Gray Matter

Director: Joe Berlinger
Studio: New Video Group
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com essential video

Stanley Kubrick's third feature, and first screen classic, is one of the great crime films of the 1950s. The Killing was written in collaboration with Jim Thompson, who penned pulp novels like The Grifters, The Killer Inside Me, and Pop. 1280, all of which were made into classic films. This time writing directly for the screen, Thompson joined with Kubrick to concoct a story about a desperate gang of lowlifes led by a grim, determined Sterling Hayden. Together they devise and execute a complex racetrack robbery, but inner tensions and the iron fist of fate work against them. The cast is uniformly superb, with Hayden, Jay C. Flippen, Timothy Carey, Marie Windsor, and Elisha Cook Jr. fleshing out characters torn between grandiose ambition and petty desire. Cinematographer Lucian Ballard fashions distorted, starkly lit interiors that reflect the psychological tensions of the characters. He and Kubrick also create one of the most memorably ironic final sequences in film history.

The Killing is a perfect introduction to the art and joys of film noir, and its bizarre narrative structure has been copied many times since. For a terrific double feature, see it with John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle, another noir masterpiece featuring Hayden; or Paths of Glory, Kubrick's next picture, again cowritten with Thompson; or even Jackie Brown, in which Quentin Tarantino pays homage to the ways this film leaps around in time. More commercial than some of Kubrick's later work, The Killing remains a tour de force by one of the world's finest filmmakers. --Raphael Shargel

Description

When ex-con Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) says he has a plan to make a killing, everybody wants to be in on the action. Especially when the plan is to steal $2 million in a racetrack robbery scheme in which "no one will get hurt." But despite all their careful plotting, Clay and his men have overlooked one thing: Sherry Peatty (Marie Windsor), a money-hungry, double-crossing dame who's planning to make a financial killing of her own...even if she has to wipe out Clay's entire gang to do it! Directed in a revolutionary story-telling technique by the legendary Stanley Kubrick, The Killing is tough, taut, tense and one of the greatest crime thrillers ever made!

Customer Reviews:

Great Noir!.......2007-05-07

I bought this movie because Vince Edwards was in it, and I'm a huge Vince Edwards fan. He has a very small part, but the movie is interesting and some of the dialogue is cutting edge for it's time. It has some surprise twists and turns. Fans of film noir will love it!

Kubrick's Ticket to the Big Time.......2007-03-19

Film noir has been an excellent launching pad toward the top ranks of directors, as exemplified by such up and coming cinema talent of the past as Edward Dmytryk, Richard Fleischer and Anthony Mann, to name a few.

One other cinema great had his ticket punched into the medium's big leagues with a highly imaginative low budget 1956 effort. That director was the youthful Stanley Kubrick and the film was "The Killing." Just one year later Kubrick would receive international praise for his brilliant anti-war vehicle "Paths of Glory" starring Kirk Douglas.

While "The Killing" has been compared stylistically as well as story-wise to John Houston's brilliant 1950 hit "Asphalt Jungle," Kubrick took an interesting u-turn from the "Asphalt Jungle" scenario to achieve a unique tour de force. While both films were built around scoring a big heist, "Asphalt Jungle" was structured around using professional criminal types while "The Killing" could have been sub-titled "The Criminal Amateur Hour" and herein Kubrick achieved solid dividends.

The Lionel White-Jim Thompson script featured three criminal professionals; mastermind Sterling Hayden, who also starred in "The Asphalt Jungle," Timothy Carey, a professional marksman, and strongman Kola Kwariani. Hayden, who has just been released from prison, culled the rest of his gang from the amateur ranks.

Many viewers who appreciated "The Killing" credit noir veterans Marie Windsor and Elisha Cook, Jr. of stealing the film. They form an odd relationship in which Cook fawns to please his faithless wife, who sarcastically derides him in turn.

One of the film's chief plot points emerges after Windsor is able to squeeze information out of Cook to leak to her boyfriend Vince Edwards, who is as faithless toward her as she is to her husband.

