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Plot: Crooks plan and execute a daring racetrack robbery.
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:October 7, 2008
Stanley Kubrick's film noir The Killing tells the story of a racetrack robbery. A group of men plan what they think is the perfect robbery of a horse racing track which should net them over 2 million dollars. Overall, this 80-something minute film really tells a great story. The first 10 minutes or so introduce all the characters and is told in a very confusing manner, this flaw is quickly alleviated as the film starts to make a lot more sense rather quickly. The film is kind of unique in the sense that as the robbery progresses and the climax is about to occur, the narrator comes over and suddenly you're back at the beginning of the day looking at another character. Considering this film is rather short, it does a pretty good job introducing and exploring quite a few different characters. After the robbery takes place, the film slows down a bit, but the ending makes up for that.
As this film is very low-budget, there aren't many big-name actors. As is typical for a film noir, this film contains a femme fatale (played by Marie Windsor). She's not the greatest leading lady in a noir film, but she's more than adequate. The rest of the actors are probably better than her, but none of their performances are terribly memorable.
Overall, this film is a fine effort and the film that got a young Kubrick some recognition. The film is vastly superior to anything else he had made at this point and is a must-see for fans of film noir or Stanley Kubrick. It's not perfect, and it isn't the best Kubrick or noir film out there, but it's still quite good.
84/100
B
UP NEXT: Another film noir, The Night of the Hunter. -
MCT:September 26, 2008
Well crafted heist film is really impressive and innovative for being made in the 50s. Kubrick's first mainstream film is really a work of genius. I'm glad they havn't remade it. I'm sure they will eventually though.
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MCT:September 16, 2008Very fascinating crime film. Sterling Hayden is fantastic to watch in this film, & the structure is wonderful. One of my favourite Kubrick films.
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MCT:September 9, 2008
Stanley Kubrick plunges once again into noir, and reaches, with an almost millimetrical precision as co-writer and director, an essential heist film, led by the always brilliant Sterling Hayden and soaked in feelings of tragedy and powerlessness against fate.
Kubrick's best, behind the incommensurable 'Paths of Glory' -
MCT:September 8, 2008Great heist flick directed by the great Stanley Kubrick and written by the great Jim Thompson. Very meticulous in showing every aspect of the heist by each of the participants. A must see!
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MCT:September 8, 2008
Sterling Hayden plays Johnny Clay, and sets up a brilliant plan - to rob a racetrack. That's all you need to know. Watch this and feel your jaw drop....ending could have been better.
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MCT:September 8, 2008
if you think kubrick can only make "artsy fartsy" movies, then you need to see the killing. a great heist movie, i can easily see this being the summer hit of 2008 with george clooney and brad pitt.
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MCT:September 8, 2008Dull...there I said it. Kubrick movies are general pompous and dull, and this is no exception. Odd narration and editing, plus way too many people involved for a simple heist. Even the story is not enjoyable, we build and build and dud the movie ends.
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MCT:September 8, 2008
Deuxième long métrage d'un jeune Kubrick alors âgé de 28 ans et faisant déjà montre d'un immense talent de réalisateur. Mise à part la narration un peu caricaturale pour un public contemporain, le film a très bien vieilli. Photographie très esthétique et léchée. La progression de l'intrigue et du suspense est accrocheuse et certaines scènes se démarquent comme modèles du genre. Un bijou de film noir, supérieur à mon avis à beaucoup des oeuvres plus connues de Kubrick.
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MCT:September 8, 2008Interesting. Brutal. Black and White. Since I do not know what a Director actually does, I dont know what to look for, but this was Kubrick's first or at any rate early. Nice depiction of small time people in off the main road Califorinia. I recall a scary killing scene.
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MCT:September 8, 2008
I just re watched this film and it is bad ass. I mean it's awesome a heist film where things don't go as planned.
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MCT:September 8, 2008
The narration is annoying, but otherwise, this is a thrilling and often very surprising heist flick.
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MCT:September 8, 2008
One of the best heist films of all time. Kubrick's fractured storytelling really helps this gritty story and I remember thinking back in 1993 that it could've influenced Reservoir Dogs. A must see, if you're a Kubrick fan and haven't seen this you really owe it to yourself.
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MCT:September 8, 2008
Certaines images encore gravées en tête.
Par contre, c'est loin de signifier que The Killing atteint la même notoriété que la majorité des autres réalisations de Kubrick. Il s'agit là d'un film policier typique des années 1950-1960, sauf peut-être qu'il s'agit là d'un des pionniers en matière de préparation pointilleuse d'un coup d'éclat, qui a donc accouché de films comme Danny Ocean.
C'est donc dire que l'intrigue est excellente et qu'on embarque dans ce lot de criminels en espérant qu'ils parviendront à leur fin et que leur fameux plan sera couronné de succès. Les acteurs ne sont pas mal non plus, mais c'est réellement l'histoire qui fait la force du film.
