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It's that time of year again, Noirvember! Let's celebrate by watching and discussing our favorite film noir movies. For those unfamiliar Film noir Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classical film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression. A few of my favorites.  Ace in the Hole is a 1951 American film noir starring Kirk Douglas as a cynical, disgraced reporter who stops at nothing to try to regain a job on a major newspaper. The story is a biting examination of the seedy relationship between the press, the news it reports and the manner in which it reports it. Without consulting Wilder, Paramount Pictures executive Y. Frank Freeman changed the title to The Big Carnival just prior to its release.[citation needed] Early television broadcasts retained that title, but when aired by Turner Classic Movies—and when released on DVD by The Criterion Collection in July 2007—it reverted to Ace in the Hole.  The story concerns two strangers who meet on a train, a young tennis player and a charming psychopath. The psychopath suggests that because they each want to "get rid" of someone, they should "exchange" murders, and that way neither will get caught. The first murder is committed; then the psychopath tries to force the tennis player to complete the bargain.  A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend. What's some of your favorite Film Noir movies? What will you be watching this month?
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Nov 2, 2014 02:28
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After watching about thirty or so noirs this year, I'd have to say my number one is The Killing.
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Nov 2, 2014 03:25
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I'm gonna have to watch Stray Dog again this year.
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Nov 2, 2014 03:40
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Detective No. 27 posted:I'm gonna have to watch Stray Dog again this year. Every year. Why not every month?
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Nov 2, 2014 03:42
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I need to see more noir, but I was lucky enough to see Sunset Blvd. in a theater last month and it's currently at the top of my small personal list. Other ones that encapsulate the "feel" of the movement best for me are Detour, Double Indemnity, and Out of the Past. Also, The Night of the Hunter is included in noir lists all the time for some reason, so if it counts it's top tier stuff too.
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Nov 2, 2014 04:19
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Gun Crazy is way, way up there for me, too.
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Nov 2, 2014 04:22
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Nroo posted:Also, The Night of the Hunter is included in noir lists all the time for some reason, so if it counts it's top tier stuff too. It really is.
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Nov 2, 2014 04:25
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I'm still working my way through the TSPDT 250 Noir list. If life doesn't get in the way like last year I should probably pass over the 100 mark. Also the best noir is Sweet Smell of Success. Watched three so far, and probably all three are being counted as noir due to technicalities. Suspicion(1941) dir. Alfred Hitchcock  A dud for Hitchcock. The story of the making of this film is quite well known, Lina(Joan Fontaine) is suppose to get murdered by her husband Jonnie, however the husband is played by Cary Grant, and you can't have have Golden Age Cary Grant killing people. So a story about husband abuse and infidelity, becomes female hysterics. Which isn't really a bad thing to make your film about if you know your way. But Fontaine's character is all over the place, quickly alternating being aware that her husband is poo poo and being naive and dumb about it. This disparity is at it's most clear when Johnnie's friend is introduced, Beaky(Nigel Bruce), who he tells Lina that Johnnie is a complete liar and manages to think up the most incredible tall tales on the spot. What I was getting from this scene was that she was catching up to Johnnie and even get on the joke with Beaky, yet next scene makes it clear that she believed him. It's probably the result of the script being the result of a bunch of different ideas, many of them dependent on a particular ending that couldn't be filmed. Real issue is with Cary Grant himself, who bless his soul, just isn't fit to play shady characters. During the first third of the film he is playing a variation of his Holiday character, complete with zingers and comedic timing, but he can't really turn off that persona and it doesn't mesh well with the mystery. I can't buy Cary Grant talking about murder on a dinnertable in which you're suppose to distrust him. Way to charming, which is part of the character but that's only half. Shame. 58(Average) Also a Samuel Fuller social issues double feature The Crimson Kimono(1959) and The Naked Kiss(1964) dir Samuel Fuller In which Samuel Fuller uses noir trappings to talk about America's issues with people that look different and women. With these two, it makes three films I saw from him.(The other one was Pickup on South Street) I enjoy his style, it's very crude, pulpy and trashy, you get the impression that these films are all help by spit and gum from how rickety and all over the place they are. Yet there's a lot of odd subtleties.  In Crimson Kimono a film about racism and Japanese-American relations in which most of the tension comes from a slow burning distrust and jealously between characters and the truth exploding at the most terrible moments. Though there's this precious attention to the small details. The Japanese dolls and wigs curated by white Americans, the two detectives Kojaku(James Shigeta) and Charlie one Japanese descent the other white American dress and talk the same, when Kujaku asks his cousin about if the Korean suspect he is following speaks any Japanese he gets the answer "As good as I do", small flashes of Japanese culture behind the Americana. The little things keep it from turning sanctimonious and cheap.  The same is found in The Naked Kiss. The opening of the film is incredibly violent and in your face, the plot is about Kelly(Constance Towers) a prostitute turned handicapped children nurse and is beyond melodramatic, including the most nauseating maudlin children sing along scene ever. Yet Fuller is able to deliver an abortion sub-plot with subtle care, filled with knowing looks and half spoken words, he also picks that stupid children song and turns into something else in the space of one scene. Both films are somewhat inconsistent, and not all there, but when he gets it right it's a spectacle, they also show a preoccupation with social issues that have a maturity that it's hard to find even today. Naked Kiss is the weakest of three I saw so far, but it has five minutes of mad brilliant cinema in it. The Crimson Kimono 78(Good) and The Naked Kiss 75(Good)
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Nov 2, 2014 18:56
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If anyone's looking for viewing options, I made a list of some of the best noir films available for free online.
