Rating: 
Summary: One of the greatest kubrick films ever
Review: people really regret to mention THE KILLING as a Kubrick masterpiece but this is a great movie. I love it!This film is about a group of men including an ex-con whom plan on pulling off a heist for 2 million dollars at a horse race track. This has an amazing plot and will not let you leave your seat until it is over. This is a great film and anyone should see it. Rent it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but no "Asphalt Jungle"
Review: Stanley Kubrick obviously modeled "The Killing" on "Asphalt Jungle." He made a nice attempt, but stick with the original. Kubrick gets first-class performances from Sterling Hayden. Elisha Cook Jr. (eternal fall guy) and especially Marie Windsor, whose cynical glamor-girl housewife character just about carries the film. But Kubrick annoyingly fritters away valuable time and attention by flitting back and forth over the same time and turf from the perspective of different characters. Contrast this self-indulgence with the taut, spare, nothing-wasted direction of "Asphalt Jungle." He introduces a nice touch--a lady with a little dog that you know will have some big, unforeseen impact--but that's a Hitchcock trademark, not a Huston signature. Worth watching, but "Asphalt Jungle" is still the undisputed champ of heist films.
Rating: 
Summary: A Horse For Their Kingdom: Kubrick's Crackerjack "Killing"
Review: Stanley Kubrick's first unqualified success, "The Killing", follows a group of ordinary men intent on robbing a racetrack. It plays like an engrossing crime-doc, complete with a clinical, newsman-style voice-over narration, an endless amount of footage of horses being led to the starting gates, and colourfully authentic looking (if, for the most part, painfully hammy) actors in key roles. The first half of the movie consists solely of character introduction. This section, for me the first time through, was terribly boring. Little or no development is given; just a quick snapshot of each man before we move on to the next. Still, there are some fairly original moments here. When Randy (Ted de Corsia), a good cop with a gambling problem, goes to see his bookie, we expect a burly and surly man demanding either payment or broken thumbs. What we get is Leo (Jay Adler), a dapper gentleman, courteous to his client, understanding of his situation. Somehow, this is even more menacing, for there must be something terrifying behind the enigmatic Leo, we just aren't allowed to see it. The fear of the unknown is a powerful equalizer. In hindsight this section gains real appeal, once we know where each piece of the puzzle fits. We can then fully understand each player's reasons for doing the job, and can deduce if they were successful or not. Also, subtle little hints can be re-examined and recognized, such as the homoerotic tension between Marvin (a beaming Jay C. Flippen) and Johnny (the film's star, Sterling Hayden, who would make a return trip to Kubrick-land as General Jack D. Ripper in "Dr. Strangelove"). The film's second half, after the characters have been introduced, is propulsive and hypnotic. We've been told bits and pieces of the scheme, we know a little about each person's job, but the whole thing is still a mystery. In this section, we see everything from every angle, and the machinations of the scheme -- and the plot -- are wondrous to behold. Here is where Kubrick's much-lauded technique of mixing up the chronology of events really gets a good grip on the film (to be fair, this technique did exist in the source novel, Lionel White's "Clean Break"; "The Killing" brought this anti-structure idea to the attention of cineastes and future filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie, who've used it to great effect in recent years). We follow each member of the gang, seeing how they enact their part of the plot. Once done, we go on to the next guy. The effect this has is that Kubrick is able to tell several different sub-storylines at once, each contributing to the