story
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial isn’t that fascinating, though? Is punching down as a whole a bad thing to make a movie about when it’s framed as a horror story?
We’re used to seeing horror stories from the POV of the protagonist who wins in the end. Not the POV of the monster who wins in the end.
Also I disagree with the premise of the need for survival of the fittest. For the elite, survival’s only requirement is of *inclusion*. They don’t need to do *anything* to ensure their survival.
Survival of the fittest is a lower class fantasy in the world of the true elite. Ollie isn’t entitled to anything if he wasn’t born already included.
@@chendrix-materialdesigner the problem is I'm not sure if the writer/director realizes the movie she made...
@@TheWritersBlockOfficialI think that’s fair but I’m not sure how much of a difference that makes.
As an aside, one thing I think is a wrench in the “illogic” of the story is the patriarch. It’s never revealed or implied that Ollie had anything to do with the patriarch’s death. Which presumably means Ollie’s villainy plot ended for a decade. His plans were actually foiled by the continued structure of the elite family unit.
Ollie’s aping of the elite doesn’t work. His villainy only succeeds in the end because the matriarch decides to ape middle class-hood. A different message, left IMO for the discovery of the viewer.
It is no longer “beware who you trust”, it’s “beware of trying to play poor”
In my opinion, the biggest flaw of the film is the pacing of the deaths. Fennell should have EITHER ended it with Felix's death, then have Oliver successfully replace him as rightful heir of Saltburn, with no other deaths necessary *OR* made it a bit more murder mystery-esque and have Felix's death occur earlier, followed by Venetia and the father (also no need to bring Farleigh back), and HIDE the true nature of Oliver's homecoming sequence until the very end along with his other Talented Mr Ripley machinations.
Ooh that could have been awesome!
Spot on! Felt the same with last 7 minutes and have been debating it with all my friends. Excellent job!
Thank you! Its fun to see how divisive the ending is. Luckily the debate seems mostly civil. A lovely change !
I can't help but think how much this movie is indebted to Patricia Highsmith. There's a strong talented Mr Ripley vibe throughout this film.
i want to know how did Elspeth got sick and how the police did t investigates the deaths
That is indeed a big "?".
I totally agree. It was a like a soap opera, and instead of 'recontextualising', whatever that means, perhaps reframing is better, it just undermines the entire movie. The driving force of the movie was his love for Felix, and his desire to not be working class (subplot). The killing spree at the end was pulled off with panache but makes zero sense.
This is literally what I was saying to my friends about the movie! What the movie is trying to say is that a twisted system survives on lies and alternates people’s emotions and desires, but the ‘grand reveal’ just turns it into a biography of a downright psychopath who’s hard to empathize with, no character’s arc, no weakness whatsoever. In fact it turns the rich into the people that are actually worth pitying and the middle class the innate bad guys which kinda implies how the director sees the middle class in the first place…
Yeah. The biases of this film might not have been intentional, but they do feel very present in the end.
Your perspective has given me food for thought and I actually agree, thinking about it, the sudden reveal of Oliver's character is a jarring tacked on and unnecessary plot line.
I was left wondering, the above notwithstanding , how Saltburn would end up like a fallen down, abandoned ruin now under Oliver's stewardship.
He wouldn't have the knowledge to keep it up, keep the house running, and it would eventually crumble around him.. now that's an ending I'd have liked to see! He grasps for the prize and the prize turns to dust. Saltburn and the Catton family are inextricable.
Plus, he'd never be able to recreate that magic no matter how much money he had, because the upper classes don't let insiders in , not really.
He could never even buy his way into that world.. thanks for that interesting video, great insight!
I think you didn't like bc it didn't end the way you wanted. I don't think Ollie is an intelligent character in his manipulation and murders. When he narrates everything as if it had always been his plan, I feel like it's more of a way to create an image of how he always had control and power, but we as an audience know that's not true. Ollie is just an invisible boy who, to satisfy his greatest desires, did everything to have it all.
He's a successful vampire
Honestly, the movie isn’t brilliant even before the first 7 minutes. The tonal balance is off so much, the party scene goes on too long, the twist of Oliver’s parents being alive and healthy was stupid because it makes Oliver a villain way too early. The movie is predictable and I’m sorry, I wanna be surprised when it comes to a twist.
