In 1955, Patricia Highsmith unleashed the character of Tom Ripley onto the world.
In his book, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Highsmith describes an unassuming young man, an unreliable narrator, a man struggling to survive by any means necessary in Manhattan, and a man who outdoes himself by playing petty deceptions and confidence games. He introduced us to an actor who doesn’t exist.
He is suddenly thrown a lifeline by shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf, who mistakenly believes Ripley to be a close friend of his unfocused son Dickie, who is hanging out in Italy. Herbert wants Ripley to go to Italy and convince Dickie to return home and join his family business. Although Ripley is not Dickie’s best friend and he barely remembers meeting him, he agrees to travel to Italy on the old man’s money.
Arriving in the Amalfi Coast town of Mongibello (modeled after the real city of Positano; the current Netflix series “Ripley” is set and largely filmed in Atrani, about six miles to the east), Ripley meets Dicky. I’m planning on trying. – He doesn’t really remember either – and his girlfriend, Marge. Dicky soon assumes that Ripley is in a similar situation to himself, and invites her to live with him in his villa. (The Villa in the Netflix series is an airbnb on the island of Capri, her two and a half hours by ferry from Atrani.)
Initially, Dicky and Ripley got along very well, mainly because Dicky was pleased with Ripley’s attention. However, things get awkward when Dicky realizes that Ripley is not just obsessed with Ripley, but with becoming Ripley. What ensues is a dark tale of identity theft and murder in which Highsmith pulls off some clever tricks. Ripley is awkward, ordinary, and not very good-looking, but she gains sympathy from readers. We understand his motivations and are rooting for his success.
It’s not that we love Ripley as much as we do. it’s not. His skill, his talent, is understated. He is also a talented forger and smuggler. He is a quick learner, a good reader, has an ear for accents and languages, and is able to remain calm under pressure. Although appealing on the surface, it is a decoration that wears off over time.
People get tired of Ripley. Sooner or later they begin to perceive him as a mean and unstable person. Ripley knows this. He has a knack for sensing when he’s being pushed too hard. He realizes it when he runs out of Dickie’s patience.
Andrew Scott plays Tom Ripley in the Netflix series Ripley. (Netflix)
What we find fascinating about Ripley is that we can recognize in him a version of himself who struggles to keep up appearances and aspires to greater things. It’s the part of us that lets others down, the weak part that succumbs to temptation and takes shortcuts in desperation, the misplaced human germ at the heart of all of us.
Some people don’t like this character. Some people profess to have a dislike for him. But on some level we understand him, even if we find his amorality and willingness to hurt others repulsive. A degree of self-loathing is inherent in Ripley’s character. Those who understand what it’s like to feel like a fraud may empathize with Ripley.
But there’s a difference between feeling like an imposter, which many of us sometimes feel, and being an impostor, perhaps Ripley’s entire life. Highsmith doesn’t give us too much detail about the character’s background. We know that he is an orphan, raised by his frugal and resentful aunt. Her aunt is always willing to tell him what a burden he was.
He has been forever tormenting himself by hanging on the fringes of the upper class crowd, without the means to truly join the party. He sometimes passes as one of his on the phone number, but there are always people who mark him as a scammer, but he never picks up the tab.
The 1999 version of The Talented Mr. Ripley, directed by Anthony Minghella, starred Matt Damon as Tom Ripley and Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf.
tom and jay
You can also see Ripley as a more enlightened version of Gatsby, who didn’t make a lot of money through bootlegging. However, Gatsby, with his naive belief in the American Dream, is able to reinvent himself as a romantic playboy who throws lavish parties in hopes of attracting her true love, but Ripley is essentially a parasite that steals the lives of others. For the “innocent” Gatsby, the trap of wealth is a means to get what he really wants: the love of Daisy Buchanan.
Dennis Hopper played Tom Ripley in Wim Wenders’ 1977 film The American Friend.
But what does Ripley want?
This is a good question, but Highsmith was never able to fully answer it in any of the five novels he wrote about this character. Ripley seems to like the good life, the luxury watches and art, and the security that comes with having money. His interest in Dickie is not sexual at all. Although some people read it this way, Highsmith said the character is generally indifferent to sex except as a tool to manipulate others.
The current Netflix series “Ripley” is based on “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” written and directed by Steven Zaillian, and Ripley is played by Andrew, one of Ireland’s talented actors.・Scott has continued to work steadily since then. It seems like the scene really exploded in the 90s.
He played a “hot” priest in the second season of “Fleabag” and had a leading role in the 2023 film “All of Us Strangers,” directed by Andrew Haig. He’s 47 years old, but it wouldn’t be hard for him to pass as a character in his early 30s, as the series’ characters portray him. (In Highsmith’s novel, Ripley is 25 years old, and his motives seem vague even to himself, but in the Netflix version, Ripley’s predatory nature is clear from the beginning.)
