|
Directed by: Robert Aldrich Starring: Ralph Meeker Film noir is a gritty genre, and Robert Aldrich is one of the bleakest American filmmakers, so what else could Kiss Me Deadly be but the cinematic equivalent of a rusty nail? From its rough and tumble aesthetic, pulp novel characters and famously outlandish ending, Kiss Me Deadly raises the bar for movie excess and tough-guy style in the hard-boiled detective genre. While it will always have a place in movie history based solely on its brilliant climatic scene, it really isn’t that great a film as a whole. It’s a solid entry into the noir genre, but it doesn’t really compare to superior works like Out of the Past and Pickup on South Street, the later of which deals with comparable subject matter and has a similar MacGuffin behind it. Nevertheless, fans of the genre will want to check it out, as will those with an interest in film history given its status. The film begins with the action already underway. A young woman, wearing only a trench coat, is running down a street at night, trying to flag down a car for help. She manages to get a ride by forcing a driver off the road, but as soon as they get going, they are ambushed by another vehicle and are forced off the road. After recovering from that brief encounter, the man who picked the woman up, Mike Hammer, tries to put the pieces together of what happened that night and why it happened, discovering a dangerous plot as he unearths more and more of the truth. The confused narrative and hyper-pacing give the film a lot of its charm. It’s hard to completely understand exactly what is going on for a good part of the film, but everything moves along so rapidly and with such a strong sense of excitement it’s easy to get drawn in anyway. It seems at times as if the film were constructed out of only loosely related scenes, but the interesting characters, strong sense of atmosphere and dynamic directing give it a strange appeal. By the end, the film moves from strange to unbelievable, and the climatic scene has become one of the most famous moments in American film, referenced later in movies like Pulp Fiction and Repo Man. Aldrich has a style all his own among American filmmakers. Even in his more mainstream films like The Dirty Dozen and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? it’s still apparent a maverick is behind the wheel. He forgoes conventional wisdom of strict camera continuity in favor of rapid, pseudo-documentary style action. This may make some of his films appear amateurish or even fragmentary at first, but as you see more and more it becomes apparent he is working in a completely different style than less adventurous film makers. In this sense he seems to have more of a connection to the French New Wave filmmakers (who started up shortly after Kiss Me Deadly was made) than with his peers in Hollywood. He also has an eye for extremely visible framing and camera movement, which further enhances his style of uncomfortable visuals and urban ruggedness. The performances in the film are all pretty hammy and are what you would expect of a B-grade movie, but the characters are often entertaining enough on their own that it doesn’t matter how poorly they are portrayed. Ralph Meeker plays the famous pulp novel character Mike Hammer, swaggering about with an over-pumped sense of masculinity and vulgarity. Despite being the “hero” of the movie, he’s never above a little dirty work, and its fun to see him crack the skulls of those who get in his way as he looks for answers. For the most part, the rest of the interesting characters are all minor roles, like the doctor who tries to get money from Hammer in exchange for information, who just sort of nods like a sinister puppet when he tries to put the pieces together. The final piece of the puzzle itself almost becomes a character, sort of like the One Ring in the Lord of the Rings series. While it probably isn’t art, it’s a terribly fun movie to watch, and would probably be a guilty pleasure if it didn’t have such a curiously strong reputation. A lot of the classic conventions of film noir are on display in generous helpings, and Aldrich’s style is always exciting. There have been a few other films featuring the Mike Hammer character, but this is far and away the best outing for him. Recommended. RATING: 4.0 PROS: exciting style, cool characters, brilliant ending CONS: loose structure, bad acting ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048261/
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2004 05:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 20, 2024 01:31 |
|
|
Also voted 4, definately in my top three noir films.
|
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2004 19:32
|
|
