tieman64 Peter Medak's "The Ruling Class" stars Peter O'Toole as Jack Gurney, a nobleman who inherits a relative's wealth and estate. As Gurney's family are emblematic of Britain's ruling class – aristocratic, powerful, duplicitous and uncaring – Gurney undergoes a mental breakdown. Refusing to be complicit with the "reality" of the social class he was born into, a "reality" that he deems inhumane, Gurney starts believing himself to be Jesus Christ.As the adage goes, 'the ruling ideas of every epoch are the ideas of the ruling class'. Refusing to abide by this anymore, Gurney begins to embody values, principles and beliefs that are antithetical to those of his family (love, peace, equality etc). They find his "virtues" disgusting, he finds their world intolerable. The film climaxes with Gurney's family members restoring "sanity" to Gurney, at which point he believes himself to be Jack the Ripper. As a murderous madman, Gurney is embraced by the British establishment. Like most political, British, post-war theatre, the film thus aligns conservative, post-war capitalism to a goofy ruling class who specialise in crushing souls. Final act? Gurney murderously cutting ties with loved ones whilst communists (a butler who reads Marx, Lenin and Mao) are scapegoated by the rich. Final scene? Gurney applauded by his peers and standing at the heart of a British parliament populated with zombies. The symbolism speaks for itself.Like "Heaven's Above!" (1963), a similar British film, "The Ruling Class" finds two ideologies vying for control. On one hand we have what might be called "Christian" or "liberal" values, and on the other, more traditional, conservative values. In the film, these strands are incompatible. In the real world, beneath our civilised Jesus tends to lie The Ripper, and vice versa. More importantly, the latter can't get away with its crimes unless it perceives itself as anointed, sanctified and righteous.Based on a play by Peter Barnes, "The Ruling Class" is an overlong and at times dull film. There are nevertheless many interesting passages peppered about, some very good surreal moments, some wonderfully blunt/gross satire (evocative of Bunuel) and another good performance by O'Toole, whose role seems to critique the kings and rulers he played earlier in his career ("Becket", "The Lion in Winter"). It's a shame that Medak's film isn't more focused, because he has very interesting material to work with.7.5/10 – Worth one viewing. See "They Might Be Giants" and "A Thousand Clowns".

justincward 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' meets 'If...'.Peter O'Toole gives a masterclass as a well-depicted paranoid schizophrenic who thinks he's God, inherits an Earldom and is 'cured' by the superb Michael Bryant's psychiatrist, only to become Jack the Ripper in the House of Lords.The anti-establishment message is battered home with a 15lb sledgehammer, but the cast of English (and most of the Scottish) movie stalwarts at least have a good time. Partly stagey, partly like avant-garde television of the time, and partly 'Gosford Park', TRC is not to be watched for anything other than to see actors having a terrific romp.No story, no meaningful social/religious/moral comment, just great actors (and crew) doing a great job with a somewhat ropey playscript. Special mentions for Carolyn Seymour, Michael Bryant, Arthur Lowe, Nigel Green and of course Alastair Sim wiping the floor with the lot of them. Oh, and the quintessential James Villiers idiotic toff performance.

mostlysilly I found the movie peculiar, at times it was simply enthralling, at times; it was a bit underwhelming, which makes it difficult for me to form a decided opinion of it especially as somebody who's not that familiar with that age or society. The charismatic Peter O' Toole shines gloriously through the course of it however; both as the frowned upon schizophrenic who believes he is Jesus Christ and as the revered headstrong aristocrat who secretly believes he is Jack the ripper.The movie which gradually becomes more and more satirical as it progresses symbolically connects the indifferent ruling class to the rise of such evils as Jack the ripper. A commendable acting performance from Peter O'Toole makes this symbolism all the more persuasive. Also, it shows how all the scheming manages to turn a harmless buffoon into a psychotic serial killer to the detriment of the perpetrators and his well wishers alike and how, upon this transition, he ironically gains acceptance into the society which had ridiculed him earlier.I would not go ahead and say its a 10 on 10 for me for there were instances where I felt a lack of continuity in the storyline, though its difficult to recall such incidents in particular, overall the movie didn't leave me as awestruck as some other movies which I've voted as a perfect 10. Its difficult to say how much of it was due to my lack of knowledge of that age or society and how much of it was due to gaps in the storyline itself. That said, the movie is definitely worth a watch, in fact, a second watch would be worth considering for somebody from outside of Britain, you might just pick up the odd joke you missed in the first viewing.

raymundohpl I recently watched the uncut version of this film on Turner Classic Movies in the wee hours of the morning and thoroughly enjoyed the performances of all the actors in it with the exception of the lead character J.C./Jack played by the redoubtable Peter O'Toole. The plot of a mad lord(God knows that there are way too many of them by far in the House of Lords both in the past and present) who believes himself to be a benevolent, loving "Peace, Man" Jesus Christ who is subsequently driven by the "scientific" vile machinations of a crazed German psychiatrist(who ends up needing his own head examined)to become a "sane" Jack the Ripper, is buttressed by the superb performances of the supporting cast. Peter O'Toole's "Tour de Force" performance which for the most part lauded by the other reviewers here, is too over-the-top which works within the context of this film for his role but I found O'Toole shamelessly mugging and leering without restraint(indeed like a real madman) which again works accidentally within the context of this film. After O'Toole has been branded "sane" as Jack the Ripper there are several huge closeups of his wide staring eyes--I swear I thought I was watching Joan Crawford as "Mommie Dearest" glaring in her best Kabuki "Mie"-grimace before letting her "Strait-Jacket" axe descend for some satisfying mayhem. Harry Andrews as O'Toole's pater, the 13th Lord Gurney turns in a short but satisfying appearance in his rigid iron-jawed unpleasant upper-crusty sod who offs himself whilst wearing unflattering raiment, William Mervyn and Coral Browne play two of the Gurneys, the nastiest "upper class" scum dripping with self-importance and probably a leaky colostomy bag! Mervyn excelled in portraying snooty, "stiff-upper-lipped" pompous nabobs with their noses in the air though I presume he was not like that in real life; Coral was just doing what came naturally, playing herself, i.e., being a nasty, caustic-tongued man-hungry bitch who got her hooks into horror legend Vincent Price in reality as Vinnie's last wife, James Villers as his specialty, a gormless pathetic gangling twit, Nigel Green as an "Electric Jehovah"(Nigel offed himself after this role, his life imitated his F-art), Michael Bryant as the crazed unscrupulous German psychiatrist, Hugh Burden as the harried mousy lawyer(Mr. Reeder indeed!), Graham Crowden as a gimlet-eyed "sanity officer" who bursts into a lively duet of the Eton Boating Song with O'Toole, Arthur Lowe as the one sympathetic character in the whole film, the Bolshie old manservant who gets framed for the murder done by O'Toole, and last but not least, the great Alastair Sim as the doddering old Bishop, shaking and trembling in fear in the best Kierkegaardian manner. These supporting actors along with Kay Walsh and Patsy Byrne, all work very well together but O'Toole, purposely, I'm sure, strikes a jarring note in the whole film as the huge stinking turd floating in the middle of the punchbowl. You can't miss him but wish he were a little less noticeable! All in all, 10 Stars, Excellent All Around, even with O'Toole's shameless overacting, and chewing up the scenery, which I am sure was his original intent for the overall theme of this gem of a film. The director, Peter Medak(The Changeling, Species II, The Krays) does an absolutely rip-roaring job here and is to be highly commended for this film, which may indeed be his masterpiece!