(Film Zine) The Legacy of 'The Killing' (1956)

(Written as part of a university film zine on thrillers, Autumn 2016)

(The Killing)

In the great collection of Stanley Kubrick’s works, The Killing (1956) is often considered one of his least significant, standing in the que behind some of his most well-known, and influential works such as Dr. Strangelove… (1964) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). However, even as a small precursor to his later work, it is just as influential.

The Killing is regarded as Kubrick’s first big film, budget-wise, and critically. Although not as huge of a financial success as Spartacus (1960), it was viewed as a fresh and exciting take on the ‘heist film’, incorporating elements of noir and the use of a blurry, non-linear narrative. The narrative structure in particular is where it’s legacy most significantly lies, having a big effect on Quentin Tarantino’s work. Some express, quite regularly, that Tarantino is an ‘imitator’, and that the narrative structure of Reservoir Dogs (1992) owes a great deal of credit to The Killing. Even when not viewed as an imitation though, one can clearly see a significant influence upon one of the most iconic pieces of modern cinema.

Plot-wise, both films are centred around the ‘one last heist’ trope and, using flashback, the doomed nature of each robbery is gradually unravelled. In The Killing, the femme fatale character played by the magnetic Marie Windsor, is the corruption upon the crime, whose ultimate greed scuppers the whole heist. In flashback sequences, through the films expert characterisation we see how she whittles her husband down to the point of him telling her all the details of the heist. It is in these scenes that Windsor’s danger to the whole plan is solidified, and the heist’s fate sealed. In Reservoir Dogs, we learn how Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) is an undercover cop, and throughout the whole film we are eagerly anticipating the climax of the doomed robbery. It is here, through the non-linear narrative, that the incredible suspense is generated and which, without, the film would suffer from conventionality and a lack of suspense, the enemy of any thriller. Here, we see that Kubrick’s inventive non-linear narrative is most certainly The Killing’s greatest legacy.

As well as its legacy in the thriller genre (the ‘heist film’ in particular), it is sometimes easy to overlook its legacy upon Kubrick’s later work. In this film, there are the first glimpses of Kubrick’s distinct visual language that has come to play a crucial role in modern cinema. Seamless tracking shots of Sterling Hayden walking down the corridor echo the ones of Danny riding his kart in The Shining (1980), and the bold use of mise-en-scene tease the iconic images of A Clockwork Orange (1971). Kubrick’s images have had a huge impact on the consciousness of cinema, and in The Killing, we are at the start of this journey.