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Nov 2, 2014 19:06
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Dr. Puppykicker posted:If anyone's looking for viewing options, I made a list of some of the best noir films available for free online. Kansas City Confidential is really fun, crazy violent for the times, and everyone should watch it to see how many betrayals and double crossing one can stuff in 100 minutes. Also Lee Van Cleef!
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Nov 2, 2014 19:19
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"Nicholas Ray is cinema." Seriously. Watch They Live by Night, In a Lonely Place, and On Dangerous Ground if you haven't. Otto Preminger, Samuel Fuller, and Jacques Tourneur all made noir masterpieces as well. See: Laura, Angel Face, Pickup on South Street, Underworld USA, Out of the Past. My favorite neo-noirs are The American Friend and Cutter's Way, Chinatown is overrated.
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Nov 2, 2014 19:30
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Dr. Puppykicker posted:If anyone's looking for viewing options, I made a list of some of the best noir films available for free online. My favorites are probably In a Lonely Place, Sunset Blvd., The Third Man, and The Sweet Smell of Success. My favorite neo-noirs are Blade Runner, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Pulp Fiction, The Big Lebowski, and The Long Goodbye. Brick is great too. Last Noirvember I didn't really watch much - I'm going to try to watch more this time.
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Nov 2, 2014 21:07
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Looks like it's time for Third Man, sweet smell of success, touch of evil, night of the hunter. This shall be a good movie watching month Tonight will be Double Indemnity!! bobkatt013 fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Nov 3, 2014 |
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Nov 2, 2014 21:11
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I recently watched the Twilight Time release of Fritz Lang's Man Hunt. Based on a written serial, it's the story of a man on the run after a failed assassination of Hitler. Secret Nazi agents chase him all the way back to London for a grand showdown. Brilliantly shot, sometimes comical, always tense and probably one of the most violent standoff for the time it was shot.
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Nov 3, 2014 15:03
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What's incredibly disturbing about Detour is that Tom Neal would go on to murder his wife in real life, much like he does to Vera in the film. Detour is such a strange film.
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Nov 3, 2014 16:03
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Nroo posted:Also, The Night of the Hunter is included in noir lists all the time for some reason, so if it counts it's top tier stuff too. Seems like more of a gothic horror (southern gothic, of course) story to me, but it's such a fantastic movie I'm fine with it making the "best of" noir lists.
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Nov 3, 2014 17:37
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So excited there was already a thread here for this! So far this month I've stuck with film noirs I've yet to see. 3 Robert Siodmak films: Phantom Lady (1944), The Dark Mirror (1946), and The Killers (1946). How do you not love Siodmak films?!? I loved Criss Cross but had no idea he'd made it until after watching The Spiral Staircase. Today: Somewhere in the Night (1946) by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The lead actress was terrible, but there was a lot to love about it overall. Definitely exceeded my expectations, partly because I don't like amnesia as a plot device. No clue what I should watch next, but I'm open to any suggestions. I've already seen ~40-45 classic noir films, including most of the most-popular noirs, but also some lesser-known films like Decoy and The Big Clock (two of my favorites). No femme fatale is more evil and vicious than Decoy's Margot Shelby! Really surprised they cut scenes due to excessive violence considering all the excessive violence that they did leave in. Wish I could watch those scenes they'd had to cut. Dr. Puppykicker posted:If anyone's looking for viewing options, I made a list of some of the best noir films available for free online. Thanks for this! I don't have the bandwidth to let all of my friends watch off of my Plex account. Double Indemnity and Scarlet Street(!!!) are both on Netflix. Not sure what Hulu has available. Mercaptopropyl fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Nov 5, 2014 |
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Nov 5, 2014 06:48
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I've always been a fan of Hitchcock's Spellbound. It's not his best but it does have a dream sequence designed by Salvador Dalí and directed by William Cameron Menzies. Also it has Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman in the lead roles, the pair had a brief, but intense, affair during filming which come through a bit on screen.
