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The Killing was very good but Huston's original is at the top

posted 10 years ago by jrl0726
5 replies | jump to latest

After creating the film noir sub genre (The Maltese Falcon) and making a one of it's kind up to it's time, master work of art (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) the incomparable John Huston then created another first in "The Asphalt Jungle"( 1950). It is the first crime film told completely from the view of the criminals. Huston allows the characters to become more and more familiar to the viewer as the film progresses. "The Killing" and all the other caper type films all have a at least little bit of TAJ in them. TK one could argue, has a lot of TAJ in it. What TAJ does do more than any other film of this type is delve into the psyche and attitude of these types of criminals and demonstrates all the different places these people can come from. The cast of TAJ is quite compelling and is superior to TK's cast mainly because of hollywood top shelf character specialists Calhern and Jaffe and, of course, MM. TAJ is quite simply the best film dealing with "pro criminals" engaging in a crime ever made and a brilliant progression of Huston's noir creation.

[–] whiskeyTango-06 10 years ago

good points, but don't you think that some of the credits belong to the man who wrote the story?

after all -- what can a director do without a script? yes, yes, huston has a screenplay credit on "TAJ" as you call it -- but he didn't conceive the thing in any respect of the word.

[–] jrl0726 10 years ago

Yes writers are a very important ingredient but films are more about imagery and sound. That's where the most important contributors dominate, the on screen talent. One of the most important things a director has to do is get the most out of the talent. This is something that Huston does better than almost all other directors because he stays out of the way and lets the top performers "preform". What brings this very fine story to engrossing life on screen is Huston's own crafting of it.

[–] liscarkat (18945) 5 years ago

"The Asphalt Jungle", a great movie, is not "the original" of "The Killing".

[–] johnmiller (3967) 4 years ago

I absolutely LOVE "The Asphalt Jungle!" My favorite film noir of all time, plus my favorite crime picture of all time.

Yes, the other movies in this genre can be very good! But, "Jungle" is just so perfect! The best thing are the characters in the film. They are all so perfectly drawn and so three dimensional, it's beautiful!

[–] Rolltide (964) 3 years ago

The Huston films have nothing to do with this one.

This is an unusual film told from the perspective of the criminals. Great psychological insights and character developments.

I would take this one over the Asphalt jungle.