The Killing

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Written by: Stanley Kubrick and Jim Thompson, based on "Clean Break" by Lionel White
Year: 1956
Genre: Film noir
My rating: 3 out of 5

In this caper film noir, a racetrack robbery is planned by veteran criminal Johnny Clay (Sterling Harden) as his last heist before settling down with Fay (Coleen Gray). His assembles a crack team: a corrupt cop, Randy Kennan (Ted de Corsia), hoping to pay off gambling debts; a sharpshooter, Nikki Arane (Timothy Carey), to distract the crowd during the robbery by shooting the favored horse; Johnny's old friend Marvin Unger (Jay C. Flippen); a wrestler, Maurice Oboukhoff (Kola Kwariani), to provide another distraction by starting a fight at the bar; the bartender, Mike O'Reilly (Joe Sawyer); and George Peatty (Elisha Cook, Jr.), a mild-mannered betting window teller at the track with access to the back room, who hopes to gain the respect of his unsatisfied wife Sherry (Marie Windsor) with his share. The heist is successful, but afterwards Sherry's boyfriend, Val Cannon (Vince Edwards), who she told about the robbery after George told her, shows up and attempts to take the money for himself. The ensuing complications leave nearly all of the robbers dead.

"The Killing" starts off very dull, with a narration more monotonous than your average monotonous film noir narration. The characters are pale, the acting is bland, and the story is a long ways off from interesting. The writers seemed to have only the actual heist on their mind when they wrote the material preceding it, and I had a strange feeling that Stanley Kubrick wasn't having a lot of say in what happens next and how the characters should act. For the first half of the film, the only thing that caught my attention was Elisha Cook Jr.'s impressive performance as a well-meaning but nevertheless meek man whose wife doesn't love him and shows it as often as she can. Once the actual robbery began, however, I could see that there were quite a few wheels turning in the minds of the writers, if not the most verbose wheels. The chain of events occuring after the heist were able to keep me entertained, but the dialogue once again turned sour, and Sterling Hayden's dismal performance sadly did not improve. Though "The Killing" is not nearly one of Kubrick's best films, I can see how the experience may have influenced his later career.


Structure/Form:
How are the opening credits presented? Do they relate to the meaning?
They are shown in the foreground of a horse race, presumably at the track where the robbery takes place.

Are there any repeated scenes, images, dialogue, etc.? What purpose do they serve?
The timelines of the different characters overlap sometimes, so a few sequences are repeated.

Is sound used in any vivid ways to enhance the film?
Music is often played in the background in an attempt to enhance the mood. It didn't really work for me, but I suppose it's noir-vital.

What specific scene constitutes the film's climax?
While being transported to the airplane, the suitcase containing the money breaks open and the contents fly out everywhere.

Does the film leave any disunities at the end?
Nothing that can't be left to our imagination.

Why does the film conclude on this particular image?
The cops close in, meaning that none of the robbers got away.


Theme:
How does the film relate to the issues presented or developed? What questions are evoked by the film? Does the film present a clear point of view on an issue? How?
Most of the robbers' demises are fairly ironic, which makes us wonder if there were higher forces at work stopping them from getting away with the money. There isn't much to back this up, though.

Are there any aspects of theme which are left ambiguous at the end?
No, if it didn't end the way it does the theme would fall through.

How does this film relate to other films you have viewed or literary texts you have read?
It's pretty reminiscent of "The Ladykillers."


Mise en Scene:
Nikki lines up his shot at Red Lightning, the horse.

Dominant: Where is our eye attracted first?
The horses coming down the track.

Lighting key: High key? Low key? High contrast? Some combination of these?
Mostly high key.

Shot and camera distance: What type of shot? How far away is the camera from the action?
The camera looks over Nikki's shoulder as he aims.

Angle: Are we (and the camera) looking up or down on the subject? Or is the camera eye level?
Just the tiniest bit down.

Subsidiary contrasts: What are the main eye-stops after taking in the dominant?
We may look at Nikki's rifle, or the back of his head.

Density: How much visual information is packed into the image?
Not too much, mostly just the horses coming down the track and Nikki aiming.