Jay C. Flippen provides the cash to Hayden and his team, funds he embezzled from the company where he works. Flippen's seedy downtown Los Angeles apartment is the meeting point for the makeshift mob of amateurs that hopes to pull off a big heist, A Killing as it were, by robbing a racetrack of its cash take the day of the biggest race of the season.

Hayden has two people who yearn to associate with him for different reasons. Flippen is despondent and feels life is passing him by. He dreams of traveling the world with Hayden, someone he looks on as a surrogate son.

A diplomatic Hayden lets Flippen down easily. He plans on spending his time with the girl who has loved him since their school days, played by Colleen Gray, another noir veteran who starred in "Nightmare Alley."

A daring caper like this can be more easily achieved with a crooked cop on its team. That element is satisfied with the participation of Ted de Corsia, a sinister element in many films, including the Jules Dassin police drama "The Naked City." Hayden is more of a putative criminal strategist than sinister. At one point Hayden calms de Corsia down when he wants to work over a meddlesome Marie Windsor.

Two other unique character types appear in the main cast. Timothy Carey plays a bizarre shooter who gets himself in trouble ultimately by hurling racial invective at James Edwards, a kindly racetrack parking lot attendant.

The other offbeat character type is stolid, muscular Kola Kwariani, who is hired to start a fight at the track to distract attention. A professional wrestler, Kwariani was a chess-playing friend of Kubrick's from his Brooklyn days.

In my book "L.A. Noir" I rated "The Killing" as one of the best noir films ever made. No lovers of the genre should miss it.

The first real step in Kubrick's universe..........2007-03-05

As all Kubrick afficiandos know, this was Stanley's first "mature" film. He had made 2 films, Fear and Desire (by all accounts, even Kubrick's own, a terrible film), and the mediocre Killer's Kiss. The Killing was his first masterpiece in a string of masterpieces, and it's one of the best film noir films ever made. Despite its low budget and quick (especially for Kubrick) shooting schedule, it's a tight, taut, brilliantly acted and directed picture. All of the main and supporting roles are played brilliantly. Even actors with one or two lines manage to make an impression in this film. The out of time structure of the film makes the film even more impressive and interesting. You end up feeling sympathy for the characters, despite the fact they're stealing from a racetrack. The only character that you dislike is Marie Windsor's character. She gives a great performance as the cold, heartless, two-timing tramp of Elisa Cook, Jr., who plays the sad sack husband so well. Sure, you can make fun of him, but too often in life you see that guy who will do anything for his wife even though she won't do a damn thing for him. This film may not be as mystic as Kubrick's later work, but it still is brilliant, and hasn't dated one bit.

One of the most skillful and entertaining suspense movies of the Fifties..........2007-01-04

The formidably promising talent shown in "Killer's Kiss" helped to secure for Stanley Kubrick studio backing for his next straight thriller, "The Killing," made in 1956...

This was a much more "professional" job than its forerunner... Kubrick had the casting of a bunch of actors so experienced in the "character" parts that as soon as they came into camera view you recognized them from a score of Hollywood movies...

"The Killing" lacks for me the dimension of humanity of its predecessor... It reminded me of one of those documentaries that give you every conceivable fact with immaculate accuracy and leave you without the heart of the truth... This has something to do with the style of the storytelling.... Once again there is a narrator; only instead of a lonely failure with blood in his veins, this one sounds like a "March of Time" commentator: loud, confident, detached...

The film opens on the horses preparing for the off at the track and, even before the titles end, the dramatic music has started building the tension...

One by one we are introduced to the characters as once again, we don't know for a while what the plot is going to be; but this one uses the time to build the mystery and tension rather than to deepen the characters...

Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) is a convict just out from five years in Alcatraz, master-minding the two million dollar hold-up... He collects (how, we are never told) a bunch of flawed human beings to fit, like jigsaw pieces, into the intricacy of his plan... There's an Irish barman, an amiable old book-keeper, a tough crooked cop; and there's little George Peatty, played by Elisha Cook Jr - he of the bulging eyes and mobile mouth; here the incarnation of fear and uncertainty and in countless other Hollywood thrillers the personification of the staring-eyed boy killer...

