An aspect that has pointed out by many reviews regarding
Mankiewicz’s work was the emphasis of ‘life as performance’. Indeed, in
Mankiewicz’s most famous film, ‘All About Eve’, the plot was about the female protagonist
trying to intrude and impersonate a big star’s life and her belongings, when
she acted as an assistant to the big star. It seemed to strike a parallel to
the scenario in ‘Sleuth’. Andrew and Milo belonged to 2 different worlds, and Milo , working hard all his life, wanted to improve his
social status, and that eventually led to a conflict when he attempted to steal
Andrew’s wife. In Eve’s case, she was using all sort of craftiness to steal the
possessions and lifestyle from the big star, and she was no more than a
performer acting as someone else’s life. The irony in the story was that even
if Eve has succeeded to become a big star herself, another woman came to be her
assistant, and was ready to repeat exactly the same thing again on Eve. Just
like in ‘Sleuth’, the destructive cycle would not stop if no one was willing to
step up and stop it once and for all.
In the case of Sleuth, both Andrew and Milo
have been satirized for their pretentiousness, because other than their theatrical
and playful behaviors throughout the films, they were committed to show others
that they were high-cultured and civilized. Andrew’s artful attitude might seem
to make him look well bred and blue-blooded, as his infidelity and contempt
towards his wife meant that he did not feel any real love or concern, and he
viewed Milo’s stealing of his wife as if Milo
was taking away his possessions, like any of his dolls around the house. He was
a man of the interior – because he was committed to stay in this comfort zone,
and assumed a higher status than any common people he looked down on.
One can see that both characters were concerned about
surface and appearance, yet the morality and motivations they have could not
stand up to the status they tried to convince others they were. Much like in
Eve’s case, they were just performing roles they desired in their cinematic
existences.
Mankiewicz and Shaffer were very fair about the two
characters. They did not stage a ‘good-versus-evil’ situation in ‘Sleuth’. The
plot was approached in a rather objective way. Yet, I feel that the actions and
quotes from Andrew reflected more about the sort of personality he was, and for
Milo , as I have said before, he was portrayed
in a more simplistic manner. I believe the reason was because the film was
trying to address the cultural concerns of its era - the 1970s, therefore Milo , who was the underdog in the story, was portrayed in
a more sympathetic manner and the posh Andrew was portrayed as more snobbish
and old-fashioned. Let’s look a bit closer to the two characters.
I feel that Andrew should be seen as a tragic (it would not
be too ridiculous to call him a Shakespearean character, and Lord Olivier was
of course a fantastic Shakespearean actor himself) rather than an evil
character. Because, at least, his only intention was to humiliate Milo rather than causing any harm worse than that, if his
perceived plans worked as the way he wanted. Yet, his character flaws were very
much the reasons why he would arrive at such a tragic end.
But if there was a reason that led to both characters’
destruction, it was pride. I guess what Mankiewicz was trying to drive at was
to say that whatever decisions one may feel good for himself/herself, it will
likely have undesirable consequences for others – a double-win scenario is
often not possible, because our nature dictates us to get everything for
ourselves. Milo and Andrew, no matter how they
pretended to be civilized and reasonable towards each other, had very
fundamental differences and contradictions that would guarantee both of them to
lock in this mode of mortal combat. While on the surface it was like a class
struggle between two men from very different backgrounds, they both desired to
win and outwit the others because of their own pride. Andrew, on the one hand,
wanted to show Milo he was a man of a higher step on the social ladder and
would not allow a ‘jump-up pantry boy’ like Milo
to steal his trophy wife from himself. Milo ,
who came from a humble background, has strived hard himself to improve his
social status and he felt that he deserved everything he got nowadays. He just
wanted respect and acknowledgment from someone like Andrew, and he wanted to
defeat Andrew, a writer of best-seller mystery novels, by beating him
intellectually. Both men had loads of hubris to fuel their drives to compete
with each other in the mind game, and they just did not know when to stop.
Both men were giving up anything they could in order to win
the game of death. When Andrew was tricked by Milo’s Inspector Doppler,
followed by Milo ’s fabricated game on Tea’s
murder, everything was even and Andrew had every good reason to stop the
process, if he was an open-minded person. Both men have already outwitted each
other once, and have proven their intellectual power to the other. They
certainly had the required wisdom to settle everything towards a more peaceful
and happy ending. But, that did not happen. Andrew was indeed ashamed that he
has been so thoroughly outwitted by such a young underdog that he was desperate
for revenge and wanted to defeat Milo once and
for all. For the whole film, the two men were just playing with deceptions and
fabrications – they were merely performers for rounds and rounds of theater
they have been writing for themselves. When Andrew loaded real bullets into his
revolver, that was the end of the game. It was pride, just like the other characters
in Mankiewicz’s cinema, which has driven Andrew to cast a wrong move in the
chess game of his life.
-End-
(2/2)
Next time:
by Ed Law
10/12/2017
Film Analysis
