One of the qualities of any good film is pacing - the way in which one scene captures the attention and draws the viewer onwards into the next scene, and so on. This is akin to the "page-turner" quality of a book. Very few films have ever been made with such perfect pacing as "The Killing" (off the top of my head, I can only think of "Goodfellas" and Hitchcock's "39 Steps").
This is the story of an immaculately planned robbery of a racetrack, and the "run-like-clockwork" theme is echoed in Kubrick's masterful direction, the compact structure, the spot-on casting and word-perfect script. Sterling Hayden is perfect in the lead role as the smart-but-tough leader of the gang, Johnny Clay. Elisha Cook Jr. turns in a splendid performance as the little man pushed too far, and Marie Windsor comes close to stealing the movie as the heartless dame.
Also a highly influential movie (e.g. imagine Tarantino trying to make "Reservoir Dogs" without having seen this first) - if I had to try to explain to somebody why I thought Kubrick was such a great director, this is the film I would use as an example.
This is the story of an immaculately planned robbery of a racetrack, and the "run-like-clockwork" theme is echoed in Kubrick's masterful direction, the compact structure, the spot-on casting and word-perfect script. Sterling Hayden is perfect in the lead role as the smart-but-tough leader of the gang, Johnny Clay. Elisha Cook Jr. turns in a splendid performance as the little man pushed too far, and Marie Windsor comes close to stealing the movie as the heartless dame.
Also a highly influential movie (e.g. imagine Tarantino trying to make "Reservoir Dogs" without having seen this first) - if I had to try to explain to somebody why I thought Kubrick was such a great director, this is the film I would use as an example.