I highly disagree. I think the end of the movie was perfect.
Rad! It didnt land for me, but i understand many love it.
Yes i felt the exact same way! The ending made Oliver to be this evil genius mastermind, but I found him to be so much more compelling as a character without that. It made him the main villain when really they all were two faced. To me the movie went from being original to cliche just from the last couple minutes. I wish they left it more ambiguous
The ending didn’t make him anything, he was always that from the beginning
As Venetia said Oliver is not a spider he's just a moth and he didn't plan everything. Throughout the movie Oliver tries to get closer to the feeling of being unconditionally loved because everyone, including his own parents, uses him to stroke their own egos. Oliver tries to fit in and be loved but he gets broken every time, even by Felix who he hoped to forgive him and be his friend unconditionally, so Oliver's internal conflict ends, he no longer debates wether he loves or hates Felix; as he points out "It was the end of everything" so he gives up on unconditional love and proceeds to get rid of everyone to be alone without people making him feel ashamed or used. In my opinion the end works veery well.
When the ending revealed he was really typing nothing in the cafe I was like, how stupid does this film thing we are lol. Your giving us this whole montage of how he schemed from back at Oxford, at this point the audience doesn’t believe in coincidences so it was kinda pointless scene. I would have been more shocked. His mastermind plan seems less genius and more luck, who knew that if you gave Felix your bike he would feel gratitude to the point of letting you in his inner circle. Or leaving razor blades would be just enough to push his sister over the edge. I would have liked a “then there were none” situation for the sister, like constant psychological oppression rather than one instance. I think it would have been better to see how he took out players like Duncan, or poor Pamela, things that take more than luck to accomplish. Oliver in the end is just like the rich that he critiqued in that he didn’t really work it just worked out that way
Thank you! I thought that was so stupid too! Like even if he is being a criminal mastermind why wouldn’t he type real words? What if Elsbeth looked over his shoulder for 1 second when she invited him to come back with her?
@@Asteroids50lol oh my god that’s how it shoulda ended she’s like whatcha working on, sees simlish on laptop, hard end.
@@sandy80334it would have been a much quicker way ending lol
I loved the ending. It was one of the only 'upbeat' moments of the film which was significant after he ironically managed to kill of the last family member and get away with it, this was his twisted celebratory moment where he had beaten everyone and not just gained the house and wealth but satisfaction of it all. It happened right after the viewer was left in a state of shock and questioning everything he had just confessed, to me it felt like he was mocking the fact that if you hadn't figured out his intentions already, this was it and he was fine about it. And then changed the mood enough for you to reflect on everything and/or forget entirely for a moment like Ollie was, as if it could make up for all the fucked up things he had done. And it honestly was fun to watch lol.
Additionally the flashbacks at the end were important too, the ending is still ambiguous as it leaves you to question what happened to the surviving characters (We know Duncan realised early on Ollie wasn't what the others believed him to be and there were moments between the two that were interesting to pick apart.) as well as process the past events again and rethink them from the real perspective. Maybe it could have worked without the flashbacks or end scene but I think it improved it, still making you utterly conflicted and in awe at the same time.
I just really enjoyed this movie and will continue to defend it. I love to look at the broader view that made you rethink it all as it unfolded and pick apart the intentions of the characters especially as one as interesting as Ollie.
The last 7 minutes MAKE Saltburn, they ENHANCE it.
Love the movie, especially the ending.
There was apparently an alternate ending where the butler served Oliver runny eggs once again but this time as he sits alone at the breakfast table. I love this ending more because its like sure, you have Saltburn, but you still aren't welcome.
i dont mind the twist but agree it would have been better. done if it was a lot more subtle and less hand fed to the audience.
absolutely phenomenal piece of genuine and professional critique on what I thought was a really strong motion picture, right up until the final twist. I feel like Oliver's shame and moment childish fear when Felix is driving them to Oliver's parents should have turned into something much more hysterical and violent, if Oliver is supposed to be this villainous master mind at the end?
Thank you so much! And great point