The Scene in Saltburn No One Talks About

TL;DR It’s not about class warfare it’s about class complicity

You likely know the scene in Saltburn that is so over-discussed it has inspired a candle, but if you don’t, here’s Wikipedia’s hilarious summary: “One night, [Oliver] watches Felix masturbating in a bathtub and lustfully drinks the semen-laced bathwater.”

Indeed.

What surprises me about the Saltburn discourse is how doggedly critics are fixated on the sleaze element of the film. I take this word straight from director Emerald Fennell, who described the movie as, “Barry Lyndon meets indie sleaze” to the Hollywood Reporter. The Barry Lyndon half of Fennell’s vision is largely ignored. For example, here are the first couple sentences of Wesley Morris’ review for The New York Times,

Saltburn is the sort of embarrassment you’ll put up with for 75 minutes. But not for 127. It’s too desperate, too confused, too pleased with its petty shocks to rile anything you’d recognize as genuine excitement.

(If you’ve never seen Barry Lyndon, it is not an exciting movie although I doubt a critic ever trashed Kubrick for this.)

Morris’ review is so elaborately nasty that it reads like an actual character from Saltburn wrote it. I was especially interested in his complaint that Saltburn isn’t an “eat the rich movie.” This is a critique echoed in the general discourse, which, frankly, feels really lazy to me.

In addition to her Barry Lyndon/indie sleaze vision, Fennell has been transparent that she intended for Saltburn to join in the tradition of the British gothic — think Daphne du Maurier and L.P. Hartley. Fennell explains,

I think that I was sort of looking more at that British Country House tradition of The Go-Between and that sort of very specific British... sort of Joseph Losey world, where class and power and sex all kind of collide in one specific place.

As one would expect of a movie named after an estate, Saltburn is about a place, not a person.

Rather, Saltburn is filled with montages of the grounds of the estate and an excellent monologue from Felix (Jacob Elordi) that is essentially just a tour of the home. A hedge maze, a bridge, a tennis court, and two bedrooms importantly connected by the infamous bathtub are prominent to not just the atmosphere, but the actual plot of the movie.

There is only one other home in Saltburn: main character Oliver’s childhood McMansion in the suburbs. The scene no one talks about takes place here. To recap: Solidly upper middle class Oliver has manipulated Felix (heir of Saltburn) by claiming his father is dead, his mother is an addict, and he grew up in abject poverty. Felix insists on surprising Oliver for his birthday by taking him to visit his mother. Upon discovering Oliver’s perfectly healthy parents and nice home, Felix tries to banish Oliver from Saltburn. Banishment from Saltburn is the big punishment of this movie! There are several scenes in which various characters are sent away from the estate, to the outer darkness of being middle class.

So, no, Saltburn is not a movie about eating the rich; it’s a movie about the toxic elitism that compels the middle class to feel shame for being middle class. Obviously, Fennell is pointing toward the idea of a Dickensian reckoning with wealth by naming her main character Oliver, although it is not Oliver Twist but rather Great Expectations that Saltburn recalls. Watching the excruciating birthday-with-the-parent’s scene, I immediately thought of the heartrending moment in Alfonso Cuarón’s 1998 Great Expectations when Finn (Ethan Hawke as Pip, but with a cooler name) pretends not to know his lower class father, who has arrived to Finn’s gallery showing in a key lime green ruffle front tuxedo shirt. Each scene directly convey the way class shame alienates one from both personal history and family — and compels one not to love people, but property.

Significantly, Oliver is not just not poor — he’s pretty well off. Of all the big and fascinating choices Fennell makes, I find this the most interesting. Her point isn’t that wealth stratification is blatant and egregiously unfair, it’s that wealth stratification is insidious because it shapes the psyche of the entire 99%.

There are plenty of movies about eating the rich. If that’s the blunt cultural critique you’re looking for, I suggest The Menu. For all the bombast of Saltburn, Fennell is actually making a more delicate statement on wealth than the last several years of discourse have dealt in: the rich are too poisonous to eat, and trying to do so is killing us.

My Camp rec this week: Make Jacob Elordi’s Bathwater Cocktail

Here’s the recipe:

• 75ml Mr. Consistent Lychee Martini Premium Cocktail Mix (can substitute for lychee syrup or juice)

• 45ml Gin (preferably one with salty tasting notes)

• 75ml Coconut milk

Rim a coupe glass with some coconut milk and, according to Mr. Consistent, “let it drip.” Next, combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously for about 15–20 seconds. Strain your cocktail into the glass, and it’s ready to serve.