I know it’s called the “AMERICAN Film Institute’s 100 Years-100 Movies” but everything about “Wuthering Heights” is decidedly British. An all English cast starring in a film based on a Brit-Lit classic and set in Yorkshire, UK. The most English thing about “Wuthering Heights” though is the drama.
The film is based on a classic novel which I won’t pretend to know anything about. Laurence Olivier (years before he was knighted) plays Heathcliff, a man who takes a desperate border stranded in a blizzard into his manor, known as Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff is shown to be very brooding, curt and generally dark. Though he addresses a woman who is said to be his wife, their interaction is limited and callous and it is assumed that she is definitely not the love of his life when Heathcliff, seemingly in a trance calls out into the blizzard to a woman, proclaiming “she has come back!” This odd behavior and the stunned border’s reaction set up the flashback narrative that follows, with the housekeeper explaining Heathcliff’s bizarre actions.
This type of introduction both helps and hinders the way the story is presented; on one hand flashback storytelling is a great way to introduce us to a seemingly one-dimensional character or set of characters and subtly peel back the layers to reveal a complex and multi-faceted being. However, if something is too overstated, as is the case at the beginning of “Wuthering Heights,” then the journey is almost spoiled as we already know what to be looking out for now and that the story will be filled with tragedy. The cries of “She has come back” make it pretty clear that there is going to be a lost love involved, and Heathcliff flatly telling the stranded border that Wuthering Heights is a lonely place where his only company is his dog further illustrates the divide between he and his wife.
However, even in spite of these possible missteps “Wuthering Heights” is so amazing that it doesn’t even matter or even hurt the story. Now THAT is good filmmaking!
Many, many years prior, Heathcliff was brought to live with a well-off family whos patriarch found him abandoned in the streets. The man explains to his son Hindley and daughter Cathy that the boy will be raised as one of them and even tries to instill values in them by explaining that their good fortune obligates them to share with their fellow man. Cathy has no problem subscribing to this mindset, to the point that she considers Heathcliff her best friend. Of course, Hindley has a different opinion of things, as he suffers from a severe case of the “I, my, me’s” and never misses an opportunity to remind Heathcliff that he is a “gypsy begger.” In a brilliant and chilling use of foreshadowing, Heathcliff vows revenge on Hindley for his terrible mistreatment of him- vowing to pay him back no matter how long it takes.
The forebodings of things to come do not end here, as perhaps the most important scene in the film unfolds. Heathcliff and Cathy are innocently playing atop a rocky hill overlooking Wuthering Heights as the two children, partially in the context of playing and partially from the heart declare their love for each other. In the midst of Heathcliff declaring Cathy his “queen” she begins to fantasize not about their lives together but of all the possessions Heathcliff would shower upon her in their fantasy world. Over the course of their lives the two share many more emotional moments atop their cliff, but they are never quite enough to convince Cathy that social standing is irrelevant compared to undeniable love. Because of this, she marries a wealthy man named Edgar, who’s homestead The Grange is everything Wuthering Heights is not: It is filmed in bright lights with high ceilings, elaborate décor and ethereal white tones- in contrast, Wuthering Heights is always poorly lit with large but confining rooms and its inhabitants are always dressed in black.
The powerful and ingenious irony being that, in this dark and dreary place, both the house itself as well as the cliff that represents so much of their life together, Heathcliff and Cathy experience the only moments of true happiness their lives will ever see, and though The Grange represents the life Cathy has forsaken Heathcliff for, there is nothing but sterility and depression in the opulent white palace. Cathy comes to this realization in a remarkably well-shot sequence where she verbally acknowledges that the two are soulmates and that the only joyful moments she has ever experienced have been with him “our souls are the same… I AM Heathcliff.” As this line is delivered a massive crash of lightning explodes outside her window, illustrating that this realization is dark and grim rather than romantic and joyous due to the fact that the choices she has made are irreversible.
Fast forward later in life: Heathcliff is finally successful, so much so that he has bought Wuthering Heights from Hindley, who has racked up too much debt to keep the house in the family any longer. Heathcliff exacts his revenge not by throwing him on the street or forcing him to live in the stables as he had once been forced to do by Hindley, but instead by keeping him in the house. By constantly reminding him that the house is no longer his and that Heathcliff’s charity alone is the only thing keeping a roof over his head Heathcliff shows signs of both humanity as well as sadism. This sadism reveals itself in a much darker and cruel fashion as Heathcliff’s master plan begins to unfold.
”Ask your husband to call another doctor in future. Whoever dwells in this house is beyond my healing arts.” (Dr. Kenneth, “Wuthering Heights”)
Driven more by his love for Cathy and seemingly by some degree of insanity, Heathcliff spitefully marries Isabella, Edgar’s sister. Cathy insists it is to get closer to her and tries to talk Isabella out of it, Edgar is more concerned with the fact that he was not born into nobility and Isabella herself convinces herself that he does love her, only to find that the remainder of her life will be lived in her sister-in-law’s shadow. This shocking character turn not only shows a dark side to a previously fault-less protagonist, but more importantly illustrates the unreasonable and unhealthy extremes love can drive a person to. Though his decision is a callous one, the argument can be made that Heathcliff is at least attempting to settle for a wife as close to Cathy as he can have in her absence, while the sympathy for Cathy is never really as strong because the choices she made were done so from placing her social standing above her own feelings.
As the housekeeper concludes her anecdote for the stranded guest, we find out Heathcliff has gone missing, venturing out into the blizzard looking for Cathy’s ghost which he frantically claimed to have seen at the beginning of the film. The final shot shows two blurry and glowing figures, Cathy and Heathcliff, walking hand in hand to their cliff overlooking Wuthering Heights. This ending pulls off the nearly impossible, as the lead character dies, his wife is left heartbroken but the conclusion is a happy one as Heathcliff and Cathy’s souls are now finally at peace.
“Wuthering Heights” spends the bulk of its runtime preparing you for dark and heartbreaking tragedy, and in the end what you get is a far greater and far more realistic love story than you will ever find on the “Staff Picks” shelf selected by a girl named Tiffany who dots the “I” with a heart at your local video store. This film is like the concept of love itself; it puts you through the gamut of emotions from butterflies in your stomach to being completely gutted. And isn’t that really what life is all about?
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