The Killing

 

           Oh, what's this? Oh, hey look everyone, I found another Stanley Kubrick movie, that's so far, close to number two ahead of Full Metal Jacket in the best Stanley Kubrick movie, so far. The Killing is Stanley Kubrick's third film he made in the mid to late fifties but was also his final movie he made in the United States. Though more importantly this was Kubrick's attempts of making a great crime/film noir, and was done in almost the best and creative ways possible furthermore is also made under 330,000 dollars, and although you may not think of this to be awesome, I personally think it's amazing just because there's always some inspiration as well as hope that I can look to in terms of films and know that I can always make a low-budget movie and feel like I can make it, in life.

           Career criminal Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) recruits a sharpshooter (Timothy Carey), a crooked police officer (Ted de Corsia), a bartender (Joe Sawyer) and a betting teller named George (Elisha Cook Jr.), among others, for one last job before he goes straight and marries his fiancée, Fay (Coleen Gray). But when George tells his restless wife, Sherry (Marie Windsor), about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own. 

           The genre of the Film Noir universe always have to be refreshing, but always have to follow the important elements on what makes a film nor, they always have to have either a anti-hero or a flawed protagonist because there's not perfect hero when you dive into the dark alleys of film noir as well as having a femme fatale whose always the love interest at times or a manipulator to the anti-hero or flawed hero, but what they all have in common is that there's always a crime involved whether it's a fixed boxing match, murder or bank robbery and yet by the end of the movie all of the characters don't have that happy ending where everyone walks away and that's always what makes film noir's such a great genre if you’re looking for influence. Although neo noir has become the new thing for these stories to tell now, film noir was the base for what crime movies can be and I still believe it's still there, but I wish the cinematography was still there, or maybe it is still there I could be wrong, and I don't always claim myself to be right. Few similar actors I did spot in the movie actors like Elisha Cook Jr. whose been in a tone of fifties movies, like House on Haunted Hill with Vincent Price and my another film noir masterpiece Don't Bother to Knock and he does a great job playing the typical criminal who has a selfish wife whose cheating on him for which creates more tension to the entire story, and Colleen Gray who plays the love interest to the main character is in the movie who appeared in the original Nightmare Alley with Tyrone Power. Although this film is low budget and I can't falter it because there moments where they have to use the best they can with what they had, there is a funny moments that do give a laugh out loud moments like the guy who's bribed to start a fight and for some reason he shirt is torn off by the officers and it looks like a pre-golden age Hulk, long before the Incredible Hulk show was made and I'm guessing this was the idea though just spewing out theories. And another scene where the sniper is supposed to shoot the horse and yet for some reason doesn't have a scope on his rifle and between edits, looks like he's short of distance and I'd assume that he's miles away, furthermore yes these are just things that Kubrick and the editors had to make with what they had in terms of budget wise, for which I'm not going to faulter that but does become humorous when you see it. I'm not going to spoil anything else because I want everyone to check this movie out mainly because it's directed by Stanley Kubrick but more importantly is another great film out of his filmography other than Full Metal Jacket which is a huge plus for me, because the least favorite of Kubrick's films that I don't have a need to watch the most are The Shining and 2001: A Space Odyssey, just because Shining is a usual Jack Nicholson performance where he's always looking crazy and 2001 I respect the film for its visual effects but the ending just lost me in the black hole. And so, the movie is on Tubi so, I would highly recommend downloading the app on your phone because Tubi has a tone of great treasures from classic movies, hidden gems as well as entertaining B-movies to watch and it's all free, and I stopped watching Netflix because some of the stuff they have I can at times watch but some of the movies they have are usually meh. So, if you ever have the time, I highly recommend checking out this great film noir by Stanley Kubrick himself.