Sexuality in "The Talented Mr. Ripley"

Portraying Tom Ripley as a homosexual in the movie is a bold move that pays off for the audience's liking. Without it, the movie would not have been as successful as it was. While Highsmith's audience couldn't be reached with a main character who is legitimately gay, the screenplay writers for the movie knew they could reach their audience because of the growing social acceptability of homosexual sexuality. From written words to motion picture, the story gains the real life experience, but the fall back is that it loses the inside narrative that Tom Ripley provides. In order to help the audience remain sympathetic toward Tom Ripley, his sexuality allows for a motive to kill, a tender side that would otherwise be unseen, and altogether more of an inside understanding of what Ripley is going through.

In Highsmith's era, the homosexual community was hidden and unacceptable by social standards. If someone were to declare themselves as being gay, they could be turned away from local and federal jobs, positions in the military, and some private corporation jobs. Not only that but, "the federal government encouraged local police forces to harass gay citizens" (Foner). It wasn't simply unacceptable, but a gay person was considered a complete outcast and offensive to those around them; they were not welcome at all in a community. With this biased attitude toward homosexuals, the reasons for why Highsmith didn't expose Tom Ripley's or Dickie's sexuality are completely understandable. However, because of the growing civil rights movements, the audience the movie reached would not single out Tom Ripley as a deplorable gay because of their newly found tolerance and acceptance.

Just as differences in the era, Highsmith's verses the late 1990s, plays a role in decision making, so does a difference in the audience, the readers verse the movie watchers. Changes such as these are taken into account when preparing for a movie. Typically, the movie-going audience does not like unsolved endings that leave them confused or having unanswered questions. Movies follow the common pattern where something bad happens, there is a climax and then everything is solved. The Talented Mr. Ripley is not one of those movies and neither is the book. In making Ripley gay, the audience is not left hanging as much compares to the reader who experiences more mystery and depth. Someone who is only watching this movie only takes at most two hours of time out of their lives, whereas a reader spreads out the story over a course of many days or even weeks. Throughout the whole book, the reader goes through a process of swaying back and forth between both Tom Ripley and Dickie, and whether or not they are gay. When the book finishes, it does not simply end like a movie. A reader has something to continue thinking about and pondering over.

Since it is understood that the audience watching the movie won't discriminate Tom Ripley based on his sexuality, the movie needed them to not discriminate him on his future killings. In the book the reader could feel whatever Tom was feeling; relief, anger, panic. They needed a way to show that in the movie to the audience. Tom Ripley's sexuality created that much needed inside connection. Tom Ripley's infatuation with Dickie, and the fact that Dickie is a 'womanizer' in the movie, creates a way for the audience to still like Tom Ripley even after the deed was done. By showing how hard Tom Ripley tries to make Dickie like him and then the frustration at his failure, the audience can connect. Scenes such as Dickie and Marge on the boat, Tom Ripley and Dickie playing chess in the bathroom, on the train where Tom Ripley smells Dickie, and finally after the murder where Tom Ripley is holding Dickie, all allow the audience to feel what Tom is going through. Even the simple things, like Tom Ripley learning jazz music to impress Dickie, show just how much he wishes Dickie would like him.

In portraying Tom Ripley as a homosexual, Dickie's murder becomes a 'crime of passion' instead of planned murder, which in return is more likely to set well with the audience. As before mentioned, motion picture makes the story more realistic; you see the murder and how gruesome it actually is. Highsmith does goes into detail, but her words still cannot compare to seeing Dickie's face split open or Freddie getting hit with the statue's head. As a reader, it is easier to bypass the killing because not only is it nowhere near as vivid, but they also know Tom Ripley's true thoughts and grounds for the murder. The movie's audience needs to understand where Ripley is coming from because otherwise they would not be able to get past the murders. If the audience cannot continue liking the main character, they will feel alienated from the movie and will never want to see it again or recommend it to another person. Without the spread of mouth, the movie will not make money, which is the most significant reason.

To show further depth into Tom Ripley and keep the audience's sympathy toward him, Peter is a vital part. This is where Tom Ripley's innermost feelings are able to come out the most and show that he has had a dark past but is trying hard to run away from it. Tom Ripley admits that he wishes for a "giant eraser to rub out everything" from his past; everything he is ashamed and scared of going back to, now that he's known something different. When he gives Peter the key to his apartment, it is symbolic to Tom's key to all his secrets and that Tom is letting Peter in. Tom Ripley is trying to change; he wants a life different than the one that he's been leading. At this point, the audience may still be upset that Tom Ripley has committed two murders, but they are willing to forgive him because he wants to put it behind him.

Unless the movie directors had added in a narrator to describe what Tom Ripley was feeling, the audience would not be able to connect to this killer. Being an American movie for an American audience, there needs to be a justified ending and the killer caught. The hardest part of this movie would be to have the audience want the killer to go free. This simple change of showing Tom's homosexuality brings the audience into Tom Ripley's head which helps them to sympathize. The final scene, in which Tom Ripley kills Peter, allows the audience their justification because Ripley will never be happy with himself and to question Tom Ripley's character. Can Tom Ripley ever change who he is? And more fitting, is he really gay or does he just fit into whichever persona that will help him along with his life? In the beginning, he wanted to be with Dickie, the middle with Peter, and the movie ends with him being with Meredith. The question of Tom Ripley's sexuality remains with both the reader and movie watcher.

Works Cited

Foner, Erica, and John A. Garraty, eds. The Reader's Companion to American History.

Houghton Mifflin; First Printing edition, 1991