The Whole Movie
A Place in the Sun is one of those movies in which absolutely everything about it is constructed upon irony. What makes it a masterpiece, what makes it actually work, is that it questions conventions and conceptions the audience holds dear that they do not even realize they hold so dear. Alice is the only character in the film who either does what she’s supposed to or having committed a mistake actually tries to make amends. And yet she is also the character presented in the least glamorous or admirable fashion. The movie wants you to root for George and Angela to wind up together and the irony of expressing that hope is like a moral Rorschach Test that dooms most viewers to revealing how corrupted they really are by the forces supporting American capitalism.
White Privilege
One of the instances of irony that is most egregiously disturbing today takes place during the scene in which a cop pulls Angela over for speeding after a BOLO has just been delivered for George in connection with the drowning death of Alice. One need not even need to have at their disposal the juxtaposition of so many scenes of cops killing innocent black Americans to appreciate the irony involved with this particular cop’s display of politeness and respect to the pretty rich girl in her pretty convertible. And yet, despite behavior by the cop verging on fawning, after he leaves, Angela reveals the true depth of her expectations of privilege by saying to George:
“I just love that officer. He’s so bloodcurdling.”
The irony is that she is not being ironic.
The Billboard
The very first image in the film is of a billboard for his uncle’s swimsuit business. It is a symbol representing the ultimate achievement of the American Dream: the billboard carries the headline “It’s an Eastman” over a woman lounging seductively in a swimsuit, but it never actually identifies the swimsuit as the product being advertised. The irony is that the American Dream is supposedly built upon the foundation of a single truth: those who work hard can find economic success. But the imagery on this billboard has nothing to do with hard work.
The product isn’t the point because it isn’t what the billboard is selling. The billboard is selling the name Eastman; it is the brand and not what it produces—much less the hourly wage employees who actually work to produce it—which is being marketed. The billboard essentially is saying just buy a damn Eastman because it is an Eastman, no matter what it is! And that is a status which is exceedingly difficult to attain simply by working hard every day.
George is an Eastman
The movie is all about George’s ambitions for wealth and yet he’s not wealthy. But he is an Eastman. Being born to the poor relations in the family, however, George is an Eastman only in the sense of being like the swimsuit and not in the sense of being a representation of its brand. Like the swimsuit, George is merely an Eastman commodity. He is a product to be exploited, not an heir to be respected for no apparent reason.
The Crime
The movie relentlessly pursues its path toward its ultimate irony. The film explicitly presents the actions in dispute at the trial of George for murder. The audience knows he didn’t actually—technically—commit premeditated murder because they were given exclusive privilege to watch the event unfold. The actions which led to Alice falling out of the canoe and into the lake are irrefutably an accident. Of course, the audience also has access to what was inside George’s head: he knows Alice can’t swim and he knows saving her will doom him to a life of hardship. All of that is, of course, an example of irony, but that is not the irony which the film tracks toward. The real irony here is that those thoughts inside George’s head which complicates the issue of his guilt or innocence were put there by society.
All other indications point toward George being basically a decent person, so how can a viewer possibly entertain the idea that he might at least be guilty of purposeful negligence in allowing Alice to die when he could have saved her? Because George has been corrupted into thinking that a satisfying lifestyle in America could not possibly be limited merely to a steady job and a loyal spouse. The ultimate irony of the movie is that the real crime is no put on trial in the fictional courtroom of the narrative, but in the minds of every single person who for even one second wants George to get away it, enjoy a loyal spouse and never have to do an honest day’s work for the rest of his life.