main narrative thrust. It's not terribly hard to follow, but does call for some patience. The film slowly sneaks up on the climactic moment, only to jump back several hours to an event that happened that morning to a different character. Don't worry, though. The payoff -- a juicy nihilistic moment -- is worth the wait. It shows Kubrick at his silliest, and his most dire. Further ratcheting up the tension is a smattering (more like an ovation, really) of near misses that almost put the train off the tracks. Fate, our boys' friend for most of the film, always steps in and rights things quickly. One quick example: Johnny has rented a room at an outdoor hotel. At one crucial point in the plot he has to go back to that room to pick up a package. Sticking his key into the lock, he hears voices inside. The audience jumps in astonishment, as it appears his best laid plans have been spoiled by an overzealous innkeeper! After a moment of terror himself, Johnny realizes some important information: it's not his room! He moves down a couple of feet, fits the key into his real lock, and things are back in business. It's just one small moment, in a series of small moments, that does wonders in terms of confounding audience expectations. Kubrick's camera, instead of being the all-knowing objective eye, is more like a voyeur here. Many scenes are blocked in such a way that the camera appears to be hiding behind furniture, looking through the cracks, in order to see the action. In fact, almost every introductory scene that takes place in someone's apartment is shot this way. We see someone enter via the front door, someone who we have yet to meet. As they make their way through the apartment, so do we. Only our view is obstructed by lamps, chairs, a TV set, etc. It's a curious game of 'I Spy' between camera and subject, that contributes greatly to the general shadiness of the situation. In some key moments, however, Kubrick allows his camera right into the action. A scene in a shady apartment turns into a brutal bloodbath. In its aftermath, Kubrick uses his camera to show us the last man standing's point of view. He tiptoes around bodies, aghast at what he's done, shaking the whole while. It's quite an effective way to show the horror of the moment for a character we wouldn't have thought capable of such mayhem. Despite being the kind of thriller that's structured in such a way so that every moment builds on the suspense of the previous scene, until the audience nearly falls off the edge of their seats, the film has several scenes tempering of black comedy. One such moment involves a paranoid parakeet, who appears to know that doom is about befell his owners, even before they know it. His comedic warnings go unheeded. Kubrick, who has a reputation for being a cold, clinical director, proves in moments like these (and in similar moments in "Full Metal Jacket", not to mention the entirety of "Dr. Strangelove") that his sense of humour is well developed. He puts it to good use here. As he does with the rest of his formidable skills.
Rating:
Summary: Kubrick Makes a Killing
Review: Stanley Kubrick's oldie but goodie suspense flick about a daring racetrack heist is brilliant! Though the film is black and white, he is able to use his lighting skills well. The film's characters are developed very well from start to finish. Sterling Hayden's unmistakable voice and acting talents add the cherry to this sundae of a film. It also has one of the best endings I've ever seen in a movie........but I'm not giving it away!
Rating:
Summary: A mean, gritty heavyweight of a movie with an O Henry ending
Review: Sterling Hayden stars as a career criminal who has put together a brilliant scheme to heist a racetrack payroll in broad daylight with races in progress. He uses multiple events to distract authorities from the main event. As things progress, he overcomes doublecrosses and bad luck to get within inches of the brass ring. The ending is shocking and unforseeable. An Oceans Eleven-type movie without the color or the comedy.
