starring Sterling Hayden
directed by Stanley Kubrick
85 minutes
Johnny (Sterling Hayden), recently released from prison, plans to rob the horse racetrack on the same day as a big race. He has several partners in the venture. Two of them work at the race track: Mike, a bartender, and George (Elisha Cook, Jr.), a cashier. Randy, a policeman, and Marvin are also in on the heist. Johnny also hires two men to cause confusion at the track on the day of the heist: Maurice and Nikki.
George is married to Sherry, who cares about nothing but money. George tries to impress Sherry by telling her about how he will soon be rich, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Sherry has a boyfriend on the side. She tells her boyfriend about what George is up to.
Everything is meticulously planned by Johnny. He has it all figured out but things take a predictable left turn in the end.
Thoughts
This is a very simple movie at heart but the way it is filmed and cut together really impressed me. It is a very tight film. There really aren't any unnecessary scenes or moments, no bloat. The music works wonderfully with the visuals to set the tone of the film.
There is voice over narration in places but the narrator sticks to the facts. He doesn't explain or try to add context, from what I recall. It is a very visual movie, especially the last 20 minutes.
I saw this movie once before, about 20 years ago. I remember being impressed by it then. I feel similarly now.
No comments:
Post a Comment