Kubrick plays tricks with time as his characters become caught in the plot... He takes each of them and plays his incident through to the next turn of the screw; then goes back to an earlier moment in time to see what somebody else was doing...

Even the incidental small parts have "character" stamped right through them... The marksman hired to shoot a winning racehorse to cause a diversion from the robbery is a war veteran with deformed speech... The old retired wrestler, who picks a fight with the police to create another diversion...

If "Killer's Kiss" had one big dramatic set-piece, "The Killing" has a score of small dramatic touches to heighten the irony and the tension...

"The Killing" is one of the most skillful and entertaining suspense movies of the Fifties... It mesmerized like a ticking time bomb, and every few minutes, with sure skill, Kubrick recorded a new peak of suspense... And all with very little violence, again, though with the obligatory sudden death...

Atmospheric and Innovative Film-Noir.......2006-11-02

"The Killing" is one of Stanley Kubrick's lesser-know films, released in 1956, just 8 years before "Dr. Strangelove." It's filed under film-noir, but is actually more than that and is actually a very influential film. While he's never actually cited this film as an inspiration, you can see how this movie's form of storytelling could be compared to that of Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs." The movie is about a varied gang of men, that are involved in a plan formed by Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden, 'Dr. Strangelove'). Clay has discovered a way to steal $2 million dollars from a racetrack and the plan is actually quite elaborate. Stepping away from my synopsis, I want to add that if you read the back cover of this film it says "...Despite all their careful plotting, Clay and his men have overlooked one thing: Sherry Peatty, a money-hungry, double-crossing dame who's planning to make a financial killing of her own...even if she has to wipe out Clay's entire gang to do it!"
OK. Maybe, I wasn't paying attention to the film. Maybe. But that seemed kind of inaccurate. True, Sherry (who is the wife of one of Clay's partners)
is money-hungry and she definitely tries a lot of ways to get in on this scheme; I didn't notice the "even if she has to..." Anyway, this film really has it's high points and low points. It doesn't have the same mood as Kubrick's later films would (A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Barry Lyndon all have that same Kubrickian mood to them), but it does have it's own unique atmosphere which I admired a lot. As I said, I see similarities between this film and Reservoir Dogs, which is cool. One of the biggest problems I had with the film was it's ending. It seemed brief and inconclusive. Kubrick could've added one minute of footage and made it satisfying. Even though you know what's going to happen, it still should have elaborated. This isn't one of Kubrick's best film (you can't even place it in the same league with films like A Clockwork Orange), but it's an innovative film that showed a talented young filmmaker with a lot of potential. A potential he more than lived up to.

GRADE: B+

Nights of Cabiria - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

Nights of Cabiria
Not exactly disappointing, but...
Very long, but worth it
Haunting
A Landmark from a Genius

Nights of Cabiria - Criterion Collection
Starring: Giulietta Masina , François Périer , Franca Marzi , Dorian Gray , and Aldo Silvani
Director: Federico Fellini
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00000IOKV
Release Date: 1999-09-07

Amazon.com essential video

A year after his international breakthrough film La Strada, Federico Fellini and his leading lady/wife Giulietta Masina collaborated on another masterpiece, a magical mix of neorealism and romantic optimism set on the streets of Rome. Masina's moon-faced and bright-eyed Cabiria is a passionate streetwalker with a heart as big as Italy and the emotional spontaneity of a child, a woman with a hearty passion for life whose constant weakness is falling in love with mercenary creeps. For a couple of hours we share the dreams and disillusionments of Cabiria as she rattles around Rome before once again losing her heart. The bittersweet heartbreak is tempered with a soaring celebration of the human spirit: no other Fellini film offers such honest hope in the face of such bitter devastation. Fellini left the poor and the working class to revel in the decadence of Rome's high society for his next film, La Dolce Vita, a film that could have sprung from Cabiria's hilarious chance interlude with a matinee idol (played by Amedeo Nazzari). Rambling and leisurely paced, Nights of Cabiria is a sweet film of warmth and simple grace. It became the basis of Neil Simon's American musical Sweet Charity, with Shirley Maclaine taking Masina's role in Bob Fosse's film version. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Giulietta Masina won Best Actress at Cannes as the title character of one of Fellini's most haunting films. Oscar® winner for Best Foreign Language Film, Nights of Cabiria (Le Notti di Cabiria) is the tragic story of a naive prostitute searching for true love in the seediest sections of Rome. Criterion proudly presents the restored director's cut in a breathtaking new transfer.

