The murder that stays with us

The murder that stays with us

Swoon
Directed by Tom Kalin
Starring Craig Chester and Dam Schlachet
Valhalla Cinema, Glebe; Classic, Brisbane
Reviewed by Tom Flanagan

Based on the 1924 murder of a young boy by two Chicago youths, Swoon challenges both the homophobia of mainstream society and the moral perspectives of a sympathetic audience.

The impact of Swoon arises from its ability to draw the audience into the tangled web of moral judgment and prejudice that gave the murder case its exceptional prominence and which sustains interest in it today.

The film's real achievement is that it not only draws us into this web but helps us untangle it.

The audience watches the murder largely from Leopold's perspective, almost as Leopold's conscience. It experiences the horror but is free of any feeling of guilt, very much in the same way as the amoral Leopold.

The complicating factor is the reception of the case by the court and the media. The intense interest in the case from 1924 until the present is generated to a large degree by the homosexual aspect of the relationship between Leopold and Loeb.

Leopold is clearly infatuated with Loeb, who exploits this by rewarding Leopold sexually each time he assists in their escalating series of crimes.

By dealing openly with the sexual activities of Leopold and Loeb, the film rules out any notion of a mysterious link between the homosexual and homicidal aspects of the characters. Swoon thereby exposes the particularly intense public outrage surrounding the case as being based on rabid homophobia seeking retribution rather than on any concern for human beings.

The audience is thus left to judge for itself the many sides of the famous murder case — the two participants in the murder, the legal system, the society that sat in judgment and their own response. A very powerful film.

From GLW issue 75