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Nov 5, 2014 12:43
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There's no way I'll be able to catch 30 of these this month, but I did do a rewatch of Double Indemnity last night. It's such a great movie, and the entire cast just nails it. The edition I have comes with TV remake and I might give that a shot too.
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Nov 5, 2014 14:53
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CopywrightMMXI posted:There's no way I'll be able to catch 30 of these this month, but I did do a rewatch of Double Indemnity last night. It's such a great movie, and the entire cast just nails it. The edition I have comes with TV remake and I might give that a shot too. Yep I just watched it and it was incredible. I can see why it was copied so often. Since it is on Netflix watch it.
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Nov 5, 2014 16:14
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How do y'all feel about LA Confidential? I know it's a modern throwback Noir film for baby modern audiences, but I still really like it. It's got really rad performances.
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Nov 5, 2014 16:23
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Lurdiak posted:How do y'all feel about LA Confidential? I know it's a modern throwback Noir film for baby modern audiences, but I still really like it. It's got really rad performances. Yeah it is a pretty great movie. It is a really good modern noir film, while still keeping all the elements that make the genre so great. That is another film that I haven't rewatched in a long time.
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Nov 5, 2014 16:30
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Dr. Puppykicker posted:If anyone's looking for viewing options, I made a list of some of the best noir films available for free online. Holy poo poo, Kiss Me Deadly is on youtube. That movie has one of the best openings and one of the best endings of any movie. Everybody needs to watch it.
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Nov 5, 2014 22:49
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Skwirl posted:Holy poo poo, Kiss Me Deadly is on youtube. That movie has one of the best openings and one of the best endings of any movie. Everybody needs to watch it. I think it's essential viewing for any fan of noir, in which case I couldn't recommend it highly enough. If you've only seen a couple of noir films but are already hooked on them, watch a few more before going back to Kiss Me Deadly. My mini-review from Criticker posted:In a way, Kiss Me Deadly is the Once Upon a Time in the West of film noir. Like any satire, you'll get a lot more out of it if you're familiar with the genre. It was only my second noir, so everything that makes this so special went over my head. I wasn't in on the joke the first time around, but once I was it became one of my favorites from any genre.
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Nov 6, 2014 06:45
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CopywrightMMXI posted:The edition I have comes with TV remake and I might give that a shot too. *tries to jump in front of bullet* nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
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Nov 6, 2014 10:52
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Sheldrake posted:*tries to jump in front of bullet* nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo It's that bad?
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Nov 6, 2014 12:16
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Mercaptopropyl posted:I think it's essential viewing for any fan of noir, in which case I couldn't recommend it highly enough. If you've only seen a couple of noir films but are already hooked on them, watch a few more before going back to Kiss Me Deadly.
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Nov 6, 2014 15:16
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CopywrightMMXI posted:It's that bad? It's worse.
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Nov 7, 2014 03:11
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Mercaptopropyl posted:I think it's essential viewing for any fan of noir, in which case I couldn't recommend it highly enough. If you've only seen a couple of noir films but are already hooked on them, watch a few more before going back to Kiss Me Deadly. Not to brag, but I came up with the idea of Noirvember. I was originally going to tell everyone to watch Detour, because that's an excellent free film, then saw Kiss Me Deadly was also on Youtube and enough people had spoken about Detour. Though seriously, watch Kiss Me Deadly everyone else, Indiana Jones steals from it.