Customer Reviews:

Nights of Cabiria.......2007-06-26

In this bittersweet, poignant early feature from Italian maestro Fellini, Giulietta Masina (who was married to the director) brings off another demanding role with finesse and charm. Her Cabiria is a spiritual innocent thrust into the least innocent of professions, making her desire for meaningful companionship seem unattainable. Through it all, Masina radiates a plucky dignity that makes us root for her. Note: "Cabiria" is more grounded in realism than Fellini's later works, but this hardly detracts from the film's sizable emotional impact.

Not exactly disappointing, but..........2007-06-15

Nights of Cabiria doesn't live up to its formidable reputation but at the same time it doesn't exactly disappoint. Massina is not a good actress by any stretch of the imagination, too overreliant on volume and exaggeration for much of the film, but she is ultimately an affecting one when she stops yeling and just lets her face tell the story. It's Fellini at his most Chaplinesque, with Masina's whore a right little tramp, and its when it harks back to silent cinema that it's at its best. Her boyfriend's sudden change of character at the end seems to come completely out of leftfield and doesn't altogether convince, but it does allow for a truly beautiful final sequence. And it's interesting that of all the things for the Catholic Church to object to about the film, the one that incensed them enough for the sequence to be removed was a man with a sack dispensing blankets and chocolates to derelicts, a touching scene that acts both as a harbinger of Cabiria's probable fate and an affirmation that there is still some good in the world.

Criterion's DVD is a good presentation, boasting the uncut version with the long-deleted 'man with the sack' sequence, interviews with Dominique Delouche and Dino De Laurentiis, an extract from Fellini's The White Sheik where Massina's character made her first brief appearance and the original Italian trailer plus the US reissue trailer.

Very long, but worth it.......2007-05-16

I finished it 30 minutes ago and still can't stop crying. This movie was so incredibly good, and the ending was perfect. All of a sudden, you feel it coming like a storm.

It was paced in such a way where you start to know something bad is going to happen and as it unfolds, your guts tie up in a knot. One of those films that stays with you forever. Sad, but somehow comforting at the same time.

Haunting.......2007-03-04

I saw this movie years ago and thought about it every so often.
I rented it again,and when the movie ended,I realized this is one of the best movies I have ever seen.

I came here immediately and bought it.It's not often that you can watch a movie and really,
really care about the character as if they were a real person. That,my friend is acting.

Cabiria is unforgettable and will stay with you forever.

A Landmark from a Genius.......2007-02-18

Here is a work of poetic and cinematic genius, released in 1957, and now re-released by Criterion in 1999, which, judging by all the reviews on Amazon, still creates awe, wonder, and gratitude in its lucky viewers. Nothing here has become dated because, like all great art, from Homer to Shakespeare to Tolstoy to Joyce and on and on, this work holds up a mirror to life itself. In fact, as time goes by, this movie becomes more precious. In "Nights of Cabiria," we find ourselves in the society of Rome's pimps and prostitutes as they haunt the evening plying their trade. Cabiria is an independent, refusing to fall under the sway of a pimp. As the film unwinds, almost randomly Cabiria's struggles to stay alive and to find some semblance of decency and sincerity in this inchoate world tumble before us like a dream. From the opening scene, where Cabiria, in thrall to love, is tossed into a river by her boyfriend and robbed of 40,000 lira, to the penultimate scene where again she is shocked into despair, we see the crazy juxtapositioning of eternal hope with bitter reality, exquisite beauty with hideous misery, and the joyful music of humanity with the sad tears of lost love. What resonates so truthfully is how terrible people and life can be but how ever-resilient and relentlessly hopeful the human heart remains. This true spiritual message is delivered even as these "sinners" search for a miracle from the Virgin Mary but find nothing but their own futile yearnings for a better life. Fellini, the creator, saw it all.

