The Killing Reviews and Ratings


  • niek123
    November 15, 2009
    niek123
    It takes a few scenes to get used to the voice over, but once used to it, an intruiging heist-gone-wrong plot unfolds, with so many flashes back and forward to make your head spin - which is exactly Kubrick's intention.
  • anastasia57001
    November 1, 2009
    anastasia57001
    Film noir at its best. Stanley Kubrick in one of his earliest works, that is evidence of his genius. Haunting images fill the screen. A clown robber. An old Russian chess-loving wrestler. A parrot squaking next to his master's dead body. And once you've seen those bloody scars, r...( read more)unning down on the face of a simpleton, it's a thing you'll never forget.

    I won't say more about the plot or the characters cause I don't want to spoil it for others. I just want to point out that this film works on ALL levels and it features some unforgettable characters. As a story, as a performance, and as a cinematic piece of art. I hope you had the luck to watch this in theater when it was released again, in 2004. It would make an unforgettable experience for anyone on the silver screen. I would also most definitely watch this again on DVD (and I have). It's a film you want to see more than once.
  • alexdermer1
    November 1, 2009
    alexdermer1
    This fantastic film noir masterpiece shows that even as early as the 1950's Stanley Kubrick was showing his excellence as a legendary film maker in this compelling heist thriller
  • dukeakasmudge
    October 13, 2009
    dukeakasmudge
    Not as good as I was hoping
  • sportsphenom1
    October 4, 2009
    sportsphenom1
    Before the Coen brothers could ever fabricate movie ideas about crazy plotlines of robberies gone wrong, before Quentin Tarantino was even born, there was Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick was a true vanguard of the non-linear format, and in general, the classic filmmaking savant. Here, i...( read more)n the "The Killing", Kubrick pioneers a masterpiece that paves the way for films like "Fargo" and "True Romance". Twisted, crazy, and highly entertaining, "The Killing" is decades ahead of its time.
  • garyX
    September 11, 2009
    garyX
    Fresh out of prison, a career criminal cooks up an ingenious scheme to rob a racetrack. An early film from Stanley Kubrick, and yet another masterclass. He takes to the visual trappings of Film Noir and creates one of the most efficiently told and tautly directed heist films ever...( read more) made. Sterling Hayden is perfect as the straight-talking, street-wise mastermind, as is Marie Windsor's Machiavellian femme fatale who twists doomed sap Elisha Cook Jr round her little finger. So much of this film has influenced some of the best directing talent working today that it still feels remarkably contemporary; Tarantino owes much to the over-lapping timeline in particular, and the mix of off beat characters, violent crime and cruel twists of fate is straight out of a Cohen brothers movie (Vince Edwards actually looks the spit of Peter Stormare in this film!) In fact the only element that dates it is the newsreel style voice over, although it does help fit the pieces of puzzle together quite well. Johnny Clay was a brilliant character whom I would have liked to have learned more about, to the point where you are almost sorry to see him caught. But wishing the film was longer is hardly the most damning criticism! Is there any genre Kubrick couldn't do?
  • ristrawn
    September 4, 2009
    ristrawn
    good & real about heist crimes & getting caught & killed... "if you do the crime, you must do the time"
  • SirPant
    September 4, 2009
    SirPant
    A fantastic Heist film noir by the late great Kubrick. The dialogue is brilliant and the characters and acting superb. As always, Kubrick's direction is perfect. It's been a huge influence since its realise and has often been ripped off but never bettered. Brilliant.
    PS. Hands o...( read more)ff Tarantino you tea leaf!!
  • StewartMc
    August 21, 2009
    StewartMc
    Classic film noir! Great twists and turns and film techniques that cleary influenced Tarantino, Scorsese and the likes.
  • hedyjwhite
    June 25, 2009
    hedyjwhite
    This truly was a c;assoc suspense movie. I wish it would be shown in revivals!
  • RoryScorsese
    June 11, 2009
    RoryScorsese
    Perfect in every way. Stanley Kubrick's The Killing is one of the most well made and compelling films I have ever seen. It tells the story of five crooks who plan and execute a daring racetrack robbery. It was a $2,000,000 secret until one of them told a woman who changed everyth...( read more)ing. This film is one of Kubrick's earlier films and in my opinion its his finest. The Killing is a very simple story that is brilliantly told, superbly acted, and skillfully written. Its a film that you cant stop thinking about after seeing it for the first time. The Killing is one of the most intelligent, compelling, suspenseful, and entertaining films ever made. Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece. Nearly every Kubrick film is a masterpiece, but this one is really something special. The Killing is a classic crime drama and one of the greatest films you'll ever see.

