Salt Burn Not exactly a short story. Competition of Emerald Fennel The genius Mr. Ripley the story follows young Oxford student Oliver (Barry Keoghan) as he intrudes into the hearts and lives of an upper-class family during a summer at their sprawling country estate. The entire third act of the film is a cacophony of bad decisions, showing just how irredeemable each character involved really is.
But beneath the veneer of social climbing and class warfare, there is a whole world of symbolism quite literally hidden in plain sight. And once you see it, it will change how you look at film.
Warning! Spoilers for Salt Burn Forward.
One of the most disturbing images around the Saltburn Estate is the hedge maze. Oliver first encounters this through a model he finds while exploring the house, which contains small marbles to represent maze-walkers. This represents how frivolous the Keaton family really is: they built their maze for fun, while Oliver is busy trying to navigate his social maze.
It’s all built up to Oliver’s birthday party, which Elspeth has decided. A Midsummer Night’s Dream Themed This is where Oliver confronts and frames Farley for the theft before killing Felix so that his lie will not be discovered. Felix’s body is found in the center of the labyrinth, under a statue of the Minotaur from ancient Greek mythology.
Meaning of Minotaur
With this one symbol, so much of Oliver’s character suddenly makes sense. Oliver seems initially meant to represent this terrifying threat—a minotaur figure—but in the end, he manages to make himself the hero of the situation. “It’s the prey that becomes the predator,” Fennell explained GQ.
Proper wearing of deer antlers A Midsummer Night’s Dream The theme of the party, Oliver begins the night seemingly vulnerable and an outcast. But when the film ends, it is revealed that he arranged his entire visit to Saltburn, so that he could inherit the estate. This is a story inspired by a classic Greek myth. In the myth of the Minotaur, the young warrior Theseus enters a labyrinth and confronts the Minotaur, a half-bull, half-man monster that terrorizes the Cretan royal family. Theseus kills the Minotaur in the Labyrinth, only to manipulate the royal family he helped and offer to win the crown for himself.
In Salt Burn, it’s easy to read Oliver as the monster of the film, but in reality, Oliver is Theseus and Felix is the Minotaur he kills. The Minotaur, in Greek mythology, demanded child sacrifices. Salt Burn, Felix constantly brings several lower-class friends to the Saltburn to entertain him, each one as transformative as the last. To Oliver.
How Salt Burn The minotaur merges into the movie
This representation may seem like a stretch, but it’s something Fennell considered in the production, describing how production designer Suzy Davies brought Oliver to life in the statue itself. “Suzy built the minotaur in the middle of the maze, and also the maze,” he said, “but it’s based on Barry’s posture. Or Oliver’s posture. The body is Oliver. So whenever I need it, I switch. Do real Oliver, I’d say, ‘Barry, the Minotaur!’
The Minotaur has another major connection. Salt Burn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It begins with the mythical marriage of Theseus, the slayer of the Minotaur, to Hippolyta, the Amazonian queen. Meanwhile, the faerie King Oberon and Queen Titania discuss the possession of a “changeling boy”, a hostage they both find amusing. It’s this bickering that leads to the high jinx of all the love magic in the play that will eventually affect Oliver’s birthday party. Fennell also connected this part of Shakespeare’s plot by having Oliver’s character wear deer antlers to the party. “He’s the deer, he’s the changeling guy who’s at the center of it all,” she said.
Salt Burn It may not have the most overtly classy satire, but by juxtaposing these classic stories with Oliver’s plight, it’s easy to see what his rich-play story should have been and become a legend. Give a twist to your narrative of being a hero. Everything is inherited. He may have been modeled on the Minotaur, but he emerged as Theseus, king of Crete, lord of the manor of Saltburn.
Credit : www.inverse.com