Giulietta Masina delivers an utterly brilliant performance as Cabiria. She embodies Cabiria's comic bravado and loving soul while at the same time giving full expression to her cynicism and despair. This performance is one of the greatest you will ever see on film. So many emotions pass through her in flashes and bursts that it is a wonder to behold. The extra features on the Criterion DVD permit the viewer to have a deeper understanding of Fellini's creative process, although a long interview with Dominique Delouche, Fellini's French assistant, is not as enlightening as I would have liked, nor is the sequence with Dino De Laurentiis. However, it's terrific to watch an excerpt from "The White Sheik," Fellini's first major movie (a flop), where Masina makes a brief appearance as Cabiria in a night-time sequence and, with another prostitute, attempts to comfort a jilted husband. Masina was wonderfully physical as an actress and does a lovely little dance in this scene. Her dancing in this movie too is fantastically comic and joyful, a lovely thing to behold.

No question that this movie will endure as long as there are people who are moved by true art. Its message is eternal, its vision rejuvenating.

Average customer rating:

The Paper review
FUN MOVIE!
...all the news that's print to fit...
no title
Never let a good story get in the way of the truth!

The Paper
Starring: Michael Keaton , Robert Duvall , Glenn Close , Marisa Tomei , and Randy Quaid
Director: Ron Howard
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
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ASIN: 0783219571
Release Date: 1997-11-19

Amazon.com

Highly entertaining albeit thin journalism thriller, this examination of a 24-hour period in the life of a New York Post-ish tabloid focuses on a hard-working metro editor (a pitch-perfect Michael Keaton) thinking of going to a loftier job at a rival paper. Edgy, "NYC as the center of the universe" full of sweat and grit, the paper debates the hot story of the day: a racial shooting. Like most movies from Ron Howard's universe (Parenthood, Backdraft), it's always just a movie, full of dramatic, over-the-top setups instead of the genuine article. Still, the film has the feeling of being there, full of workman's vigor where "I'm on deadline" is the family motto. The cast is just right although the roles are stereotypical: the grizzled editor-in-chief (Robert Duvall) the cold female manager (Glenn Close), the slightly whacked-out ace columnist (Randy Quaid), and the rest. Each actor has choice moments in this movie that may turn fans on to the hectic side of journalism. --Doug Thomas

Customer Reviews:

The Paper review.......2007-04-10

All of the actors gave a great performance; there was comedy in several spots, and we've watched the film several times. if you can't see it on HBO, buy the disk.

FUN MOVIE!.......2006-11-03

This is a FUN movie all around. It takes you into the life of print journalism and gets you involved into the everyday life of news writers and the stress they encounter on a day-to-day basis. Leading the way is Michael Keaton as the hot-shot news writer who's contemplating changing companies to further his status and make the extra buck. He's supported by a great cast of veteran actors who each have a distinct personality that you'll either love or hate. Now that's acting! The great thing about this movie is that it's set in real time like show's like 24 and whatnot. The whole movie is based on this one hectic day and how much of a rollercoaster it becomes.

...all the news that's print to fit..........2006-09-02

this is ron howard at his finest...this is michael keaton at his finest...this is film making, well, it ain't 'citizan kane', but, in a way, it does come close...i mean, think about it...the way the characters connect to each other, and, while 'kane' goes through a lifetime in one movie, these guys go thru one day in their lifetime...the writing is crisp, the acting is sharp, and, i can tell you from personal experience, having spent many a day 'putting more coal into the furnace', (as robert duvall's character says about the newspaper business), this film is prime for a 'slammer'!...is it any wonder that this is my favorite movie of all time...

