Sleuth

1972 US
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Str: Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine


Sleuth is an astounding movie. Just two actors keep the audience
sitting tight for over two hours.
It's quite astonishing to know just two actors can keep the audience sitting tight in their chairs for over two hours. Sleuth has litterally just two actors; i.e. Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. Moreover, all scenes take place just in a mansion and the garden surrounding it even though they are quite vast. Therefore, whether the movie becomes successful or not is entirely up to the quality of performances delivered by these two actors, the ingenuity of the plot development, and the sophistication of dialogs. But here I don't have any intention of judging whether the movie is successful or not. For, I know, from many other reviews, Sleuth is quite an excellent movie, and I, by myself, can say so without any conditional statement. Yet knowing adding one another praise wouldn't augment any glory of what has been already considered a masterpiece will I cut my petty flattering out here. Then what should I talk about instead? The answer is, I would like to talk about psychological and sociological aspects of this movie. In this regard, one thing should be added; that is, the movie is not a detective story as the title suggests, but a kind of psychological drama. So, as an advice for those who have never watched it do I say it is not like such kind of movies as are based upon, say, Agatha Christie's novels. Hence, the divulgence of the plot of Sleuth which I will do in the next paragraph won't dilute the value of it at all unlike such movies that are actually based upon famous detective novels.
Please carefully watch how their deadly games proceed and where
lead them to.
The story has Laurence Olivier as a detective story writer. He lives in a gorgeous mansion, and is dictating a detective story into a tape-recorder right in the center of the maze garden attached to his mansion. Then he invites Michael Caine to his manor the purpose of which, as it becomes revealed later, is to humiliate Caine who has become intimate with his wife. Firstly Caine can't reach the place where Olivier is dictating his novel, since the garden maze never allows any visitor to reach there; that is, no way in unless they know in advance some part of the hedge of that maze is movable and can be slided to open for entering into the center. After they have met with each other, they start deadly pscychological games, or rather should say Olivier starts it first, for Caine doesn't know Olivier is making cunning tricks during the first half of this movie. Olivier cunningly let Caine think he wants to get insurance money by having Caine steal the jewelry of his wife, and Caine also will be able to gain profit on his part by selling it. But it's a malevolent trick for getting a legal permission to shoot to kill Caine. But, once again, also this is a trick to humiliate Caine by driving him into desperate situation where he will have to beg his life cowardly by Kneeling down in front of Olivier. After Olivier has shot at Caine with a blank cartridge, the plot turns by 180 degrees, for, thereafter, Caine is the one who humiliates Olivier by disguising himself as a detective inspector investigating a murder case that wasn't actually committed. After he has delivered several body blows to Olivier under the disguise of a detective inspector, he stops pretending. But, it's just for delivering a final blow. Caine tells Olivier he murdered Olivier's lover, which, as it will turn out later, isn't true, and hidden several evidences incriminating Olivier scattering all over the mansion. Then Olivier desperately searches for these alleged evidences with his usual composure completely gone. At this point, the situation becomes completely reversed in that Caine is the one who is producing games. After finding all of those evidences, he is finally told by Caine that was a game too. Thus, it seems Caine's revenge has, at last, been fulfilled. But when finally Caine is leaving the mansion, Olivier actually shoot to kill him, and says shouldn't run the same game three times. At this point, the game couldn't be a game any more.
The reason why Sleuth has only two actors is probably because
there is no need for more than two characters due to the fact the
movie isn't the least about social interactions.