Rating:
Summary: Script Writing 101 by Kubrick
Review: The "killing" in the title refers to "making a killing," which is what ex-con Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) wants to do as a kind of last heist before running off to matrimonial bliss with his girl friend Fay (Coleen Gray). This early work by Stanley Kubrick qualifies as a film noire, I suppose, since we are compelled to identify with the bad guys, especially with Clay who is a regular kind of joe who just happens to be a stick up artist. The Hollywood "code" that demanded that all bad guys get their just desserts before "The End" (yes, they still ran "The End" in 1956) was apparently still in effect, so I'm not so sure. I recall that Hitchcock in his television series used to make fun of the code by sometimes ending his weekly episode with the bad guy getting away clean, only to appear himself after the commercial and tell the audience that the bad guy was, alas, run over by a truck after helping an old lady cross the street, or something like that. The Killing, aka, "Clean Break" from the novel by Lionel White, is a tightly plotted thriller, scripted and directed by Kubrick in a very instructive style. By that I mean Kubrick demonstrates just how tension can be created and maintained by aiming all the action and characterizations toward a single event, in this case the seventh race at (either Hollywood Park or Santa Anita, I couldn't figure out which). This "spokes all pointing toward the hub of the wheel structure" (if I may call it that) has been much admired and imitated. I am thinking in particular of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992). It looks easy to do and it plays so well, but if we don't care about or identify with the characters, it won't work. Kubrick makes us identify with his second-rate hoods by giving them dimension and motivation. Elisha Cook Jr., in perhaps his greatest role, plays the little guy loser to perfection. I say "perhaps" because I have only seen about a dozen of the over one hundred films in which this great character actor has appeared. His desperate face with the wide, round eyes (as he's about to be hit or blasted away) is not to be forgotten. Marie Windsor plays his two-timing, money-hungry wife, the dame that gums up the works. This is a superior venture not only because of the tight plotting but because of the vivid atmosphere created and because of some memorable scenes and some clever "movie business" attached to the scenes. I am thinking of the black parking lot attendant who thinks he is being befriended (or perhaps more) by one of the hoods, and the middle aged woman carrying on the conversation with her dog at the airport (a kind of Hitchcockian aside, actually). I was amused by the appearance of a chess and checker parlor ("15 cents an hour") because Kubrick was an avid chess player, although he wasn't very good. It's too bad he never made a film with Humphrey Bogart who loved to play on the set between scenes. Most modern thrillers have several plot red herrings not only to keep us guessing but to divert our attention away from the loose ends they never manage to clean up. Kubrick's rather brutal method of tying up all the loose ends lacked subtlety, but at least he cleaned them up. And there were only a couple of red herrings. One was having the money man show up at the track drunk so we'd think maybe he was going to somehow screw things up, and the other was when Marie Windsor's character intimates to her jealous husband that Clay had his way with her, which makes us expect that Cook will gum up the works in a fit of jealousy. The final sequence at the airport and what happens to the contents of the suitcase is not to be missed, after which Clay's final words of profound exasperation are just perfect.
Rating:
Summary: Script Writing 101 by Kubrick
Review: The "killing" in the title refers to "making a killing," which is what ex-con Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) wants to do as a kind of last heist before running off to matrimonial bliss with his girl friend Fay (Coleen Gray). This early work by Stanley Kubrick qualifies as a film noire, I suppose, since we are compelled to identify with the bad guys, especially with Clay who is a regular kind of joe who just happens to be a stick up artist. The Hollywood "code" that demanded that all bad guys get their just desserts before "The End" (yes, they still ran "The End" in 1956) was apparently still in effect, so I'm not so sure. I recall that Hitchcock in his television series used to make fun of the code by sometimes ending his weekly episode with the bad guy getting away clean, only to appear himself after the commercial and tell the audience that the bad guy was, alas, run over by a truck after helping an old lady cross the street, or something like that. The Killing, aka, "Clean Break" from the novel by Lionel White, is a tightly plotted thriller, scripted and directed by Kubrick in a very instructive style. By that I mean Kubrick demonstrates just how tension can be created and maintained by aiming all the action and characterizations toward a single event, in this case the seventh race at (either Hollywood Park or Santa Anita, I couldn't figure out which). This "spokes all pointing toward the hub of the wheel structure" (if I may call it that) has been much admired and imitated. I am thinking in particular of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992). It looks easy to do and it plays so well, but if we don't care about or identify with the characters, it won't work. Kubrick makes us identify with his second-rate hoods by giving them dimension and motivation. Elisha Cook Jr., in perhaps his greatest role, plays the little guy loser to perfection. I say "perhaps" because I have only seen about a dozen of the over one hundred films in which this great character actor has appeared. His desperate face with the wide, round eyes (as he's about to be hit or blasted away) is not to be forgotten. Marie Windsor plays his two-timing, money-hungry wife, the dame that gums up the works. This is a superior venture not only because of the tight plotting but because of the vivid atmosphere created and because of some memorable scenes and some clever "movie business" attached to the scenes. I am thinking of the black parking lot attendant who thinks he is being befriended (or perhaps more) by one of the hoods, and the middle aged woman carrying on the conversation with her dog at the airport (a kind of Hitchcockian aside, actually). I was amused by the appearance of a chess and checker parlor ("15 cents an hour") because Kubrick was an avid chess player, although he wasn't very good. It's too bad he never made a film with Humphrey Bogart who loved to play on the set between scenes. Most modern thrillers have several plot red herrings not only to keep us guessing but to divert our attention away from the loose ends they never manage to clean up. Kubrick's rather brutal method of tying up all the loose ends lacked subtlety, but at least he cleaned them up. And there were only a couple of red herrings. One was having the money man show up at the track drunk so we'd think maybe he was going to somehow screw things up, and the other was when Marie Windsor's character intimates to her jealous husband that Clay had his way with her, which makes us expect that Cook will gum up the works in a fit of jealousy. The final sequence at the airport and what happens to the contents of the suitcase is not to be missed, after which Clay's final words of profound exasperation are just perfect.