no title.......2006-04-03

A very entertaining movie, with sit on the edge of your seat suspense. Done much like the old TV series "St Elsewhere", with the cutting back and forth between characters, that has become so popular today. In 1994 it was more cutting edge. "City of Hope" was also in this style, although with much more substance. A lot gets packed into 24 hours in the life of these people. I particularly enjoyed Randy Quaid's character here. Many of the others seemed to be playing types, rather than real people, but for this kind of script, with no pretensions of meaning, that's OK. It was action-packed, never a dull moment. I did thing Spalding Grey not good, as I think he has been in everything I've seen him in, which is odd, as his stage show was nothing short of fabulous. A great talent will be missed. Perhaps the film medium was just not suited to him. There was also a continuity break in the scene where Marisa Tomai is having a drink with some guy. Sometimes the lime slice is on her glass, sometimes not, the level of water keeps changing, and also the angle of the lime slice when it is there. And I think the reporter with back problems and his chair should have hit the cutting room floor.

Never let a good story get in the way of the truth!.......2006-03-27

This is probably not a masterpiece but it is a good film. It shows with some realism the hectic life journalism leads to. To be a journalist is to have a completely crazy life in which family, friends, regularity are dreams you cannot in any way respect or just entertain. That kind of atmosphere has already been shown and used in other films. But this film insists on the social, moral and human responsibility that a journalist must live for and with : never tell something that is not true if you know it is not true, in one word you must never lie. You might be wrong, misinformed or many other things but what you publish you must believe - and even know - it is the truth. Then to pair this fight for journalistic ethics to the birth of one's own son or child, is a marvellous idea. For a journalist it is the most important and most exhilarating fact in life to be told his or her article is the truth, especially if it enables two young black teenagers to be freed and exonerated from a false accusation. This kind of film should be shown to all our young people for them to learn that what is important in life is not money, nor what they believe in or think, but only what is true, and that a man must be absolutely free to tell the truth, all the truth, nothing but the truth.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Université Paris Dauphine, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne

Average customer rating:

INDICTMENT OF MOB RULE!
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
Blind "Fury"
Dead Man's Revenge
A Daring Film, Far Ahead Of Its Time.

Fury
Starring: Sylvia Sidney , Spencer Tracy , Walter Abel , Bruce Cabot , and Edward Ellis
Director: Fritz Lang
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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ASIN: B0007TKNHY
Release Date: 2005-05-10

Amazon.com essential video

Tough stuff from director Fritz Lang (M), making his first American film with this 1936 story of an innocent man (Spencer Tracy) who escapes a lynch mob and then orchestrates his apparent murder at their hands. Tracy is superb, and the film is uncompromising, until studio interference takes some of the wind out of Lang's sails right at the end. But as the portrait of a character who comes to reflect the destiny he is trying to avoid, this is still essential Lang and a pre-noir classic. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

INDICTMENT OF MOB RULE!.......2006-04-18

German born diector Fritz Lang's first American film tells the story of how mass hysteria can led to tragic results.Joe Wilson (Spencer Tracy) driving West,from Chicago,to meet his bride-to-be Katharine,touchingly played by Sylvia Sidney,is arrested on kidnapping charges.Lies and whispers spread thru the small town which leads to a mob marching on the city jail,which results in Tracy being lynched(?),a body is not found and the "leaders" of the mob are put on trial.Lang,who also co-wrote the screenplay,captures the essence of small town bigotry and the effects that"group think" can have a society,large or small.Edward Ellis,Walter Brennan,Bruce Cabot,and Frank Albertson lend excellant surpport.Commetary by Peter Bogdanovich,with inserts from director Lang,culled from interviews,over the years,by Bogdanovich is OK.

Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!.......2006-03-18

Spencer Tracy is an innocent man accused of kidnapping, and then he becomes the victim of mob violence: a crazed town mob storms the jail he's being held in and burn it down. But, unknown to the mob, Tracy escapes and goes into hiding; when the real kidnapper is caught, a defense lawyer brings 22 of the townspeople up on murder charges. After an exciting courtroom trial, most of the 22 are found guilty - at which point Tracy strolls into court "unable to live with myself."