As described in the plot summary, the direction of the plot or rather should say their game drastically changes at the midway point of the movie. The one firstly producing games (Olivier) becomes during the later part the victim of the other (Caine) who was the victim of the former during the first part. Although I used the word "game", it should be noted that the games they are playing shouldn't be considered to be the same kind of games as what we usually play. The games they are playing are utterly unilateral while the ones we are usually playing are essentially reciprocal. Therefore, in their games, the loser is predetermined, which means there is no point in playing that game in the first place. Or rather, once started that kind of games, it won't stop until one of the participants perishes, which is obviously the case with this movie, for Caine is shot by Olivier at the last scene who can't simply let him go by his obsessive adherence to his games. To put it in another way, what they are playing can hardly be called social activities, but are psychological power-play of forcing the other to bend down on his knees in front of himself. At first, Caine looks like a very ordinary person. As a proof of this, he is depicted as a heir dresser. On the other hand, Olivier is a writer of detective novels. As I will explain it later, he seems to have as twisted a mind as branches of tropical primordial-looking trees, and must have been producing an innumerable amount of psychological tricks in his novels, and seems to be confusing his imaginations with the real world. It's quite strange there is no trace of his allegedly beloved wife except few scenes. The mansion is literally choked with odd stuff like esoteric games and mechanically devised mannequines to such an extent those who have ordinary mind would never be able to stand to stay. Should it be considered true the appearance of a room would reflect the internal mind state of its dwellers, which I consider must be true, it would surely mean either also his wife's mind was as twisted as his or she would have long been absent from that mansion. Probably the latter would be true, and that would mean even his love wasn't reciprocal at all. Anyway, besides the fact the movie is based upon a stage play, the reason why it has only two actors is probably because there is no need for more than two characters due to the fact the movie isn't the least about social interactions. As I said before, their games are utterly unilateral.
Olivier plays just his game, and firstly, as to such kind of games,
Caine is no match to him. But eventually Caine learns how to play
his game.
At this point, I should explain how oddly the mind of Olivier is twisted. Firstly you may think the aforementioned maze garden that has no way of entering. It goes without saying this garden symbolizes Olivier's mind state. He will never allow someone else to enter his realm from the side of outsiders, and also there is no doubt in that he, by himself, won't go out from the inside. Being inside of this kind of confined environment would it be likely that many contorted illusions would come out and be incubated and amplified and propagated. One of the most odd stuff in his mansion is a sailor figure that can be remotely controlled. Pushing a button on a remote control device will let it laugh and clap. It seems Olivier doesn't need anyone else, and all he needs is just self-reflextions. When he plays billiard with Caine, he never let Caine play. As you can see, he plays just his game, never anyone else's. The manor is his entire world where there is no room for anyone else. Caine will, therefore, never be able to win over Olivier insofar as he stays in the inside of Olivier's realm, since there is no position for him in Olivier's just one-man world. Nevertheless, being shot with a blank cartridge does it seem Caine has changed, for he starts to counterattack by utilizing Olivier's psychological tactics. He disguises himself as a detective inspector. He carefully builds up the condition that will drive Olivier into a desperate situation with multifold trick which he couldn't have ever managed to produce had it not been for the experience undergone by Olivier's cunning tricks during the first half of the movie. Obviously he must have learned how to play psycological power-plays, and is enjoying full advantage from it. It should be noted Caine disguises himself as someone else twice in this movie; that is, firstly as a clown, and second time as a detective inspector. This seems to be signifying the change of his status very well. For, usually a clown is the one who is laughed at by other persons; i.e. spectators, and a detective inspector is the one who is aggresively investigate someone else. So, firstly, he is forced to disguise as a clown complying with Olivier's games. On the other hand, second time, he disguises himself as an inspector in order to play his game, not Olivier's, which certainly means he has learned how to play the games.
Once they start such kind of a game, it won't stop until one of the
two perishes.