    Stanley Kubrick is a cinematic legend and one of the most extraordinary filmmakers the world has ever seen. The Killing is not only his greatest achievement, its also one of the greatest films in the history of cinema. A suspenseful crime drama that will grab you by the throat and never let go. It demands your attention. The Killing is a work of extreme genius.
  • macabrescribe
    June 5, 2009
    macabrescribe
    Maybe my expectations were too high, but I didn't start digging the movie until toward the end.
  • elziard
    May 9, 2009
    elziard
    swift, well-paced, dramatic.
  • Darcsyde
    May 9, 2009
    Darcsyde
    it's Kubrick
    It's blows
  • willsilke
    May 8, 2009
    willsilke
    What is incredible about this classic is that is is a precursor to the likes of Scorsese, Tarantino (esp.), et al. It is a masterclass in writing and directing!
  • tsigur
    April 19, 2009
    tsigur
    I know that it's Stanley, so I should give it more of a break and I'm sure that seeing this a lot earlier in my life would have given me a better appreciation of it, but I was a little disappointed after watching the film. It's still a well crafted heist film with a terrific perf...( read more)ormance from Sterling Hayden. And, at the end of the day, you have to give props for the way that Kubrick tells the story (if you need to realize how influential it is, watch just about every heist film for the past 40 years including films like Reservoir Dogs). I did like the ending and there is another hilarious performance from Timothy Carrey, so I can't be too hard on it. I'll have to blame what I didn't enjoy about it on my own expectations and that's nobody's fault but my own.
  • RThornhill
    April 1, 2009
    RThornhill
    Good early Kubrick. Nice touchs throughout with a satisfying ending. Recommended.
  • jazmac4409
    March 31, 2009
    jazmac4409
    this was a great movie even though the acting was not that great but still okay and stalney kubrick did a great job directing this film and is a reallu great black and white film by him except for Dr. Strange love but a really good black and white film and a Ex-convict Johnny Cla...( read more)y (Sterling Hayden) tells his girl friend, Fay (Coleen Gray), he has plans for making money, and indeed he has. He rounds up a gang and brings them in on a seemingly fool-proof scheme to rob a race track of $200,000. The first thread unravels when Sherry Peatty (Marie Windsor), wife of gang-member George Peatty (Elisha Cook, Jr.), tells her boyfriend Val Cannon (Vince Edwards) about the plan, and he cuts himself in on that action also. The robbery is completed and the gang goes to the hideout where Johnny will join them later. Val sticks up the robbers, a shot is fired, and all hands are soon dispatched. Johnny, with the money in a suitcase, joins Fay at the airport. And the fat lady still hasn't sung and after getting out of prison, Johnny Clay masterminds a complex race-track heist, but his scheme is complicated by the intervention of the wife of a teller (George Peatty) in on the scheme, the boyfriend of the wife, airport regulations, and a small dog. and i thought that the ending was good even though it would suck that he stole all that money for nothing and then got it all tooken away from him then later had to go to jail i thought that was messed up.

    Track Parking Attendant: Somethin' wrong?
    Nikki Arcane: You're wrong, nigger!

    Randy Kennan: You jerk, you clown!
    [strikes George Peatty]
    Randy Kennan: Come on, clown, sing us a chorus from "Pagliacci"!

    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.

    Johnny Clay: A friend of mine will be stopping by tomorrow to drop something off for me. He's a cop.
    Joe: A cop? That's a funny kind of a friend.
    Johnny Clay: Well, he's a funny kind of a cop.

    Johnny Clay: You like money. You've got a great big dollar sign there where most women have a heart.

    Johnny Clay: Alright sister, that's a mighty pretty head you got on your shoulders. You want to keep it there or start carrying it around in your hands?
    Sherry Peatty: Maybe we could compromise and put it on your shoulder. I think that'd be nice, don't you?

    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-worshipped, but there is always present underlying wish to see them destroyed at the peak of their glory.

