The Killing

One of the best films I have ever seen is The Killing. It can boast a great many things. It can proudly say that it is the best heist film ever made and that it is the creme dela creme of film noir. Out of all the films in my top ten favorites, The Killing is easily the most watchable and purely entertaining. It doesn't try to be much more than a crime picture. A crime picture written by the legendary Jim Thompson of course. Thompson is one of the best American crime writers, well ever. And his work in The Killing is simply exemplary and total-classic Thompson. The film can also boast having a brilliant cast. Sterling Hayden, Elisha Cook Jr., and Marie Windsor soar, it can boast having possibly the strongest ensemble in all of the crime genre. It can boast having a pitch perfect tone and a distinctly unique and absorbing atmosphere. It can brag about the extraordinary tracking shots throughout or the lighting that startles and dazzles and vibes, melts. It can brag about being fun and devious and sly. It can brag about being unpredictable and clever. Smart. It can brag about being one the greatest films ever made. It's honestly that perfect.And did I mention that some guy named Stanley Kubrick directed the thing?The Killing is a film about a group of men who plan to knock off a racetrack, those who seek to thwart them, and how it all plays out. The characters are unforgettable. The Killing has in it's repertoire more than just a few of my favorite noir characters. What makes the players so special is that all of them are so sympathetic. Really. My heart goes out to each and every one of them, understanding and empathy seldom hits this hard within the parameters of the heist and noir genre. But here, the damn thing works every time. I've seen the film several times and I still physically act as if every time is my first. I cover my hands over my mouth in astonishment, I bite my nails in anticipation, I drum on my knees with rhythmic excitement, I laugh out loud, and I cheer relentlessly for everyone involved. I imagine myself as a member of the outfit. I have so much fun with this twisted picture that it's ridiculous.Okay.Lucien Ballard. Dick Tower. Earl Snyder. The men who walk the walk. One of the most dazzling things about The Killing is it's technical brilliance. The thing looks absolutely gorgeous and twisted and just right. Smokey and sexy and rough. There are shots in this film that your eyes can more than feast on, they can devour them. There are sequences of sight and sound and light that will make you fall in love with noir all over again. If that's not enough, Jim Thompson's dialogue will make your head spin it's so good. You'll find yourself quoting it to yourself without warrant or cause. The beats and the meter and time and scale of Thompson's writing will send you for a ride. Great dialogue and a truly complex and understated plot, the inner workings of which are not only of the heart-pounding variety but the very fabric that it is woven into is absolutely compelling.There is a subtext here as well. I don't think Kubrick ever really made a film just for the sake of doing so, he always had something deeper to communicate on top of it. The Killing communicates within the subtext the idea of the perpetual joke. Borderline Absurdism. Characters die literally howling about not being able to understand their own private punchline. Robberies take place by men in the guise of clowns. Think Hayden Sterling as Pagliacci The Clown. The Killing feels like a crime film written by Jim Thompson, directed by Stanley Kubrick, and dreamt up by Albert Camus. The idea that everything is absurd, that life is a frenzied haywire with a morbid sense of humor. I think Sterling's Johnny finally understood the great joke of life at the end of it all. And its pointless brand of mischief.It is fascinating seeing the great Stanley Kubrick, before he really was the GREAT Stanley Kubrick, working within the framework of the crime genre. Kubrick excels here, even if he was limited by boundaries of style and time. He is a filmmaker that mastered every genre he dabbled in. He is not only one of the greatest directors that ever lived but he is my personal favorite one. His films have a crazy power, an uncanny transcendental quality to them. The Killing possesses every bit as much magic that his post 2001 films do. The Killing has a little bit more than that as well. It has an incredible watchability factor. I could watch The Killing once a week for the rest of my life and still not get tired of it.I think I'll do just that. Why not? You only live once, right?

Criterion continues to keep them coming. The Killing(1956), Stanley Kubrick's great noir adds to the recent influx of Criterion's recent titles in 2011, which closely follows Kiss Me Deadly(1955). What a feast for Noir addicts! Now we have another pristine upgrade of a print which greatly improves past releases in both quality as well as great special features. This time we get two jam filled discs of a very important Noir. This two-dvd special edition includes a bounty of goodies for lovers of Noir. There is a new digital restoration, which is excellent, as well as a new interview with producer James B Harris. Interviews with lead actor Sterling Haden, who is excellent in his role as the small-time criminal who plans a dangerous race-track heist with help from a corrupt cop, and an interview with author Robert Polito about writer Jim Thompson. That is just on the first disc, Disc two includes a richly restored high-def digital transfer of Kubrick's 1955 feature Killer's Kiss, new video appreciation of Killer's Kiss by film critic Geoffrey O'Brien, and a new trailer. Of course, you also get a 20 page booklet featuring an essay by film historian Haden Guest and an interview with actress Marie Windsor, which is a reprint but still quite good. Now on to the feature. The Killing was Kubrick's 3rd feature, and to most film historians, the one that put him on the map, although some people would favor Paths Of Glory which was released in the next year 1957 as his breakthrough as a major director. I beg to differ. The Killing is told in a non-linear style which many movie goers have difficulty following, even now in the 21st Century. But to lovers of Noir, by 1956 they had become quite used to it and had no problem with it. In fact, many noir lovers enjoyed putting the pieces together which to them, only added to the experience. The film displays what has become a very familiar Kubrick theme. That is the breakdown, malfunction or fallibility of man and his plans. Just as in Kubrick's subsequent films such as Dr. Strangelove and further on to 2001:A Space Odyssey which became major mainstream successes. His manipulation of time in bits and pieces differs most strikingly from 40's Noir, such as The Killers and Out Of The Past. As players inthis game are established, the film leaps backwards until all of the parts fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The well planned heist falls apart just like the suitcase full of money falls off a cart and scatters the bills in the wind. Just as they say, "The Best Laid Plans". In addition to Hayden, the other members of the heist, especially Vince Edwards, Elisha Cook Jr, and especially Timothy Carey, are all excellent. Most definitely, pay the extra money and get this edition. SMRZ!!!

