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The Killing (Stanley Kubrick, 1956)
The Killing (Stanley Kubrick, 1956)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Writers: Stanley Kubrick (screenplay), Jim Thompson (dialogue)
Cast: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook Jr.
Genre: Film Noir
Writers: Stanley Kubrick (screenplay), Jim Thompson (dialogue)
Cast: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook Jr.
Genre: Film Noir
The Killing is Stanley Kubrick's first big budget film with established stars. It's considered a must see from his film canon.
I'd seen this film before when I first got into film noir, I revisited it last night after watching several other noirs. I have to say I found The Killing to be mediocre at best. The dialogue spoken between the actors in the first act when the crime is being set up, has to be some of the dullest, most repetitive lines of drivel I've heard actors say...add to that some very uninspired acting, by actors who I damn well know can act up a storm, and I have to say this film is not all that it's cracked up to be.
Just a week ago I watched John Huston's 1950 film noir The Asphalt Jungle, a film that The Killing (1956) strongly resembles.
Both films are about an audacious, brilliantly planned robbery that will net millions to the criminals. Both films go into detail about how the robbery will be done, and both have unexpected circumstances foiling the plans of the would be thieves. Hell both films even have Sterling Hayden as the lead bad guy.
The difference is The Asphalt Jungle felt alive with dynamic characters and dialogue that crackled and popped like a Saturday Night Special. Kubrick's film on the other hand is as flat as a man gunned down by the cops. It does have some of Kubrick's trade mark cinematography, and there are some good compositions, but not enough to make it one of the greats.
I'd seen this film before when I first got into film noir, I revisited it last night after watching several other noirs. I have to say I found The Killing to be mediocre at best. The dialogue spoken between the actors in the first act when the crime is being set up, has to be some of the dullest, most repetitive lines of drivel I've heard actors say...add to that some very uninspired acting, by actors who I damn well know can act up a storm, and I have to say this film is not all that it's cracked up to be.
Just a week ago I watched John Huston's 1950 film noir The Asphalt Jungle, a film that The Killing (1956) strongly resembles.
Both films are about an audacious, brilliantly planned robbery that will net millions to the criminals. Both films go into detail about how the robbery will be done, and both have unexpected circumstances foiling the plans of the would be thieves. Hell both films even have Sterling Hayden as the lead bad guy.
The difference is The Asphalt Jungle felt alive with dynamic characters and dialogue that crackled and popped like a Saturday Night Special. Kubrick's film on the other hand is as flat as a man gunned down by the cops. It does have some of Kubrick's trade mark cinematography, and there are some good compositions, but not enough to make it one of the greats.