    Maurice: I'd like you to call this number and ask for Mr. Stillman. Tell him that Maurice requires his services.
    Fisher: Sounds pretty mysterious. What's it all about?
    Maurice: There are some things, my dear Fisher, which bear not much looking into. You have undoubtedly heard of the Siberian god Heather who tried to discover the true nature of the sun; he stared up at the heavenly body until it made him blind. There are many things of this sort, including love, and death, and... maybe we'll discuss this later today. Please remember to make that call if I'm not back at 6:30.


    Fay: Johnny, you've got to run!
    Johnny Clay: Eh, what's the difference?


    Narrator: At exactly 3:45 on that Saturday afternoon in the last week of September, Marvin Unger was, perhaps, the only one among the hundred thousand people at the track who felt no thrill at the running of the fifth race. He was totally disinterested in horse racing and held a lifelong contempt for gambling. Nevertheless, he had a $5 win bet on every horse in the fifth race. He knew, of course, that this rather unique system of betting would more than likely result in a loss, but he didn't care. For after all, he thought, what would the loss of twenty or thirty dollars mean in comparison to the vast sum of money ultimately at stake.


    Sherry Peatty: It isn't fair. I never had anybody but you. Not a real husband. Not even a man. Just a bad joke without a punch line
  • Nenebelle
    March 24, 2009
    Nenebelle
    Recommended by xXxXHorrorFanxXxX.
  • xXxXHorrorFanxXxX
    March 23, 2009
    xXxXHorrorFanxXxX
    this was a great movie even though the acting was not that great but still okay and stalney kubrick did a great job directing this film and is a reallu great black and white film by him except for Dr. Strange love but a really good black and white film and a Ex-convict Johnny C...( read more)lay (Sterling Hayden) tells his girl friend, Fay (Coleen Gray), he has plans for making money, and indeed he has. He rounds up a gang and brings them in on a seemingly fool-proof scheme to rob a race track of $200,000. The first thread unravels when Sherry Peatty (Marie Windsor), wife of gang-member George Peatty (Elisha Cook, Jr.), tells her boyfriend Val Cannon (Vince Edwards) about the plan, and he cuts himself in on that action also. The robbery is completed and the gang goes to the hideout where Johnny will join them later. Val sticks up the robbers, a shot is fired, and all hands are soon dispatched. Johnny, with the money in a suitcase, joins Fay at the airport. And the fat lady still hasn't sung and after getting out of prison, Johnny Clay masterminds a complex race-track heist, but his scheme is complicated by the intervention of the wife of a teller (George Peatty) in on the scheme, the boyfriend of the wife, airport regulations, and a small dog. and i thought that the ending was good even though it would suck that he stole all that money for nothing and then got it all tooken away from him then later had to go to jail i thought that was messed up.

    Track Parking Attendant: Somethin' wrong?
    Nikki Arcane: You're wrong, nigger!

    Randy Kennan: You jerk, you clown!
    [strikes George Peatty]
    Randy Kennan: Come on, clown, sing us a chorus from "Pagliacci"!

    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.

    Johnny Clay: A friend of mine will be stopping by tomorrow to drop something off for me. He's a cop.
    Joe: A cop? That's a funny kind of a friend.
    Johnny Clay: Well, he's a funny kind of a cop.

    Johnny Clay: You like money. You've got a great big dollar sign there where most women have a heart.

    Johnny Clay: Alright sister, that's a mighty pretty head you got on your shoulders. You want to keep it there or start carrying it around in your hands?
    Sherry Peatty: Maybe we could compromise and put it on your shoulder. I think that'd be nice, don't you?

    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-worshipped, but there is always present underlying wish to see them destroyed at the peak of their glory.

    Maurice: I'd like you to call this number and ask for Mr. Stillman. Tell him that Maurice requires his services.
    Fisher: Sounds pretty mysterious. What's it all about?
    Maurice: There are some things, my dear Fisher, which bear not much looking into. You have undoubtedly heard of the Siberian god Heather who tried to discover the true nature of the sun; he stared up at the heavenly body until it made him blind. There are many things of this sort, including love, and death, and... maybe we'll discuss this later today. Please remember to make that call if I'm not back at 6:30.


    Fay: Johnny, you've got to run!
    Johnny Clay: Eh, what's the difference?