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Nov 7, 2014 03:21
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Skwirl posted:Not to brag, but I came up with the idea of Noirvember. I was originally going to tell everyone to watch Detour, because that's an excellent free film, then saw Kiss Me Deadly was also on Youtube and enough people had spoken about Detour. You're right though, what I should be saying is watching Kiss Me Deadly now, you will love it, but also watch it again later because you'll love it even more. Agreed about Detour. I'm guessing no one's mentioned stuff like The Big Sleep or Murder, My Sweet because we're assuming everyone's seen those. As for lesser-known noirs, anyone who likes Audrey Totter should check out Tension What are your thoughts on The Big Heat? That's one I can never make up my mind how I feel about it. It's not even my favorite noir by Fritz Lang (that would be Scarlet Street), but I absolutely love the moral questions he raises through the protagonist, Glenn Ford's obsessively-ethical cop. Getting to watch plenty of Gloria Grahame was a nice bonus too.
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Nov 7, 2014 06:05
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Mercaptopropyl posted:It's not even my favorite noir by Fritz Lang (that would be Scarlet Street)  I'm not really sure of how The Big Heat ended up as the Fritz Lang film of his American career. Actually I do, it's a very kick in the teeth hard boiled detective story, but I found it lacking some of the that expressionist touches his earlier american work have. Lang also got a lot more cynic and mysanthrope as time went by. More than he was that is. Anyway, another triple threat. Panic in the Streets(1950) dir. Elia Kazan With Richard Widmark, Paul Douglas, (Walter) Jack Palance, Zero Mostel  Doctor Clint Reed(Richard Widmark) and Captain Tom Warren(Paul Douglas) have only 48 hours to locate a killer infected with pneumonic plague. Perfect time to watch a film about how a deadly disease might just break out and spread out like wild fire. Kazan regarded this as one of his better crafted films, and his most important in part because this would provide the backdrop for his more famous pictures Streecar and On the Waterfront. But outside of his own appraisal, it seems largely forgotten and not much talked about, other than the New Orleans connection. Even Scorsese who is a Kazan nut doesn't offer much. Which is a shame because it's a great little picture. It's a straight police procedural, but with a twist, at times even mechanical in it's progress but the cast brings to life a bunch of well troden characters, Kazan has a great eye for urban decay and folk descending into despair, and there's a killer chase scene at the end. Very grimy and desperate. It's not Sudden Fear killer, but it's up there. Also I really liked how massive in scale the film gets, even though it never leaves the waterfront of the city. It's a simple murder, but it can affect the whole country(World!). It's such a odd thing to see in non-superhero/fantasy/sci-fi films. Yet it never really loses touch with reality, or even with the smaller picture. The scenes between Widmark and Barbara Bel Geddes(who plays the wife) are really touching, and manage to ground the film and give it actually some impact.80(Great) Possessed(1947) dir.Curtis Bernhardt With Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, Raymond Massey  A dazed woman(Joan Crawford) walks the streets of Los Angeles looking for a man named David(Van Helfin). Nutty Crawford is fun, unless you were directly related to her, but this film gets bonkers. One could just call it camp and move on, cause come on, it's a Joan Crawford goes mad picture, but no, this film is legitimaly off the rails. Framed by the flashbacks of crazy Crawford it starts as a simple, yet hysterical, mystery with some darker tones, at some point it becomes a straight up ghost/haunted house story before settling back on the mystery of how Crawford completley lost her mind.(Surpisingly not because of the ghost!) While the science of a psychosis is a wash, the crazy structure is probably what it feels like having one. However the film is filled to the brim with Hollywood Psychotheray-Freud nonsense that they won't shut up about, that completley kills the film pace, tension, and makes it's 15 minutes longer than it needs too. But when it's unhinged, it's really unhinged and worth the trouble. 74(Good) Murder by Contract(1958) dir. Irving Lerner With Vince Edwards, Phillip Pine, Herschel Bernardi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOWHud4vd3k Thanks to Dr. Puppykicker This is the most cool, funniest, and artful B-movie of all. Go blind. 87(Great)
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Nov 8, 2014 00:40
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What are some good small town, outdoors noirs? I mean something like Out of the Past or the downtime before the heist scene in Odds Against Tomorrow or some scenes in They Live By Night. There's something about bringing the noir aesthetic away from the city and night and into these places.
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Nov 8, 2014 02:08
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El Graplurado posted:What are some good small town, outdoors noirs? I mean something like Out of the Past or the downtime before the heist scene in Odds Against Tomorrow or some scenes in They Live By Night. There's something about bringing the noir aesthetic away from the city and night and into these places. Night of the Hunter is exactly what you're looking for. And Anthony Mann's Westerns, especially Naked Spur and Winchester '73. Oviously they're more western than you might be looking for, but they've got the same kind of edge the best noir films have and they take place away from cities. Unrelated, here's a great article on Crimson Kimono. I haven't actually seen the movie, but Pick-Up on South Street and House of Bamboo are both also excellent noir, and Sam Fuller is an amazing director.
