The rich, like the rest of us, come in various shades of grey. They just have a lot more money. Which means that, by and large, they generally have more options available to them in which to become assholes. On the other hand, you don’t have to be rich to be an asshole. Still, there just seems to be something about the rich in England that brings out the worst in regards to, among other things, “class”.
In other words, it’s not just about the money at all. Or not all about it. Instead, it encompasses a sense of entitlement. They are simply better than everyone else. They reflect an aristocratic sense of “nobility”. They are “gentlemen”. And this arrogant distain for the rabble is passed down from generation to generation. Which is to say that they take their standing in “society” very, very seriously. Still, some are considerably more “posh” than others.
[sniff, sniff]
Here’s the thing though: Just because most of the assholes here are rich, it doesn’t mean that because you’re rich, you’re an asshole. Or did I already note that? These are the sort that take pride not in what they think or say or do so much as for who they are. Which is to say that they are not me and they are not you. Besides, as Chris pointed out, “they all look the same”.
So, is this the way things really are at Oxford? Or is to more a spoof of the way most of us think things really are at Oxford? I couldn’t tell you.
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Riot_Club
trailer: youtu.be/pZwv6h-LhTw
THE RIOT CLUB [2014]
Directed by Lone Scherfig
[b]Lord Riot: We will gather the brightest, the boldest and the best to eat till we are sick at the full table of life, and never to fade from glory. And we will call ourselves the Riot Club.
…
Miles: I swear, being in Oxford, it’s…It’s like being invited to every party. And I wanna go to all of them, you know?
Lauren: Yeah. I mean, look at this. We are so lucky. My dad cried, you know, when I told him I got into Oxford.
[she chuckles]
Lauren: Maybe it was just the tuition fees.
Miles: See, my dad would’ve cried if I hadn’t got into Oxford. My whole family come here. My little brother, he’s 13 and he can’t wait.
Lauren: Miles, are you…posh?
…
Mugger: Just put in the PIN number and take out 200.
Alistair [after a long pause]: It’s actually just PIN. The ‘N’ stands for number, it’s Personal Identification Number. So, if you say “Pin Number” you’re saying “number” twice. You’re saying “Personal Identification Number Number”.
[chuckles]
Alistair: It’s just wrong.[/b]
That was the wrong thing to say.
[b]Lauren [to Miles]: This room is too Oxford even for Oxford.
…
Harry: So we’re at the top university in the world.
Alistair: Arguably.
Harry: And so are 20,000 other people. But there are no more than 10 in the Riot Club. The top 10.
…
Hugo [to Miles]: Oh, everything you see here is begged and borrowed. I’m very much the ragged end of the gentry.
…
Hugo: So, I must ask, what’s a nice Westminster boy like you doing with all those boot-strappy regionals?
Miles: I don’t know, Lauren’s cool, so…
Hugo: Well, you know what they say, “girls for now, girls for later”.
Miles: So…The Club…
Hugo: The Riot Club connects me to hundreds of years of history. The dinner is debauchery raised to an art…almost spiritual. Something is released.
[pause]
Hugo: Do you know there are some people who think they’re here to get a degree?[/b]
Things to know if you wish to be a member of the Riot Club:
[b]What is the correct way to eat ortolan?
Which is bigger, a Mordechai or a Methuselah?
What is a Roman shower?
Which happens first, the Cheltenham Gold Cup or the Grand National?
What did Disraeli do three times and Gladstone four?
What does a coprophagic like to do?
How did Edward II die?
Which is oldest, Trinity College Cambridge or Trinity College Oxford?
…
Harry: It’s our time, gentlemen. Let us eat till we explode, drink till our eyes fall out, let us dance footloose upon the Earth, and carpe some fucking diem!
…
Charlie [a “sex worker”]: I’m really sorry, I don’t do more than two visits in a row without a break, so…
Alistair: What break do you need, if you’re just lying there?
Charlie: I’m not just a live version of the sock you wank into.
Harry: I’m not sure you quite appreciate who you’re talking to.
Charlie: Do it yourself, you’ll be under the table, a mouth’s a mouth.
Harry: Why can’t you just fucking do it?! Why can’t you just buckle down and…Oh, for fuck’s sake, you’re a whore!!!