Je me laisse beaucoup moins impressionner par The Killing parce qu'en fait, Kubrick n'a pas eu réellement à mettre sa touche dans ce qui fut son premier long-métrage, puisque tout était déjà écrit dans le roman et que, au fond, la réalisation n'est pas si incroyable que ça, loin de là. -
MCT:September 8, 2008
Not the best, but definitely my favorite Kubrick film. There is nothing wrong with this film whatsoever. I remember thinking Tarantino was a hack after originally seeing this but then again, the kind of genius contained within this film is going to escape eventually.
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MCT:September 8, 2008
A well set-up and suspenseful plot. However, I guess the censorship or whatever cuts out a lot of the violence, and it feels long and old-fashioned. Plus that nerdy guy and his evil wife irritate me with their stupidity.
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MCT:September 8, 2008
I put this off for awhile, cause I thought it would be dated. Big mistake. This film is way ahead of it's time and now I see it's obvious influence on todays films. It's very short compared to Kubrick's later projects, but the story is tight. One of the best endings ever. A must see for any movie buff.
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MCT:July 16, 2008
Maurice: You have my sympathies, then. You have not yet learned that in this life you have to be like everyone else - the perfect mediocrity; no better, no worse. Individuality's a monster and it must be strangled in it's cradle to make our friends feel confident. You know, I've often thought that the gangster and the artist are the same in the eyes of the masses. They are admired and hero-worshiped, but there is always present underlying wish to see them destroyed at the peak of their glory.
A great film noir from Stanley Kubrick. Its a familiar story involving a heist gone wrong, but the way it has been made is what makes it effective, along with the final twenty minutes, which are fucking awesome.
Sterling Hayden, among others, stars as a career criminal on his last big score, involving an expertly planned heist at a racetrack. This particular heist will employ the work of many, all with their own parts to play. The first half is setup, the second half is the heist.
The camera work, the structure, and the dialog are all expertly handled here. True to Kubrick form, their are long tracking shots, along with some tricky setups that are well done. The structure is non-linear, which is appropriate for describing the roles of the various people involved, and has clearly served as influence for among others, Tarantino, not to mention several other moments that have been clearly used in other films. Then you have the dialog, which is fast paced and perfectly modeled after old pulp novels.
I'll again mention the ending, which is awesome. The way everything plays out completely pulled me in, and that's all I'll say about that. Very well done.
Johnny Clay: You'd be killing a horse - that's not first degree murder, in fact it's not murder at all, in fact I don't know what it is. -
MCT:June 30, 2008
Starts off slowly but soon grabs your attention and never lets go. Tense, gritty and hughly enjoyable to watch, this is a great early Kubrick classic. Love the fat man riot distraction scene, it is so beautufullycoreographed. The script is wonderful and told in an interesting, Pulp Fiction style way, which makes it very fun to view and the costumes are very good, the acting is exellent and the direction is again, fantastic by the one and only Stanley Kubrick.
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MCT:June 21, 2008
This was a great classic Kubrick film about a bank robbery gone wrong. Sterling Hayden is marvelously tough as the leader of the group and Elisha Cook Jr. as jittery and great as ever as the husband of the femme fatale. I'm a big fan of film-noir and this film is one of the great efforts in that genre of heightened shadows, moral ambiguity and sexual motivation.
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MCT:June 18, 2008
This movie is all around great. Plenty of memorable moments and fun to watch. The movie gets real crazy really fast.
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MCT:June 18, 2008
meticulous, tightly-woven nonlinear plotline years ahead of its time. some of the narration seemed a little unnecessary, but the camerawork and sound synchronization from point of view to point of view was brilliant. the ending is especially poetic because all the taut structure and intense planning literally blows haphazardly away in the wind. excellent film.
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MCT:April 24, 2008
Second official Kubrick's feature, "The Killing" is a decent noir starring Sterling Hayden as a tough, highly motivated ex-con who sets up a last bank heist before the classical settling down. Heavily influenced by John Huston's nicely done "Asphalt Jungle", "The Killing" is the first true proposition from Kubrick's catalog. An entertaining proposition.
The true treasure here is dialogue, delivered exactly how is suppose to be: smart-ass, fast, snappy and funny. 28 years-old Kubrick's direction is impressive here, just a year after his debut, "Killer's Kiss". The tempo of the plot is perfectly balanced with relations of the characters and even though non-linear storytelling takes away some of the tension, it's engaging till the end.
Why Kubrick decided to make this picture? It doesn't feel like a Kubrick's choice for a movie. Despite storytelling, there's nothing fresh in this story. What's more: when you want to make a movie, the last movie you want to make is a movie that everybody makes around you. Well, the best guess then would be that he simply wanted to make a picture formally fine, without any flaws, a picture that would be fun to watch from beginning to the end.
And that's exactly what it is.
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