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Nov 8, 2014 02:25
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Lurdiak posted:How do y'all feel about LA Confidential? I know it's a modern throwback Noir film for baby modern audiences, but I still really like it. It's got really rad performances. It is an amazing film, robbed of best picture by Titanic despite being a better film on every conceivable level. It is my favorite Neo Noir after Chinatown, also even though it was mentioned I'm going to give another shout out to Double Indemnity as it is my favorite in the genre, possibly favorite film all time. Also anyone looking for something a little more fun, Total Recall (original, come on) works as a great sci-fi noir. The remake also works as a coaster. Marketing New Brain fucked around with this message at 03:05 on Nov 9, 2014 |
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Nov 9, 2014 03:02
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Does Neo-noir count for Noirvember? Would love to have an excuse to re-watch Blood Simple, Red Rock West, Chinatown, etc.
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Nov 9, 2014 16:23
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Neo-noir'd better count or else I don't have an excuse to ride all of you to see After Dark My Sweet and Night Moves.
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Nov 9, 2014 17:39
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Neo-noir is cool. But it's not the same thing.El Graplurado posted:What are some good small town, outdoors noirs? I mean something like Out of the Past or the downtime before the heist scene in Odds Against Tomorrow or some scenes in They Live By Night. There's something about bringing the noir aesthetic away from the city and night and into these places. Beyond the Forest fits this, top tier noir too. You get Bette Davis famous "What a dump!", Joseph Cotten un-ironically spreading socialist healthcare around, and a nice twist at the end.
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Nov 9, 2014 19:59
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Electronico6 posted:Neo-noir is cool. But it's not the same thing. I need to watch that. Joseph Cotton is such an underrated actor.
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Nov 9, 2014 20:37
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Sheikh Djibouti posted:Does Neo-noir count for Noirvember? Would love to have an excuse to re-watch Blood Simple, Red Rock West, Chinatown, etc. Don't think Blood Simple needs an excuse to re-watch it.
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Nov 11, 2014 02:52
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A Robert Ryan marathon. Crossfire(1947) dir.Edward Dmytryk With Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame  A man is murdered, apparently by one of a group of soldiers just out of the army. But which one? And why? A trilogy of leading Bob's. I read that this one is one of the first noirs with a social message, and one of the many bigot characters that Robert Ryan(Who was one of Hollywood's more social councious actors) would play. The message here is of anti-semitism(the story it's based on is homossexuality and you can see the rewrites of it all over the picture), while entirely admirable, it's big message moment is delivered in exposition by the detective dude(played by Young), that completley deflates the film. The twist is fairly obvious making the mystery murder a non-starter, leaving a lot of deadtime and beating around the bush. I'm not sure there was any point to Mitchum's seargant character, as he was completley wasted. The big attraction is Robert Ryan, with this film being his big career breakout, and he just plays the hell out of being a bastard. It's not even the violence and the petty insults, it's his small offside remarks that almost sound like throwaway lines. But most important this was also the film that launched Gloria Grahame career so big kudos to the casting team!. 64(Okay) Berlin Express(1948) dir. Jacques Tourneur With Merle Oberon, Robert Ryan, Charles Korvin  A multinational group of train passengers become involved in a post-World War II Nazi assassination plot. Love it that the warning sign doesn't have a version in German. A very solid spy thriller somewhat let down by the semi-documentary frame device with a very odd voice-over work. Oddness that becomes disturbing once the film reaches Berlin as the voice turns from monotone to proudful the imagery of Germany in ruins. "For once the punishment fits the crime" you would think it's talking about the images of the Reich Chancellery, but nope, just a bunch of bombed out buildings. It sort of sticks out on your mind on a film about how folk from different nations learn to cooperate with each other, and leave behind their prejudices to build a new peaceful world. It's far from the best of Tourneur, it's not the best spy thriller, and I'm sure that there are even better films shot in ruined Germany, but this is such a historical curiosity. It was made with WW2 already fading, but the Cold War still from afar, Germany was still not divided into two(in fact the plot hinges on saving a man that can potential create a united Germany), and it's brimming with positivity and hope for a better future, and friendly relations between America, Europe, and the Soviet Union. A year later and this film was already anachronistic. 