Ernest Hemingway's The Killers (1964)

Location: Home (DVD)
Seen Before: No
Rating: 4.0

Watching this film, I kept thinking to myself, "Why does this look so familiar? What does it remind me of?" At some point it hit me--the television movies and shows I constantly saw my grandfather watching.

Apparently the strategy of TV movies then was to make them as bright as possible, as the screens were small. On one hand, this hinders the experience for me as it really handicaps the visual style, but on the other hand--that of a nostalgic one--I enjoy the way it captures that TV tough guy, Saturday afternoon feeling that my grandfather always seemed to appreciate.

The stripped-bare dialogue between hitmen Lee Marvin and the wonderfully sadistic Clu Gulager is fun to listen to and natural without ever being anywhere close to boring. The story proper--Cassavetes meeting girl and later wrapped up in scandle--begins a bit shakey as we sense the filmmakers trying too hard to show us a romance evolving. Once we're past that though, the film really takes off and becomes an enjoyable ride.