    Narrator: At exactly 3:45 on that Saturday afternoon in the last week of September, Marvin Unger was, perhaps, the only one among the hundred thousand people at the track who felt no thrill at the running of the fifth race. He was totally disinterested in horse racing and held a lifelong contempt for gambling. Nevertheless, he had a $5 win bet on every horse in the fifth race. He knew, of course, that this rather unique system of betting would more than likely result in a loss, but he didn't care. For after all, he thought, what would the loss of twenty or thirty dollars mean in comparison to the vast sum of money ultimately at stake.


    Sherry Peatty: It isn't fair. I never had anybody but you. Not a real husband. Not even a man. Just a bad joke without a punch line.
  • QueenCityFilms
    March 11, 2009
    QueenCityFilms
    Kubrick just getting started - fun to compare this to his later work.

    A solid heist movie baby babay.
  • lilz4lif3
    February 1, 2009
    lilz4lif3
    want to see it it looks nice!!!!!!
  • HorrorMovieCinema
    January 31, 2009
    HorrorMovieCinema
    'The Killing' has been overshadowed by Stanley Kubrick's subsequent better known and better made movie masterpieces. Films like 'Dr. Strangelove', '2001' and 'A Clockwork Orange' are much more flamboyant and intellectually exciting than this early hard boiled crime thriller

    on...( read more)e of his most entertaining movies, and in its own modest way just as brilliant as his more talked about films. 'The Killing' is still one of the greatest crime thrillers ever made, and one which influenced many film makers working in this genre, not the least of which Quentin Tarantino, who obviously worships this picture, and used its innovative structure as major inspiration for 'Pulp Fiction'. Kubrick wrote 'The Killing's script as well as directing, but made the smart move of asking "the Dime Store Dostoevski" Jim Thompson, author of pulp classics like 'The Killer Inside Me' and 'The Getaway' to supply the fresh and memorable dialogue. Sterling Hayden, who later achieved screen immmortality as General Jack D. Ripper in 'Dr Strangelove', is perfect as ambitious small time crook Johnny Clay. He is surrounded by an almost flawless supporting cast. I qualified that because I wasn't totally convinced by Coleen Gray who plays Johnny's girlfriend. However she only really has one scene, and the rest of the cast more than makes up for her. Especially memorable are the mis-matched husband and wife played by Elisha Cook, Jr ('The House On Haunted Hill') and the sultry Marie Windsor (noir classic 'Narrow Margin').

    Their scenes together are simply terrific. Also noteworthy are the two scenes featuring legendary crazy Timothy Carey ('The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie'). Carey was one of the most extraordinary performers to set foot in front of a movie character, and is unforgettable. Kubrick obviously thought highly of him as he subsequently cast him in his anti-war classic 'Paths Of Glory', a move which antagonised the movie's star Kirk Douglas. Even if 'The Killing' didn't feature such a strong performance from Sterling Hayden it would be worth watching just to catch Cook, Windsor and Carey.

    On top of that you have some other great actors such as Vince Edwards, an innovative script, hip dialogue and some brilliant directorial touches. This exciting heist movie can't be recommended highly enough, it's a real treat for film buffs. A brilliant film that still packs a punch after almost fifty years, something I doubt you will be saying about many movies currently showing in today's theatres. 'The Killing' is a super cool suspense movie and not to be missed!
  • FangsFirst
    January 28, 2009
    FangsFirst
    As someone who has more interest in character than spectacle or plot and ideas than visuals as a general rule (but of course not an exclusive one), Stanley Kubrick is an unusual director for me. Obviously many people love the man's work dearly, and I certainly put in my hands and...( read more) vote for the original Warner Kubrick set as one of the first DVDs ever purchased in my household (albeit on the wispy understanding of his historical importance, rather than an appreciation or awareness), though at this point still for my father. I've liked all of his movies I've seen, though I did have to try twice at Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and missed a lot of The Shining, but it has oddly been more about the things listed above as more important to me, completely contrasting with that Kubrick is most often mentioned for, which is his style. I'm a little wary every time I go in to view one of his movies for this fact, expecting something as drawn-out and clinical as 2001: A Space Odyssey every time, but rarely actually seeing that. They do usually end up pretty lengthy though, so I might be the only person who would respond positively to the idea of Kubrick doing film-noir without actually soiling my trousers in the process. He's not my favourite director and likely never will be, but I do like his work anyway.

    Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden), Marvin Unger (Jay C. Flippen), racetrack clerk George Peatty (Elisha Cook Jr.), patrolman Randy Kennan (Ted de Corsia), and racetrack bartender Mike O'Reilly (Joe Sawyer) have planned the perfect heist. They all know the racetrack well enough that they've perfected the way to distract the racetrack's detectives enough to free up the money for the taking while drawing the attention of crowds to keep themselves lost in the confusion. Clay is the professional, planning and performing most of the execution, especially the criminal portions. George and Mike are inside men who can put things into position, Unger is the money man who seeds the dough for the extra hands needed--gunman Nikki Arcane (Timothy Carey) and brawler Maurice Oboukhoff (Kola Kwariani)--and Randy, as office of the law, forms an easy shield for some of the actions they need to perform to pull it all off. George's manipulative wife Sherry (Marie Windsor) unintentionally baits George through her usual emasculating abuse into revealing the fact that they are soon to come into money, then pushes further for details. She informs her lover Val Cannon (Vince Edwards) and suggests that they take all this money for themselves. George wants the money to earn the love of his wife, while Mike wants to take care of his sickly wife Ruthie (Dorothy Adams), Randy needs to pay off a debt to Leo the loanshark (Jay Adler), Unger has at least a crush on Johnny (despite the best attempts of some viewers to ignore it or re-write it), and Johnny plans to take his girlfriend Fay (Coleen Gray) away with his cut. Told in a fashion that repeats moments of time through different routes (following Maurice, then Nikki, then Johnny, etc), we see how the crime is carried out--what was prepared for and what wasn't.

    I just got a bit lost in a thread debating the homosexuality of Unger and was utterly confused. I read a similar thread about The Mechanic, which seemed more like wishful thinking for men who think Charles Bronson (or Jan-Michael Vincent) is hot, or from people looking too hard. This one, though? It's right out there. It's almost relaxing that, for once, the inevitable "homosexual subtext" discussion is spot on. Why does this even matter? Because it continues to say something about Kubrick. He never shied away from stories he wanted to tell or methods he wanted to use. He'd be controlled by studios and collaborators on occasion, but his intentions never wavered. If he wanted to do it, he at least tried to do it. Vision is the element Kubrick is most credited for, and this essential credit I whole-heartedly respect. The fact that he makes his choices and sticks by them as best he can is admirable, and that he twists the efforts of studios that won't let him is even more so. When it comes to something less than entertaining (2001 is a bit drawn out for my liking, if memory serves--you'll all know at some point when I re-watch and review it), the film suffers, but never the director. Here Kubrick adapts Lionel White novel The Clean Break, using Jim Thompson's dialogue for Kubrick's own screenplay, allegedly to the letter, or at least to the sentence or paragraph. It's not linear, but not in a Tarantino-esque stylistic way, but in the same way that Kubrick always has an element of the clinical: this is how it is, so this is how he filmed it. There's a coldness to the characters and events, or at least to the eye viewing them--almost colder than the typically dispassionate eye of Eastern directors (like Kurosawa), almost witnessing more in a technical fashion than in a hovering god-like disinterest.

    The focus of the plotting on the perpetration of the crime only reinforces this feeling, with any emotional interference treated as a new mechanical element that affects the overall mechanism of Johnny Clay's plot. When Sherry and Val plot to take the loot from the boys planning it or George gets frustrated with his wife or Nikki unintentionally forms too close a bond with a mark he needs to get in place (a guard played by Herbert Ellis), it's an intruding subplot, not an emotional development. The ironic end of most of these subplots and even the main plot is thoroughly dispassionate, the eye of the camera far more interested in displaying the detailed effects on the character's emotions and on the way the world and its events work than on helping us to feel the disappointment, anger or delight of the characters. Of course, this doesn't prevent Kubrick from instilling a full-on supply of tension to the viewer, with the mystery of the film's clockwork plotting being revealed piecemeal and leaving us always wondering, "So what was participant X doing right then...?" until we learn their acts and move on to the next. What effect will the unfaithful Sherry have on the course of events? Sure, we don't like Sherry or how she treats George (unless we're heartless bastards and dislike George more for being so easily manipulated--but that's not my way), but we're more interested in what this does to their plans than what it does to George. Alongside it we have the technical fluidity of the camera's eye, with shots of Johnny's place that follow along the missing fourth wall to cross from room to room as he paces alongside it, a shot so artificial only Kubrick would try it without blinking.