Fritz Lang directed (his first American movie), and it helped make Tracy a star. The first half hour is slow and a bit hokey as Tracy and his bride-to-be (played by the rather mediocre Sylvia Sidney) establish for the audience how much they love each other and how decent they are. Things pick up after Tracy is arrested, though Lang's stagey connection to German Expressionism is still in the forefront during the mob violence scenes. The trial is excellent, and we are kept in suspense as the townspeople perjure themselves to save their necks. The ending is somewhat hokey again. Graham Greene called the movie "great" at the time it came out; that's a bit of an overstatement, but it's a classy, well-made movie just the same.

Blind "Fury".......2006-02-27

Are people essentially good or evil? This is an age old question that Fritz Lang's movie tries to explore. But it's a difficult question to answer. Take a look throughout history and it seems to be filled with violence, wars, and assassinations. But then an event like 9\11 or hurricane Katrina happens and we see an outpour of goodwill and generosity. And again we must ask ourselves are the fundamental impulses of man good or evil?

"Fury" tells the story of Joe Wilson (Spence Tracy) a man who is about to get married to Katherine (Sylvia Sidney). Katherine has found a high paying job in another town and has agreed to take it so she can save up enough money for the two to get married. Joe promises once he gets enough money as well he will travel out to Katherine. A year goes by and the two are still apart. But through Joe's hard work he finally has enough money to marry Katherine.

Early on in the film the theme of right and wrong is presented. Joe is a nice guy. Always trying to do the right thing. When we first meet his brothers, who he lives with, one of them is doing work for the mob (though this is never really played out) and the other brother comes home drunk. Joe strongly protest their behavior. Joe even saves a stray dog in another scene.

Now when Joe drives out to Katherine he is pulled over and suspected to be involved in a kidnapping scandal that has affected the small town. Things are made worst when the find out Joe eats peanuts, because so does one of the kidnappers. And of course there can only be room for one person in the world to eat peanuts. I wonder if peanut sales went down after the release of this picture? And Joe is found with a five dollar bill that matches the serial number on one of the bills that was given for the ransom.

As soon as people find out about Joe a frenzy starts. The town's people want to take matters into their own hands and kill Joe. An absence of law and order ensues. The govenor decides not to send help to the police station because it is an election year and it might not be a good move for his re-election. So the people try to lynch Joe. Sadly all of this is done in front of Katherine.

To reveal more of the plot would be a very big mistake. But the movie is clearly taking on some very big issues. The whole subject of lynching is definitely contoversial. Historically we tend to think of lynching as race crime. I'm sure everyone is aware of the large amount of African-Americans who were lynched in the past. There was even a song written about it called "Strange Fruit". Also one has to wonder is Lang making a statement about the Nazis. It should be pointed out this was Fritz Lang's first American film. He left Germany as the Nazis started to gain more power. Was Lang saying it's wrong to side with the masses when they lead to violence?

This all sounds very serious and yet the story was based on one written by Norman Krasna called "Mob Rule". Krasna actually wrote many comedies. "Lets Make Love (a rather poor Marilyn Monroe vehicle)", "Bundle of Joy" and a Ronald Reagan comedy "John Loves Mary (which is actually pretty good)". But there are no laughs to be found here.

The downside of the movie is the ending. We understand what is going to happen to these characters but it ends to abruptly in my opinion. And seems slightly preachy. Although this is the only time I thin it does that. Some might agrue the entire movie is an editorial but I don't find it to be so.

In the end there is very little to dislike about this picture. I feel it is one of the greatest movies ever made. Definitely one of the greatest films of the 1930's, which makes it all the more the shame the movie was nominated for only one Oscar, "best screenplay". Where were the nominations for "Best Picture", "Director" and "Actor"? Oh well, the Academy blows anyway.

Bottom-line: One of Fritz Lang' greatest films and one of the greatest movies ever made. The movie makes a powerful comment on the nature of human impulses but does so without be preachy. The performances are excellent and Lang's directing is spot on.