Ripley has been portrayed on screen before. He was played by Alain Delon in René Clément’s 1960 film La Violet Afternoon. Dennis Hopper in Wim Wenders’ 1977 novel The American Friend (based on the 1974 novel Ripley’s Game and incorporating some elements of Highsmith’s 1970 novel Ripley Underground) ). by John Malkovich in 2002’s “Ripley’s Game”. He was played by Barry Pepper in the 2005 film Ripley Underground and by Matt Damon in the 1999 Anthony Minghella version of The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Story-wise, Minghella’s film may be closer to Highsmith’s original plot than any other Ripley film (Plain Soleil ends with Ripley unwittingly ensnared by the police), but Damon’s The casting seemed strange to some critics (myself included). . Back in 1999, Damon wasn’t the full-fledged movie star he is now. He came across as beautiful, thin, and expressionless, like a 90s Leonardo DiCaprio Wright (DiCaprio was Minghella’s first choice for the role of Ripley). He created a very beautiful Ripley (as did Delon in “Plaza de la Sun”).
That’s not to say Minghella’s “Ripley” didn’t work. It worked well as a kind of artistic travelogue about murder, but it didn’t really stay true to the spirit of Highsmith’s novel. It was more of a high-end fashion fantasy piece. It could have been used in a Baz Luhrmann movie with a few musical numbers. It was good, but it wasn’t really Highsmith’s Ripley.
Ultimately, the eight-episode Neflix series may be most notable for its gorgeous high-contrast black-and-white photography that emphasizes the story’s film noir roots, but it also feels truest to the spirit of the novel. Masu. Although considerable liberties were taken with the original story, with the characters being older and the setting moved from the mid-’50s to 1961-62, the portraits of Ripley and Dickie are psychologically astute.
Dickie Greenleaf, played by Johnny Flynn, shows a genuine curiosity about Ripley. He seems to see right through Ripley’s surface, but hints his way into her life anyway. Dicky may have romantic feelings for Ripley, or perhaps he is an old acquaintance living in America, a caring trust who is genuinely interested in helping this friend of a friend better himself. Maybe it’s the foundation’s child.
Even when he finally breaks up with Ripley, it feels more at the behest of his girlfriend Marge (Dakota Fanning) than out of disgust with Ripley. But he’s not putting the blame on her. Dicky is smart enough to understand that Ripley is not a positive entity. Ripley lied to her father and betrayed her father. He knows that Ripley’s obsession with him is unhealthy. But it’s also flattering.
The monster likes him. Therefore, monsters are not monsters.
And he’s not. Ripley doesn’t do it because it’s fun, he does it because he feels he has no other choice. It’s either act or be exposed.
Barry Pepper played Tom Ripley in 2005’s Ripley Underground.
ripley and the ripper
Midway through The Long Shadow, a British true-crime series that dramatizes the five-year manhunt for the so-called Yorkshire Ripper, Inspector Jim Hobson (played by Lee Ingleby) goes into his home. visit. A dying Detective Chief Inspector Dennis Hoban (played by Toby Jones) is there to inform his old boss, who was the first investigator, that no progress has been made in the search for the perpetrator.
While delivering the unfortunate news, the detective admits that it was unfortunate that he had not yet “met” the culprit.
“Oh, but you’ve met him,” Hoban says. He went on to say that the police had definitely questioned the killer. But he didn’t look like a monster – he wasn’t a monster – so they let him go.
Hoban’s decision turned out to be correct. The man eventually identified as the Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, was interrogated nine times by West Yorkshire Police and ultimately charged with 13 murders before being arrested for driving with changed number plates. A chain of events began that led to the confession.
In an era before DNA evidence and before computers, when all information was recorded on index cards and stored in evidence rooms, the very scope of the Ripper investigation involved thousands of police officers and over 250 police officers. More than 10,000 hours were spent scrutinizing the documents. More than 30,000 statements — helped Sutcliffe avoid being identified as a suspect.
Police collected so much evidence that they had to reinforce the floor of the room where the evidence was stored to keep it from caving in. Cross-referencing information was tedious and even when multiple pieces of evidence pointed to Sutcliffe, it was easy to miss. connection.
Sutcliffe closely resembles some of the Ripper police composite images created from victim testimonies during the investigation, and was seen carrying the Ripper’s weapon of choice, a hammer, at the scene of the Ripper’s stalking. He was also arrested. But the police guessed that he was just an ordinary robber, or more precisely, someone planning a robbery.
Sutcliffe, who died in prison from COVID-19 in 2020, was able to evade law enforcement investigation because he was clearly human. He wasn’t special. He could walk among us without anyone thinking anything of him.
It is this banality that Ripley wants to escape. This feeling that she is just like everyone else. Scott plays him, quiet but articulate, more careful than genius in his planning. He commits murder as a last resort, but has no regrets.
Because he’s convinced he has to.
Email: pmartin@adgnewsroom.com
John Malkovich played Tom Ripley in 2002’s “Ripley’s Game.”