But, in any case, disguising as someone else could be said to be signifying the unwillingness of the person disguising to participate a certain event with jeoparadizing the identity of real himself, or rather willingness of him to deceive some other persons. When someone disguises himself as someone else, it can be said he is thinking only in terms of his own sake. Because what is disguised by him represents his unilateral scheme, and as long as he continues to disguise, there will be no reciprocal interaction there, for disguise suggests his denial of involvement with his real identity. This is exactly the game Olivier was producing, and now Caine is taking advantages from. If social activities should be comprised of reciprocal interactions, disguise shouldn't be counted as a social activity at all. Though what I've just said seems to be rather obvious, the lack of sociality and what is the consequence of it are almost all about this movie. Briefly saying, at the level of an internal drama, Sleuth isn't even two players show, but only two parts of one-man show each of which is acted by a different player. Therefore there isn't even a single moment in the movie both of them show mutual understandings to each other, and even when the game seems to be over, actually it isn't. Because declaring the game is over requires a mutual consent of both involved with regard to the supposition the game is really over. Hence, such kind of games as Olivier and Caine is playing could be terminated only when one of the participants has perished.
By referring to Alfred Schutz's book will we be able to know what
actual social relationship should be.
To clarify what actual social relationships should be, here do I pick up some excerpt from one of the works written by the famous phenomenological sociologist Alfred Schutz; i.e. The Phenomenology of the Social World. He says, "We have, then, the same undivided and common environment, which we may call "our environment". The world of the We is not private to either of us, but is our world, the one common intersubjective world which is right there in front of us. It is only from the face-to-face relationship, from the common lived experience of the world in the We, that the intersubjective world can be constituted. This alone is the point from which it can be deduced." Therefore, social interactions must be based upon one common lived experience, and live through this experience. But, in Olivier and Caine's game, there is no common lived experience, and they from first exclude the existance of the other's lived experience. Schutz further says, "If I know that you and I are in a face-to-face relationship, I also know something about the manner in which each of us is attuned to his conscious experiences, in other words, the "attentional modifications" of each of us. This means that the way we attend to our concious experiences is actually modified by our relationship to each other. This holds for both of us. For there is a true social relationship only if you reciprocate my awareness of you in some manner or other. As soon as this happens, as soon as we enter the face-to-face situation, each of us begins to attend to his own experiences in a new way. This particular attentional modification in which the two partners of a directly experienced social relationship are mutually aware of each other has special implications for the social interaction which occurs in that situation." In our context, this means that, to establish a true social relationship, we must admit the possibility we may modify ourselves and change in the course of that relationship. This aspect is totally lost from the case of Olivier and Caine. And, this lackness leads them to final catastrophe.
We can't laugh at what is depicted in this movie as just a personal
matter. Because total nuclear war might happen in the same way as
delineated in the movie.
What I've been saying couldn't be the least laughing matters if you considered the escalation to total nuclear war might happen in the same way as delineated in this movie even though recently the possibility of the occurrence of total nuclear war has reduced. That is, more than one countries think themselves as supreme entities over other countries, and start to play their own games, and once it happens, it will never stop until one of them perishes, which will certainly mean the end of the world considering the capability of nuclear weapons these days. The reason why this might happen is because the countries commencing such games, if any, will be to be said they aren't regarding themselves as one of social (in this case, international) actors. This might seem to be too much to say for this kind of movies (after all, there are only two actors in it). Yet this kind of behavioral patterns, I presume, will appear in any level of situations involving more than one actor ("actor" means a person or a group of persons who conducts some acts that may affect others). In this regard, this movie is to be said very profound. To tell the truth, I am quite tempted to interpret this movie in various ways. For example, the movie might have an issue concerning class structure. Though I know being a writer of detective stories alone won't assure he will belong to the upper class, Olivier seems to live in a vast manor and be spending an aristocratic life none the less, while Caine is a heir dresser. Olivier's confidence in the first half of the movie seems to be bolstered by his reliance upon the difference of social status between him and Caine. Anyway, although I'm not going to elucidate this aspect as this review has become too long, it's obvious the movie will provoke many thoughts in viewers' minds, and that is the very quality we can hardly find nowadays. I feel I want to watch this kind of movies many more. Unfortunately, there seems to be not so many of them. As a verdict, I can surely say Sleuth is a classic.


Go Back to Movie Reviews Main Page