Review of The Killing (1956) by Snigdh J — 09 Feb 2011
Searching for film noirs to watch, I stumbled upon this.A film noir by Kubrick was too big a temptation to resist. Though not exactly noirish The Killing carries a distinct flavor of 50's. In terms of style the movie is much closer to Hitchcock films with a tight script,crisp editing and black humor that seeps through the lines given to characters.
Ofcourse, there are noirish elements present.A sense of fatalism that prevails over the narration, the characters who are mostly failures in some way or other and though mostly film has been shot in daylight, some of the shots in earlier part of film carries that characteristic bleak & obscure touch.
The frugality of treatment is another striking aspect as there is hardly any scene that you could call extraneous. Another feature that takes it close to Hitchcocksque style. And yeah..there were such striking similarities with Reservoir Dogs that I couldn't help but think QT was very much inspired by the style & feel of the movie.
A young Kubrick but Kubrick nonetheless!!
This review of The Killing (1956) was written by Snigdh J on 09 Feb 2011.
The Killing has generally received very positive reviews.
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