X
- 1956
- Approved
- 1 h 24 m
- 1956
- Approved
- 1 h 24 m
Summary Crook Johnny Clay assembles a five man team to plan and execute a daring race-track robbery.
Directed By: Stanley Kubrick
Written By: Jim Thompson, Lionel White, Stanley Kubrick
- 1956
- Approved
- 1 h 24 m
- 1956
- Approved
- 1 h 24 m
The Killing
7.6
Where to Watch
Summary Crook Johnny Clay assembles a five man team to plan and execute a daring race-track robbery.
Directed By: Stanley Kubrick
Written By: Jim Thompson, Lionel White, Stanley Kubrick
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
91
100% Positive
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
91
100% Positive
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
The word that occurs to me in describing Kubrick's approach to Johnny and the film, is "control." That may suggest the link between this first mature feature and Kubrick's later films, so varied and brilliant.
Stanley Kubrick was always infatuated with human clockwork, both in terms of what makes each of us tick and how we choreograph our lives, deaths, and sins. The Killing, his big heist movie, suits this obsession perfectly. It is often considered, and rightly, his first masterpiece.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 28 User Ratings
7.6
86% Positive
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
11% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
4% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 28 User Ratings
7.6
86% Positive
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
11% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
4% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
I enjoyed this movie every minute. It is a classic heist story with some good characters with their own backgrounds, but also some weak characters that you can foresee how they will end. Anyway it was a good idea not to reveal everything of the heist plan until the end, so there is still something to learn until then. Sterling Hayden as Johnny was perfect.
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This was expertly and smartly executed, a tight and good blueprint for heist movies to come.
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Orson Welles was so taken with this film that after seeing it he declared Kubrick could do no wrong; not to be missed.
Forty years later, The Killing has lost little of its punch. It's both vintage '50s noir and a stunning introduction to a killer director. [22 Jul 1998, p.L]
Centering on a racetrack robbery, it has fast, incisive cutting; a nervous, edgy style; and furtive little touches of characterization.
If anything identifies The Killing as a Kubrick picture, it is the movie’s overall sense of fatalism – even as we watch how carefully things are planned, there is a sense of impending doom.
Though The Killing is composed of familiar ingredients and it calls for fuller explanations, it evolves as a fairly diverting melodrama.
Starring: Coleen Gray, Elisha Cook Jr., James Edwards, Jay C. Flippen, Joe Sawyer, Marie Windsor, Sterling Hayden, Ted de Corsia, Timothy Carey, Vince Edwards
Summary: Crook Johnny Clay assembles a five man team to plan and execute a daring race-track robbery.
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Un polar minutieusement détaillé et bien construit qui m’a fait penser à ‘Ocean 11’ mais avec quelques participants en moins… Le démarrage reste lent cependant et quelques bavardages particulièrement inutiles et rasoirs viennent alourdir cette belle mécanique, par ailleurs filmée consciencieusement par Kubrick mais sans génie : ne pas s’attendre à sa maestria des films suivants. A ce sujet, quel contraste avec ‘Les Sentiers de la Gloire’ sorti l’année d’après !
On note la présence dans le rôle-titre de Sterling Hayden très convaincant ici et qui le sera encore plus (dans un petit rôle certes mais très percutant) dans l’inénarrable ‘Docteur Folamour’ des années plus ****…
Assurément très sérieux, ce polar n’a donc rien de bien extraordinaire si ce n’est… sa fin d’une ironie inattendue ! on retrouve là le Kubrick narquois et sardonique à souhait. Quelle fin, mes aïeux, elle sauve le film ! (ou presque).
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