Was ordered for an xmas present. My husband didn’t get around to opening it and watching it for months. When he finally got around to watching it he was disappointed that it was damaged. We didn’t think amazon would return it but figured we would try. They returned it without question. Got 5 stars because of the great service.

I was very impressed with this 1956 "film noir". Adapted from the novel "Clean Break" by renowned crime writer Lionel White, this nowadays little known film was the real debut of then 28-years old director Stanley Kubrick. Below, more of my impressions, with some limited SPOILERS.Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) is a veteran criminal planning, as usual in "film noir", one absolutely last heist before settling down and marrying Fay (Coleen Gray). He plans to rob two million dollars from the money-counting room of a racetrack during a very anticipated race. He plans very meticulously the whole thing and very carefully selects the six members of his team - but, as we all know, no battle plan ever survives intact the first minutes of the real fight and the whole chain is only as strong as its weakest link...The preparation of the whole thing and the actual robbery are described with great detail and the tension builds up from the very first moments. We come to know quite well all the six team members, who are by no means all hardened criminals and who all have a story to tell. One of them is in fact quite despicably pathetic - for another one actually I felt some pity...My favourite character amongst the team members was an aging Russian wrestler AND also an accomplished chess champion Maurice Obukhoff, played by a real life Georgian wrestler AND also an accomplished chess champion Kola Kwariani...)))There is of course also a "femme fatale" in this film, but, unlike in most other movies of this kind, she is ultimately also a rather pitiful person - but just to be clear, actress Marie Windsor played her perfectly and this character is quite fascinating to watch and also extremely important to the whole plot.The ending is absolutely impossible to anticipate during most of the film - the final solution of the whole story can be guessed only like two minutes before the final credits. There are surprises and twists here and there and there is tension. LOTS OF IT!Even more than other "films noir", this one is particularly sad, tragic and heartbreaking. This is probably what Quentin Tarantino liked so much in it - he publicly admitted that "The killing" was amongst most important inspirations for his already legendary "Reservoir dogs" (even if the story in "The killing" is very, VERY different).Bottom line this is an EXCELLENT film, which impressed me greatly. I will absolutely keep this film for another viewing in the future. Enjoy!

Brilliant storytelling. The breakout feature of a genius filmmaker.

I was happy with my purchase. No problems at all!

The Killing is directed by Stanley Kubrick who co-adapts to screenplay with Jim Thompson from the novel Clean Break written by Lionel White. It stars Sterling Hayden, Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook Jr, Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen and Coleen Gray. Music is by Gerald Fried and cinematography by Lucien Ballard.Ex-con Johnny Clay (Hayden) has a plan to make a killing at the racetrack, with some special inside help he plots to nab $2 million in an intricate robbery. It looks a good thing, the right people are in place, but there's a potential spanner in the works in the shapely form of Sherry Peatty (Windsor), the unfaithful and devious wife of one of the robbers.Cheaply made by Kubrick and his producer partner James B. Harris, The Killing is a lean and mean mid 50's film noir. Poorly received at the box office and met with indifference by critics on its release, it's a film that has come to be noted as hugely influential; more so as Kubrick's reputation grew over the passing years. Clocking in at under 85 minutes, film is told in a fractured narrative structure that at the time was viewed as an oddity. Story is constructed around crosscut flashbacks as the robbery is planned and then executed, Kubrick's direction as meticulous as the actual robbery itself. It's not hard to understand why confusion was an issue back on its release, but now it comes off as something of a masterstroke. Even if Kubrick was forced to tinker with the final product, adding in a voice-over to aid those troubled by the nonlinear narrative (which the director despised).In spite of some problems, such as the cheapo sets and some stiff performances from secondary characters, The Killing is quintessential film noir. With Kubrick thriving on shooting his characters in cramped surroundings, the use of angles very effective, and Ballard photographing superbly for the low-key interiors, mood is perfectly set. Story is filled out with hapless characters, where destinies are defined by greed, betrayal and the devils trump card, that of bad luck. As is normally the case with the best film noir, it's a dame who holds the key to misery here. Sherry Peatty (Windsor excellent) is cold and utterly bitch like, and having a hold over her cuckolded husband George (Cook Junior never better) that would be easy to detest were it not for the fact George is so pitifully weak. From that coupling bursts a doom and bleakness that underpins the story, rendering the film with a fatalistic sheen.The Killing does have a dated feel to it, but only slightly so. While there's no denying that the budgetary restrictions, the voice-over and some less than good performances, stop this being the masterpiece of the crime genre some want us to believe it is. It is however a damn fine film, tense, exciting and very compelling, it does warrant a place on a favourite list of any self respecting film noir fan. 8/10