Word: offing
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Highsmith's second coup was Ripley himself--a fastidious fellow of refined if acquired tastes who is utterly unimpeded by conscience. Tom is a sportsman. "Risks were what made the whole thing fun," he muses. His lack of guilt or shame makes Tom a blithe, resourceful fellow, totally at ease...
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Minghella's Ripley is different, less sure of himself, more human, and thus reduced in stature. He lies to Dickie's father when he says he went to Princeton with the boy. He believes not in inspired improvisation, as the book's Ripley does, but in studying hard. In the...
"In the book," says Minghella, "there is something so psychopathic about Ripley, and it works wonderfully as a literary experience. I wanted to talk about what was common to us, not what was distancing. To do that I had to take away the sense of premeditation and show the trouble...
As all crime writers are killers, all actors are liars--Ripleys for their art and glory. Highsmith's Tom thinks of himself in moments of stress as a consummate actor thrilled by the conviction of his deceit. "If you wanted to be cheerful, or melancholic, or wistful, or thoughtful, or...