The Most Important Theme in Glass Onion
This article contains no spoilers for ‘Glass Onion.’ Much like ‘Knives Out’, you’ll have the best first viewing experience if you know as little as possible.
Netflix recently released Glass Onion, the long-awaited follow-up to Rian Johnson’s masterful Knives Out (2019). Johnson returned as writer and director, along with Daniel Craig’s gentleman sleuth Benoit Blanc and a new ensemble of whacky characters. This of course wasn’t a direct sequel but was instead the next in a series of isolated murder mysteries, much like the legacy of characters such as Poirot. Although Glass Onion was not as sharp as Knives Out, I thought it was a wonderful film and a worthy addition to this growing anthology. What I liked most is the exploration of themes and commentary on many contemporary issues.
Glass Onion is of course entertaining and there’s numerous components worthy of praise, but it also discusses pertinent issues. For example, among other topics the film has a subversive take on social media and influencer culture. The ensemble of characters are used as a means of exploring and subverting a strange part of modern culture, from the way they speak and behave, to the way they see the world. It’s terrific for a murder mystery to not only hold a magnifying glass over the case itself, but over the characters, their words, their actions and their impact on wider society. Much like the title would suggest, this is not simply a surface level story, there are many layers to the themes and messages.
There is one key message in Glass Onion, relating to a wider societal problem. It stands out as the most important aspect of the film, and it’s something other films have also explored in recent years. More than anything, Glass Onion is a pastiche of rich people and the super-rich. The message is threefold:
- Rich people are not necessarily clever or wise (or more accurately, they’re often stupid).
- Rich people are not normal (or more accurately, they’re weird).
- We should stop idolising rich people.
Glass Onion isn’t the first film to do this, and in fact it’s a trend which has gathered momentum since the election of failed businessman Donald Trump in 2016. Other films like Ready or Not (2019), Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite (2019), and even to an extent some films in The Purge series, these all examine the ways rich people are abnormal. It’s fascinating in the age of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, there are more creators exploring the culture of lunatic millionaire and billionaire arseholes. Fewer storytellers normalise them or make them seem grounded, and instead shine a spotlight on the gap between us and them. I don’t just mean in terms of their bank balances, but in the way they talk, behave and think. In almost every conceivable way, they are different.
Interestingly, this is a trend which goes back further than Trump’s time as a “fake it ‘til you fail” President. The theme of rich people being abnormal has a long and colourful history with literary roots. I’m reminded of the F Scott Fitzgerald quote:
“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” - The Rich Boy (1926).
It’s fascinating that as long as people have been writing fiction, and as long as there’s been a noticeable, growing divide between everyday people and the rich/ super-rich, people have written critically about this. Attempts to normalise rich people comes across as phony and biased. Consider the awful clip from The Big Bang Theory, when some of the group volunteer in a soup kitchen for Thanksgiving and find Elon Musk is also volunteering. The whole sequence is gut-wrenchingly fake and hollow. Instead of using the opportunity to point out Musk is a shallow moron with a head full of sawdust and concepts he doesn’t understand, the writers said “oh wow! Look, he’s just like everyone else! He’s thoughtful and funny, and he likes pumpkin pie too!” It’s all a disgusting prank, and I’m not falling for it. It feels more honest to write like Fitzgerald or Bong Joon-Ho, to show the divide and the abnormality.
Every film mentioned thus far, including Glass Onion, acts as a wonderful counterbalance to the creators who still want to idolise rich people. Pop culture figures like Batman and Iron Man reinforce the idea of rich people being saviours, and it is utter nonsense. I struggle when films and comic books tell us these characters are heroes, because we know in reality, they are villains. Their supposed heroism is dependent on their wealth, they’re arrogant and dismissive of others, they do what they want and answer to no one, and ultimately provide more harm than help. In fact, in Iron Man 2 (2010) there’s a horrendously unfunny cameo from Elon Musk! Musk and Stark are good friends, and Stark agrees to collaborate on Musk’s next project without even knowing what it is. What’s less funny than an arrogant billionaire doing whatever they want then patting them self on the back for being a hero? Two billionaires patting each other on the back. Hollywood needs to stop telling us rich people are heroes.
Glass Onion is a worthy addition to this growing catalogue of satirising rich people. It doesn’t need to be so overt as to hold a banner reading “eat the rich” because Rian Johnson is an incredibly clever writer. His work explores this theme in numerous different ways and to varying degrees. For example, there are multiple times throughout Glass Onion when Benoit Blanc, who is the smartest person in the room, is puzzled. The influencers present are either discussing technology, habits or behaviour, but are speaking almost entirely without substance or insight, and Blanc is our window into this bizarre world. The whole room is talking about supposedly big ideas without actually saying anything, and in true frustrating hilarity, Benoit Blanc is able to see through their incessant, self-aggrandising bullshit. This thread builds momentum as events play out, with Benoit Blanc becoming more frustrated, to the point of literally calling rich people stupid to their faces. It is wonderful to see this topic explored consistently throughout the film and building towards a breaking point near the conclusion.
This may come down to personal interpretation, but I’d argue the title also relates to this key message. Of course, it’s a reference to a song of the same name by The Beatles, and is a metaphor for how the case itself has many layers whilst remaining transparent, but it goes deeper. The idea of a glass onion perfectly encapsulates the rich people this film is satirising. How they present themselves is very impressive, and it is a facade which has been specifically designed to make them appear more important than they are. The intricate and delicate layers make them appear complex, when in reality anyone can see through them and can see they offer little value. The glass onion is impressive at face value, but is delicate and breaks all too easily.
It should come as no surprise that Glass Onion has something to say about the super-rich, because this was a consistent theme in Knives Out. The Thrombey family are not merely eccentric, they are corrupted by money. Their abnormality is directly linked to wealth and a desire to stay wealthy. In a moment of frustration, Benoit Blanc says of the Thrombey family:
“They are a pack of vultures at the feast: knives out, beaks bloody.”
Which is true. The potential of inheritance looms, and the growing prospect of becoming richer poisons their minds. The family are already accustomed to a particular lifestyle and a certain level of wealth, but the prospect of having more clouds any reason or logic or sensitivity in the event of the family patriarch passing. Again, rich people are not normal, and they’re not like you and me. It’s fantastic to see such consistency across Rian Johnson’s work, especially when you consider this is also something he brought to the Star Wars franchise. Although the sequence on Canto Bight in The Last Jedi (2017) is a noticeable tangent, it’s used as an opportunity to discuss the relationship between wealth and corruption. It’s interesting this is a consistent thread in Johnson’s recent work and is territory he has always handled really well.
Although I don’t think Glass Onion succeeds in all its endeavours, one undeniable and fundamental success is this exploration of millionaire and billionaire culture. The message is clear, and it’s explored in an incredibly funny and thought-provoking way. The fact the film achieves so much, whilst entertaining and providing another fresh, contemporary ‘whodunnit’ story is massively impressive. It’s a testament to how great Rian Johnson is as a storyteller and a filmmaker, and it makes me even more excited for Benoit Blanc’s third outing.
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