On the Killing

The film The Killing by Stanley Kubrick is an excellent example of a 1950’s film noir. The film is about a team of robbers that pull off a heist at a horse racetrack and all that ensues. The main character, Johnny Clay is the experienced criminal and mastermind of the robbery plot. He recruits several others, including a sharpshooter, window teller, and a crooked police officer to help him pull off the heist, with the goal being to rob two million dollars from the counting room at the racetrack. Even though the heist turns out to be a success, the film ends with the money blowing into the wind and Johnny being apprehended by the police. As Paul Schrader points out in Notes on Film Noir, there are certain specific elements that a film noir is typically composed of. In the case of The Killing, a heist film, there are several different ways in which the film fits the criteria.

For example, The Killing was released in 1956, and the film noir movement is generally agreed to have taken place in the 1940s and 1950s. dark (both in the color and quality of the film itself and in terms of its subject matter as well. Another example of the ways in which the film is indeed a film noir is the way in which the director plays with both changing perspectives and time itself. Paul Schrader makes note of this when he points out that The Killing uses “a convoluted time sequence to immerse the viewer in a time-disoriented but highly stylized world.” In addition to playing with the sequence of events, the film is also visually attractive stylistically, another prominent feature of many classic noir films. Schrader breaks it down by simply stating “film noir is more interested style than theme.” Based on an analysis of the criteria mentioned by Paul Schrader, there is no question that The Killing by Stanley Kubrick can be classified as a film noir unlike his highly popular Full Metal Jacket.

Bibliography

1. Schrader, Paul. “Notes on Film Noir.” Film Comment, Spring 1972.