The Killing (1956)

The Killing (1956)

5 word summary

Crooks plan on robbing racetrack

a Film-Noir thriller brought to us by Stanley Kubrick, and personally my favorite of his films. It’s a different style film than a lot of or his later movies. Its not really in the same style as like Clockwork, Full Metal Jacket, Paths of Glory, and so on.

the Killing is dark in more than one way. It obviously shows the darkness of humans, as most Kubrick films do and as well as most film-noir. The cinematography also is very dark. It is similar to that of a black and white Godfather, just a minimum of light, from a lamp or whatever.

As always Kubrick’s directing is fantastic. I don’t have anything bad to say about it. Just everything is straight to the point but doesn’t seem forced. Everything works great together, the dialogue, acting, music, and cinematography makes it a really beautiful film.

****spoilers****

Once the plan is in motion and all the characters are doing their job the film starts getting pretty tense. Everything starts to go wrong, like the guy with the rifle has to deal with the man working the parking lot, and gets shot. After they finally get away and Clay has to leave with the money it seems like the film still has quite a bit left. It doesn’t seem like we can conclude anything anytime soon. Then when the money spills onto the runway your heart stops, you feel like Clay standing there watching. He can’t do anything. We just feel shocked and have to walk away.

Nothing accomplished, but everything lost.

****end spoilers****

So I don’t really have that much to say about it other than how wonderful everything is.

The film should be enjoyed by everyone, especially Kubrick fans and film noir fans