76(Good) Clash by Night(1952) dir. Fritz Lang With Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Ryan, Paul Douglas, Marilyn Monroe  Mae Doyle(Barbara Stanwyck) comes back to her hometown a cynical woman. Her brother Joe(Keith Andes) fears that his love, fish cannery worker Peggy(Marilyn Monroe), may wind up like Mae. Mae marries Jerry(Paul Douglas) and has a baby; she is happy but restless, drawn to Jerry's friend Earl(Robert Ryan). A love triangle story seems like an odd thing for Lang to tackle, and even to call it noir seems off. No detectives, or thieves, mysteries or murders. It's just a plain love story in two acts, one bright and flirty, the other very dark and adultereous. But I find that this fits the noir world, because Barbara Stanwyck is essentially playing a burned out Femme Fatalle, chewed out and spit out by the big city, and now is trying to find herself. This is probably more of a modern reading than the actual film, but then again the concept of noir only came after. There's an ever present threat of violence, the sunny first half of the film is often punctuated by small moments of violence between Joe and Peggy. They are harmless, and almost a inside joke between the couple, but the attention Lang pays to these brief acts makes them stick out on your mind and create tension in what is at first look just another love triangle with cheating. When the film picks up again after the year jump, it opens in a house bathed in shadows, now suddenly this isn't a carefree film where Stancwyck can flirt and charm her way out. Lot to like and enjoy here, Stancyck is at the top of her game, Ryan is also great in another bastard role, Douglas is overtop but fits as a big loveable oaf, also pre-fame Monroe. The second half is terrificly, speacially how Lang has the house constabtly in dark. Though I'll have to be honest, the wordy dialogue after awhile just defeated me, and the mind started to wander. It's not bad, it's just way too much considering we are talking about the same guy that made three hour long silent Dr. Mabuse. 79(Good) Odds Against Tomorrow(1959) dir. Robert Wise With Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters, Ed Begley  Dave Burke(Ed Begley) is looking to hire two men to assist him in a bank raid: Earle Slater(Robert Ryan), a white ex-convict, and Johnny Ingram(Harry Belafonte), a black gambler. "You didn't say nothing about the third man being a friend of the family." It's not the kind of line you expect from a 1959 film, or even a 2014. Even with the knowledge that it was a film about racism, the line and it's venemous delivery pretty much out of nowhere. All you know about Earle until that point is that he is a bum that you sort of feel bad for. Which plays up the the turn so well, and with such a punch. It's incredible. A lot of the film is anticipating the meeting between Earle and Johnny, when they finally get together it never let goes. Burke believes if Earle just keeps his mouth shut or keeps his distance, then things will just go as normal, making this a film entirely about how not talking about race always makes things worse. "Don't beat out that civil war jazz here." (What a fun line) There's so much confrontation and agression peppered in the dialogue, and so much disdain and uncomfortableness in the body language, a very stressful and tense film, with only very little of it coming from the heist proper. The ending, while over the top, it's just perfect. Fantastic cast, with Robert Ryan at the most bastard, petty, and at points disgusting. It's not a particular subtle character, but it's so well realized and played out, nothing about it feels forced out. There's a legit good music number in this too, mostly because Belafonte is actually singing, not being dubbed or because a contract stipulates one song number.(*cough*Dietrich*cough*) And Gloria Grahame out of nowhere for a small role, I completley forgot her name was in the credits. It also looks incredible. 91(Excellent) I also saw Bad Day at Black Rock, it isn't in the 250 noir list, but I kept seeing it side by side with Crossfire and Odds Against Tomorrow as part of Robert Ryan plays a bigot films. People also wrote that it's like a Western meets a noir, so why not. Well turns out when folk say "western meets noir" they mean it's a Western that happens in 1945 instead of 1865. It's a big cinemascope production that is amazing sight to behold, and it does have dark themes, but it's not like racism and discrimination is alien to western. Though I do recommend, in part cause the treatment of japanese nationals and immigrants during WW2 is an event America seems to prefer to forget than to remember(the film is quite blunt about it), but mostly due to the killer cast(Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Walter Brennan), and because 50 year old Spencer Tracy beats the poo poo out of Borgnine with one hand and heavy application of Hollywood martial arts. Electronico6 fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Nov 12, 2014 |
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Nov 12, 2014 00:36
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