Review of The Asphalt Jungle (1950) by Veronique K — 04 Feb 2008

"the asphalt jungle" is john huston's heist classic which reaches the pinnacle of this gendre with enough keleiscopic characters to sustain a revieting hard-boiled picture to entice you into this god-condemned dimension of film noir.

An aging millionaore emmerich who just goes bankrupt recently schemes to doublecross his gang of jewlry thievery to elope with the whole gross of sum then spend a transient journey of extravaganza with his mistress(marilyn manroe) who is young enough to be his granddughter. unfortunately, his con is penetrated by doc, a man of savvy wisdom, also the brain behind the heist, aided by the shrewd hitman dix who longs nothing but to reclaim his lost familyfiled in the south....eventually could they scram with what they initially seek?

One definitive line from emmerich would be "crime is the left handed form of huamn endeavor" for "asphalt jungle"...the earth abounds good and evil, virtue and vice, and they're all termed by humans. one requires another to complement each other. it guides us toward the underground predatory territory of this asphalt jungle with beasts slughtering each other for the juicy raw meat they droolingly covet. as doc remarks "we all work for our vices", the city is an asphalt jungle for the predators to quest its preys....at last, the jungle wins, ceased with the dirge of dix's demise over his natural retreat, farmland.

It's also a good chance to glance over the freshly young marilyn manroe who ticklingly utters "uncle lon" all the time, whose cameo is brief but visually impressive.

"the asphalt jungle" would be considered the vigorously gory tale about the existentialistic oblivion of urban criminality, dissected from the perspect of cons, constrastive to late 40s "the naked city" which intercuts from the angle of policeforce. two flicks could be parallels as the dark tales of urban disillusions.