Rating:
Summary: Kubrick's first notable film
Review: The film is obviously dated, and the script is awkward in places - such as the massacre scene, which was entirely unconvincing, and the heavy use of time-line narrative, a la Dragnet. Still, the movie holds our interest because of its complexity, and the lack of predictability. In fact, we don't feel we can even attempt a prediction about the outcome. The final scene at the airport is classic. The DVD lacks features, and the video quality is only acceptable. A 3.5 for the movie and a 2 for the DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Tightly plotted, hamstrung by dialogue.
Review: The Killing (Stanley Kubrick, 1956)For many years, I have been fond of saying that the only Kubrick film I could stomach was Lolita. While The Killing isn't up to those standards (and certainly doesn't rate a spot in IMDB's Top 250, where it sits as I write this), it's certainly a film with rewatchability potential. Johnny Clay (The Godfather's Sterling Hayden) has just gotten out after a five-year stint in prison, and needs cash. He concocts a scheme to knock over a racetrack to the tune of $2 million, give or take a few rubles. Putting together a core team of five guys, and with two on the periphery, they plan and execute the crime. That, of course, is when things start getting interesting. This is good, solid film noir, for the most part. Where it fails to make the cut are in the narration (and Kubrick's bouncing back and forth in time like a pinball, which necessitates it) and the dialogue, written by cult favorite Jim Thompson (The Grifters, The Killer Inside Me, etc). The dialogue has about as much meat to it as one finds in a typical Spillane novel; it's fun, but "timeless" is not a word I'd use to describe it by a longshot. That being the case, it's hard for the actors involved to really get their heads around most parts; they do the best they can with what they have, and in some cases, that's enough to make the characters come alive. Elisha Cook, Jr., is especially good, despite having some of the most ineffectual dialogue ever written for a straight mystery film. The strongest part of the film, on the other hand, is the ending, a shaggy-dog-story style beauty that would later appear in a different form in Ocean's Eleven (the original, good version, not that overblown Soderbergh piece of trash). It is inevitable, and beautiful. Worth watching, but don't expect greatness. ***
Rating:
Summary: Kubrick's First Classic
Review: The Killing is a great crime story. Sterling Hayden leads a group of nobodys trying to get a leg up on life. The plan is to rob a local horse track. Hayden has made sure to cover just about all his tracks and this leads to a spectacular finally where the plan is excecuted. Before Quintin Tarrentino told stories out of sequence Stanley Kubrick did in his 1956 classic The Killing. The influence from this film can be seen directly in Tarrentino's films. The editing is flawless so the audience never losses track of what is going on, but they don't ever really know what is going on in the first place. The direction and the cast are fantastic. This film is timeless and can still be enjoyed like it was made yesterday. Fans of Film Noir, crime dramas, and Kubrick fans should all definately check out this movie.
|
