Review of Kiss Me Deadly (1955) by Alex B — 19 Dec 2012

"As the world becomes more primitive, its treasures become more fabulous." Mike Hammer, the Nietzschean fantasy hero of American fascist writer Mickey Spillane (went to college during the Great Depression, spent most of the War in Mississippi, wrote for comic books), pursues a big score well beyond his usual world of petty sleaziness and brutality, all the way to the atomic end.

It's strangely kind of like Dr. Strangelove, warning about American idiocy (greed, selfishness) leading to nuclear holocaust. Credit the film-makers (the director and screenwriter) for seeing through Hammer/Spillane, and smartly turning him around to their own, contrary, far better end, without simply making a parody/spoof/caricature.