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The Riot Club

In: Film and Music

Submitted By h3h3eh
Words 1338
Pages 6
The Riot Club Essay - September 2015
Introduction
We see tendencies of a divide in social classes everywhere in the world. However, it is very interesting that this divide in social classes plays such a big role in one of the most globalized and industrialized nations in the world. Today, children from the wealthiest families gather up in the best elementary schools, high schools and universities in which they get provided the best teachers and the best education as possible. This tendency leaves nothing for the people in the lower classes. The film The Riot Club from 2014 describes these differences very well. It is about Alistair Ryle and Miles Brown, two students at the Oxford University, which both come from rich families. They get invited to join the Riot Club, which is a closed society for the 10 best students at the university. Throughout the film we follow their development in the Riot Club and also touch upon their different point of view on lower social classes. This assignment contains analysis of setting, characterization of main person and themes in the movie The Riot Club.

When we are talking about the setting in The Riot Club, we may conclude that we are dealing with the upper class and the richer part of the British society. The film takes place at Oxford University, where we are following two new students. We know Oxford University as one of the finest universities in Great Britain and maybe even one of the most promoted universities on the entire planet. Essentially, it is given that Oxford University provides the best educations and teachers. This also means it is one of the most attractive places to study. Therefore we may conclude that only the students with a wealthy background are able to achieve access to an education at this University. Furthermore, it is interesting to mention the fact that some of the most famous politicians in the British parliament and several aristocrats went to Oxford University and were even members of the Bullingdon Club as well. The Bullingdon Club is by the way a closed society at the university, which is similar to the Riot Club in the film. The wealthy conditions are by the way very obvious, as the members of the club throw away keys to very expensive cars or offer Miles' girlfriend Lauren a large amount of money to do "jobs" under the table for instance.
Nevertheless, the club and also the persons’ wealth are very interesting factors to analyze when we talk about the main characters in the film. Early in the film we get to know Miles Richards and Alistair Ryle, which are the two main characters in the film. In addition, they are also our antagonist and protagonist. They both become members of the riot club, which means they got invited into a closed society at the university. A tradition in this club is that only the best students should be allowed to join the club, which means they only choose students with background from specific high schools. So you need to be very rich as for instance the Greek guy from the club or do something extraordinary to proof that you are a legend. Miles Richards is one of the main persons in this film. He is the so-called Mr. Nice-guy and at the same time he appears to be our protagonist. He seems to come from a wealthy family. The first thing that reveals this point is his name. Miles is in particular known as one of the finer names in Great Britain, and therefore we may admit that he has a wealthy background. His wealth is also obvious because he went to Westminster High School. This school is in addition on the list of acceptable schools, when you are going to join the riot club. In comparison to Alistair Ryle, Miles do not hate the lower classes. He is a lot more tolerant. He also gets a relationship to Lauren. She has working class background and went to Bristol High School. Bristol does not appear on the list of acceptable school. It is quite obvious that she is the least wealthy person within the students. Therefore it is interesting to analyze Miles relationship to Lauren, when we know Miles as the good guy in the film. However, when we have a good guy we also need an antagonist. In this case we are dealing with Alistair Ryle. He appears as the complete contrast to Miles. He is intolerant, especially when we talk about people from the lower classes. He actually hates them. Alistair also has an important background. His big brother is former chairman of the riot club and known as one of the biggest legends of all time. This may also be one of the main reasons why Alistair was accessed the club. We know that Miles is not violent and tried to avoid the accident, but Alistair was actually the one who caused the beat-up in the restaurant. In the end he is the one who got the largest punishment, as he was kicked out of the university. Told with other word, we are in this film dealing with to opposite personalities and their development in relation to their membership of the club.
We also need to ask ourselves the question: What do we get out of this movie? What does it try to tell us? It is very obvious that we are dealing with a great difference in power and influence on a university, which may also say something about the conditions in the entire country. Nevertheless it appeals to a certain kind of the misuse of power that the riot club did. With these facts we may also conclude that it links very much to the inequality in the well-established country Great Britain. One of the best scenes to describe this observation is the final showdown in the restaurant, where the owner got beat up by the members of the riot club lead by our antagonist Alistair Ryle. He tells us in the film that he hates people from lower levels of the society. In particular middle-class or lower ranked. He keeps arguing that they try to imitate the rich people’s way to live, and the fact that they complain a lot about their jobs and lack of money. He also thinks it is their own fault that they have not the same economical opportunities as him and the other members of the club. Essentially, this is his argument to use his power and also the power of the club against the poor bartender in the beat-up scene.

Conclusion
Nevertheless it is a film that shows the darker sides of being too rich and too supreme. The members of the riot club seem to have the opportunity to pay their way out of every problem. We may conclude that the setting is the ultimate top of the society in Great Britain. Our main characters are students at the Oxford University in London. We experience that Miles Richards and Alistair Ryle appears as our protagonist and antagonist. They get both invited to join the club and throughout the film we follow their personal development as well as the influence of the club. Alistair the bad guy seems to be forced by the group to do stupid things, which also result a ban from the university. Miles is stronger and seems harder to force. Therefore he appears as the good guy. Throughout the film we experience their misuse of power and their lack of concentration in certain situations. The riot club should have been the ultimate place to join. To be surrounded by the greatest legends and heroes at the university, but instead Miles became our only hero and the nine others a bunch of rich, criminal zeroes.

--------------------------------------------
[ 2 ]. Lone Scherfig: The Riot Club, 2014
[ 3 ]. Scenes: Lone Scherfig, the Riot Club, 2014
[ 4 ]. Cast: The Riot Club
[ 5 ]. Final Scene, Lone Scherfig: The Riot Club, 2014

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