The Killing.
Career criminal Johnny Clay intends to pull off one final score before settling down and marrying his high school sweetheart; the job: take down a racetrack for $2 million. Having planned the heist and assembled a crack team: a desperate cop in deep with the loan sharks, a teller intent on fulfilling promises of wealth he made to his wife, and a bartender who’s wife lays sick in bed; Johnny sets the heist in motion. Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing is a little difficult to follow at the beginning, with no real exposition other than a narrator informing the viewer of the characters and the time of certain events, but once caught up it is a thrilling, ingeniously crafted noir, brimming with sharp, snappy dialogue and stunning photography, that culminates in a tense, thoroughly engrossing final act. The complex narrative structure employed by Kubrick adds a degree of originality that will inspire legions of filmmakers in the crime genre for years to come; Quentin Tarantino himself stated The Killing as a significant influence for Reservoir Dogs. Kubrick creates a breathtaking cinematic experience in only his third feature film. It didn’t take long for him to hit the jackpot.
The Ladykillers.
A friendly yet meddlesome old lady, Mrs Wilburforce, lives alone with her three parrots in a lopsided house above a railway tunnel. On the way back from a discussion about one of her eccentric friends’ “sighting” of a UFO with the local police, she asks her newsagent whether anyone has responded to her advert for rooms to let: they hadn’t. Once she arrives home however, a knock at her door introduces her to the suspicious Professor Marcus, who intends to rent a room in order to “practice with his amateur string quintet”; the reality is something far more sinister. The Professor has assembled a team of criminals; the gentlemanly Major, the Cockney spiv Harry, the slow muscleman “One-Round” and the ruthlessly cruel Louis; together orchestrating an elaborate armed robbery at Kings Cross station. Upon the successful execution of the heist, Mrs W becomes an unaware accomplice as she transports the loot from the station to her house, but not before her trademark meddling leads to some severe stress for the criminals. What begins as a charming classic caper descends into a dark comedy replete with deception and double crossings. The Ladykillers is perfect: the cast, the screenplay, the cinematography. A pillar of British cinema.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
A psychiatrist reports to a California hospital where a man, Dr Miles Bennell, is held in custody after what is believed to be a psychotic breakdown. Miles recounts the events of the previous week in an attempt to reaffirm his sanity. After returning home from a trip, Miles observed some peculiar behaviour in the town’s inhabitants: desperately sick people were cancelling their appointments and numerous cases of shared delusions were reported: people believed their relatives were being replaced by imposters. Miles consults a psychiatrist friend who diagnoses the situation as an “epidemic of mass hysteria”, a conclusion he is happy to believe until the discovery of a body without fingerprints and vague facial features slowly begins to resemble another of Miles’ acquaintances. How did it happen? And why? Who is human and who is an imposter? Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a horror-sci-fi-turned-psychological-and-philosophical-thriller classic. A relatively simple plot is reinforced by political allegory and the concepts of dehumanisation and loss of identity. Even a studio mandated ending fails to blemish the prestige of this picture. Don’t sleep. Sleep is the cousin of death.
The Burmese Harp.
In the dying embers of World War II, a Japanese Army unit retreats from a British attack through the Burmese mountains. To keep morale high, the unit sing together accompanied by one of the privates playing the Burmese harp. While resting in a village, the unit is surrounded by British troops who, rather than attack, begin to sing: the Japanese join them along with the harpist. Upon their surrender, the Japanese learn that the war ended three days ago. The captain of the unit entrusts the harpist, Mizushima, to carry out a mission for the British: he is to travel to a nearby mountain fortress where another Japanese unit refuses to surrender. Undeterred by Mizushima’s arrival, the mountain unit maintain their refusal to surrender. In the ensuing carnage Mizushima narrowly survives and is restored by a Buddhist monk whose robes Mizushima steals as he begins his journey to the Mudon prison camp to reunite with the rest of his unit. The Burmese Harp is not a traditional war film, spirituality and existentialism are key themes throughout as we follow the development of the protagonist’s faith in Buddhism. Also key is the power of music and its ability to bridge cultural divides and elevate the human soul. A stunning, unconventional picture.
Giant.
While in Maryland to purchase a horse, wealthy Texas cattle ranch owner Jordan “Bick” Benedict meets opinionated socialite Leslie Lynnton. Though she insults him during a conversation about his home state, Bick is fascinated by her, while Leslie ends her relationship with a British diplomat in order to start a romance with Bick. Some time later, the two arrive in Texas, newly married, en route to the Reata: Bick’s 500,000 acre ranch. Here Leslie is introduced to Jett, a lonesome ranch hand who was recently fired by Bick before being rehired by Luz, Bick’s sister. Leslie finds it difficult to ingratiate into Texan society; she is instructed not to converse with the Mexican house staff and is expected to be subservient, like the other females, in the male dominated Texan culture. The story of the ranch, and of wider society, is told through Bick and Leslie’s relationship over the course of some twenty years from the 1920s through to the end of World War II. A visually stunning epic of family, tradition, money, power, gender oppression, race and redemption, featuring rich characters portrayed by some behemoths of Hollywood’s golden age in Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean and even a very young Dennis Hopper. A Giant of a picture.
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