Here is Kubrick's first big film, and damn do I enjoy it. I remember owning the Kubrick DVD collection, but then discovering that the set did not include much of his early stuff. I don't get why they leave those off, because as soon as I saw this I knew it was being under appreciated.
The character of George in this makes me love every minute he's in. When we first meet him and his wife, I cannot contain my laughter. Such a great couple in fights. Then his actions as the film progresses are all even better. Sterling Hayden is a great lead too. Seeing him in this made me realize he's more than just his character from The Godfather.
We also get a great storytelling concept. We keep getting little bits of information on how this robbery is going to happen; just enough to keep you interested but never so little you get bored. And you keep going back and forth in timing, seeing things from different player's perspectives.
You know what my biggest problem is though? That stupid TV show is what people think about first from the title instead of this great movie.
Something in between film noir, caper film, and genre parody. The poster looks like it's taking itself very seriously, but it should be clear by the ending that we are playing with genre stereotypes here. And I dare to say, the humor is what makes this otherwise mediocre heist movie still worth checking out. Kubrick here makes use of non-linear storytelling for apparently no purpose.
Very good movie. Minus points for the acting.
Probably was an inspiration to a lot of heist movies we saw in the last decades.
Love this movie. I hadn't seen it in awhile so it was until the third act when I remembered how it ends. I still gasped out loud when it went down at the airport and the money flew everywhere. That damn dog. Not cool, dog.
Proves that a simple Stanley is a good Stanley. In many ways it’s his most straightforward, accessible film, but it’s still recognizably him because of the editing, excellent camerawork and great performances. The characters are well formed and I like its partial focus on the wife character, because the female perspective in a male dominated crime world usually leads to an interesting dynamic (just look at Widows, which I’m sure was inspired by this film to some extent). The entire second half (which consists mostly of the heist) is a lot of fun to watch, with Kubrick using a bunch of techniques to add more suspense (cross-cutting, time jumps). It’s the part of the film where you can really see Christopher Nolan’s admiration for this man on full display. I could’ve done without the narration, because it doesn’t add all that much to the film, even despite it being a staple of the noir genre. It’s also not Kubrick’s most ambitious by any means, however it might just be the best gateway into his filmography. Who doesn’t love a great heist film? This one has aged very well (even the pacing is still very tight, it’s always moving) and inspired countless other films, so it’s definetely worth your time.
8/10
So far, this is the earliest Kubrick film I've seen. It's not a movie that I would ever watch again, but I have a lot of respect for it. You can tell that Kubrick had talent in his early works and it's very visible here. It's very simple, which is weird to say for a film by Stanley Kubrick, but it's not too simple that it's generic. It brings some new ideas to the table and I like what Kubrick did with the story and characters. It has it's moments, but It's not a movie that I would call anything special. It's still a very good time.
They said it was great and that Tarantino got ideas for Reservoir Dogs. Agree on both. Great Stanley Kubrick movie
Stanley Kubrick's coming-out party from the mid '50s is a startlingly accurate prediction of film's future. By way of a non-linear narration and a few remarkably fresh transitions, Kubrick adds considerable weight and magnitude to a tangled heist tale and its focus on the crooks behind a slick, daring stickup of the local racetrack. Confused by the film's radical new approach to storytelling, test audiences hated the first cut, leading to studio meddling and an almost-complete disintegration of its marketing budget. Kubrick fought back, though, and with the obvious exception of a horribly heavy-handed deadpan narration, the finished product seems virtually untouched.
Concerned mostly with the planning and hand-wringing before the big theft, The Killing tensely builds anticipation throughout before finally boiling over in a machine gun-paced robbery scene, terse payoff and all-too-brief elaboration on the major players' ultimate fates. Acceptably acted at best, the real stars of this picture are the complex plot and the harvest of fresh ideas going on behind the lens. A clear inspiration for Tarantino's big hits of the '90s, it's a daring and stylish major market debut for the famed director that hints at the lengths his development would ultimately take the medium.
A really good heist movie and Stanley Kubrick's first great film. The characters are interesting. The non linear storytelling makes the plot that much more entertaining. The ending is great. Definitely worth a watch if you like old noir films.
One of my favorite films of all time. Here, Kubrick uses the technique of recounting the entire story from each character's perspective, each lens giving us more pieces of the story. The dialogue is taut throughout, the pacing is incredibly brisk, and the ornate jazz score binds the entire thing together in a most spectacular way. This is the film whose style many modern movies from different countries have copied and you can't call yourself a Kubrick fan until you've seen this!
Shout by Gonzo OinBlockedParent2015-03-07T17:20:00Z
Hell of a film !