    What Kubrick notoriously did not want, though, was a narrator. This is actually the only element of the film that doesn't work. While I don't know how it would follow without (since I cannot view it without the narrator and did not look up enough to know the narrator was unwanted before viewing), it's distracting and obnoxious. The narrator, Art Gilmore, sounds like a voice that belongs in an old commercial, designed for perfect enunciation and projection over all else, with no character and no life to it, but not a flat-Dragnet style about it either. It's grossly misplaced by studio insistence and flies in the face of the film it is attached to. Kubrick got his revenge, though, by feeding inaccuracies and falsities through the narrator, just to make it pointless. It's a small comfort, but it's still a comfort, and helps to bring an excellent movie out of the shadow of a stupid addition.*

    *Seriously. Why do studios insist on putting narration on noir? Is it pure coincidence that Blade Runner suffered a similar fate? Are these the only examples? Somehow, I doubt it. But maybe they are.
  • ralch
    January 25, 2009
    ralch
    Muy bien armada; excelente dirección. / Very well crafted; excellent direction.
  • rbevanx
    January 17, 2009
    rbevanx
    Really good. If u like Pulp Fiction,Go and Sin City. You will love this.
  • paulanthonynelson
    January 10, 2009
    paulanthonynelson
    Kubrick's breakout picture is the tightest little crime thriller you will ever see. 82 minutes of tough-talking noir brilliance with endless momentum and not an inch of fat! Its non-linear structure and barely-seen heist were a major influence on RESERVOIR DOGS. The ending is sub...( read more)lime.
  • dcrees
    December 25, 2008
    dcrees
    At first, I was like "not another noir movie". But once this movie got started, it didn't stop. Until the end. They blew it with the typical 1950s "crime doesn't pay" ending. Overall, a great heist movie like Rififi or Ocean's 11.
  • mustardnoize
    November 22, 2008
    mustardnoize
    A really excellent film. One of Kubrick's earliest directorial projects, this movie is probably one of the best "heist" movies ever made. Quentin Tarantino notes that this movie was a big influence on him (especially for "Reservoir Dogs"), and it definitely shows. This film used ...( read more)a non-linear narrative structure that at the time was very rare and bold, in addition to superb direction, beautiful cinematography, and top-notch acting (especially from Hayden, Sawyer, and Cook). This movie will be enjoyed by Kubrick fans, Tarantino fans, film noir fans, "heist" movie fans, and just about anybody that loves a great suspense film. Very highly recommended.
  • bradwest
    November 21, 2008
    bradwest
    Great noir caper from Kubrick. You can see how this effected Michael Mann.
  • sanjurosamurai
    November 4, 2008
    sanjurosamurai
    a phenomenal crime story. woven tightly and interesting the entire way through, one of kubricks best films.
  • johnredmond15
    October 24, 2008
    johnredmond15
    Remarkable film, who's influence is still felt today. And Kubrick said not to bother with this.
  • catbox9
    October 7, 2008
    catbox9
    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 ...( read more)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.
  • HoleintheDome
    September 26, 2008
    HoleintheDome
    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.
  • goodfella2459
    September 16, 2008
    goodfella2459
    Very fascinating crime film. Sterling Hayden is fantastic to watch in this film, & the structure is wonderful. One of my favourite Kubrick films.
  • pier007
    September 9, 2008
    pier007
    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, behi...( read more)nd the incommensurable 'Paths of Glory'
  • cmrnlewis
    September 8, 2008
    cmrnlewis
    Great 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!
  • Joby80207
    September 8, 2008
    Joby80207
    One of the few Kubrick films I haven't seen.
  • bigdaddydaryl
    September 8, 2008
    bigdaddydaryl
    not a bad movie for its time
  • sledgbrainerd
    September 8, 2008
    sledgbrainerd
    Great Noirish crime tale.
  • yrsocrazy999
    September 8, 2008
    yrsocrazy999
    enquadramentos "que lembram quadrinhos" e lembranças boas.
  • soulstirrings
    September 8, 2008
    soulstirrings
    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.
  • katamariball
    September 8, 2008
    katamariball
    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.
  • goblue
    September 8, 2008
    goblue
    Exhilarating crime caper. Hard boiled characters.
  • insekt69
    September 8, 2008
    insekt69
    You can always count on Sterling.
  • amoviefreak
    September 8, 2008
    amoviefreak
    a master work as only Kubrick can tell

Summary

The Killing Summary