…
Chris: I’ve just had a table of four leave before their mains, refusing to pay the bill because of the noise.
Harry: Yeah, I’m sorry. We’re very, very sorry.
Chris: I think it’s time for you to leave, please.
Harry: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. We’re ever so sorry. Most of us went to boarding school, we don’t really know any women.
Chris: I’d like you to leave.
Harry: How much was the bill? For the table who left?
Chris: Um, maybe, 100 by the end of the night.
Harry: And we’re spending what tonight?
Chris: About three and a half grand, I think. But it’s not just about the money, it’s about goodwill, these people are my customers.
Harry [taking money out of his pocket]: OK. Gesture of goodwill. We’ll, um, we’ll call it 150, all right? Let’s say they were going to order another bottle. We wouldn’t want you to be out of pocket.
[he gives the owner the money]
Chris: This is what they teach you at boarding school, is it?
Harry: Actually, yeah, it is.
…
Rachel: I thought you were going to chuck them out.
Chris: We came to an arrangement.
Rachel: Did you let them pay you off?
Chris: All right, so, I let them reimburse me for a table that we lost. What? Would you rather that I just didn’t take money off people? I’m still paying off your student loan, you know.[/b]
There is that part.
[b]Harry [to Lauren]: How would you like to make 300 pounds tonight?
…
Dimitri: Chaps, chaps. I think that’s a bit insulting to Lauren, actually. Three hundred quid? No, no, surely it should be something that actually makes a difference? Like, um…
Miles: Dimitri, please.
Dimitri: Twenty-seven grand?
Lauren: What?
Dimitri: It’s three years’ tuition fees. Just for a few blow jobs. Seriously. Give me your account number and I will make the transfer right now.
…
Lauren: Miles?
Miles [hersitating]: It’s…it’s up to you.
Lauren: Sorry?
Miles: No, no, no, you’re right…
Lauren: It’s up to me?
Miles: No, no, no, I’m sorry, I just thought for a second, for a moment, I just thought it’s a fuckload of money.
Lauren: What, and I’m the sort of scrubber who’d take it?
…
Alistair [during a drunken rant imitating Chris]: “While you’re under my roof, you’ll respect my rules.” Well, I’ve got a new rule for you, mate, it’s called “Fuck you, we’re the Riot Club”.
(all cheering]
Alistair: This bourgeois outrage when we do anything, say anything. Anything we ever build or achieve, anything with the slightest whiff of magnificence, how did they get everywhere, how did they make everything so fucking second-rate? Thinking they’re better because there’s more of them. That’s not sweat on their palms, it’s envy, it’s resentment. And it stinks like a fucking drain.
[all cheering]
Alistair: That’s right. I am sick to fucking death of poor people!!!
…
Hugo [to Miles]: No one forced you into this. You wanted to come.
…
Miles: Excuse me. Excuse me, I’m sorry, I just wanted to check, is he…
Friend of Chris: Is he what? Is he dead? Is he dead? No. Now get back in your Bentley and fuck off. One of his lungs has collapsed. He’s got a blood clot in his brain.
Miles: Fuck.
Friend: Two broken ribs. Collarbone. Several fingers, broken nose, ruptured spleen, internal bleeding. Right now they’re trying to save the sight in his left eye, does that answer your fucking question?
…
Toby: So, what do we do?
Dimitri: Wait. My lawyer says they’ll call us back for second interviews if they find anything.
James: They’ll find fingerprints and things, won’t they? Ivan says we carry on. Say nothing.
Hugo: How far is that going to get us?
Dimitri: It got us bail, didn’t it? At least we’ve got time to think.
Toby: Well, can someone come up with something? Cos I’d really like to have a career.
Dimitri: Self-defence. He came at us waving a knife.
Harry: What? Ten on one? How about we give them someone?
Guy: You mean, the police?
Harry: We choose one person, ideally a volunteer, we all say he was the one who had the fight with the landlord.
Guy: What about the club? Sticking together, all for one?
Harry: One man confesses, takes a hit for the team. Nine of us stay clean. He’d be a fucking hero. And the rest of us do what we can to help him in the future.
…
Miles: But I didn’t do anything.
Hugo: You did call the ambulance.[/b]