Dead Man's Revenge.......2006-01-24

Fury is three pictures in one. It starts off as a romance. Joe Wilson (Spencer Tracey) and his girl Katherine (Sylvia Sidney) are engaged but are waiting until they get enough money. He lives in Chicago and she in Washington. Joe is a straight shooter and will not do anything dishonest to get ahead, so it takes time for Joe to save any money.

Finally, Joe and his brothers save enough to buy a gas station and be their own bosses. Joe saves enough is going to fetch his bride. On the way to her in California, he is stopped and arrested in a small town on suspicion of kidnapping. The word spreads in the town and a mob surrounds the jail. The townspeople will not let an outsider get away with such a crime (a crime that did not happen in their town nor affected their town.) They break into the jail but cannot get past the bars to the prisoner. They set the jail on fire and when that doesn't yield the prisoner; they throw dynamite in the fire to bring the jail down.

This is where you might expect the film to end. But it doesn't this is no ordinary film about the mob mentality and death of an innocent man. It turns out that Joe wasn't killed but the dynamite broke open the jail and he escaped. But no knows this and he wants revenge. He goes back to his brothers and gets them to have the state prosecute those at the lynching under a statute that equates lynching with first degree murder. This is easier said than done as the town wants to forget their shame and rallies round those accused. But the DA is able to prove their identity through newsreel footage.

Katherine begins to realize that Joe is alive but cannot believe that her honest guy could do this.

This was the American directorial debut of the great German filmmaker Fritz Lang. You can see the influence of his earlier work like M in this film. But you can also see that many of his collaborators really did not understand his vision so the film constantly seems off kilter. But the story is interesting and it's great to see early performances by Spencer Tracey (the greatest film actor of all time in an early starring role), Silvia Sidney and the greatest character actor Walter Brennan before his record three supporting actor Oscars.

DVD EXTRAS: Commentary by Peter Bogdonovich with interview excerpts from Fritz Lang.

A Daring Film, Far Ahead Of Its Time........2006-01-09

In 2005, courtesy Turner Classic Movies
(TCM), I had the pleasure of seeing one
of the most remarkable films ever made.
It was remarkable because of the subject
matter, the time of its creation, the
principal players who brought it to life,
and the director who made it all work,
despite the odds.
The film is FURY, starring Sylvia Sidney
and Spencer Tracy. Made in 1936 for MGM,
it was the work of noted German director
Fritz Lang, the filmmaker who revolutionized
the entire field with his Speculative classic
METROPOLIS, and jolted the field further with
the chilling social indictments delivered in
M.
FURY, in fact, was his first American film,
a towering introspective look into the heinous
nature of lynching, the evil the very act
inflicts upon all involved, and the cancerous
ramifications that such deeds hold for the
well-being of anyone, whether conspirator or
survivor. Indeed, the most ingenious point about
FURY is its compelling way of showcasing how
such roles can turn in upon themselves, showing
that no one is impervious to hatred, and its
terrible cost.

Point is, of course, that Hollywood-bound
filmmakers were not making films against lynching
in 1936, when the libelous melodrama of D. W.
Griffith's BIRTH OF A NATION yet held sway over
an entire period of lawlessness, where even
Universal monster films had glorified mob rule
as a righteous therapy for a disgruntled grass
roots.
For such a conscientious social drama to be done
at MGM, the home of glitter, glamour, andgiddiness
was a sure sign of the lack of industry perception
and respect that FURY would be subjected to upon
its release, and ever since.

Yet the brilliance of the film speaks its own cause
quite eloquently. It cuts through the bilge that
mob rule comes chiefly from "outside agitators",
that lynching is a spectator sport, and that such
activities come solely from men. Too, FURY is far
ahead of its time in pinpointing the fuel placed
on such volatile matters by a news media more
concerned with highlighting a spectacle for rank
viewership than pinpointing the Truths and Lies
at hand.

Sadly, these are points that are apparently lost
upon noted filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, whose
commentary for the Warner Bros. DVD release seems
more preoccupied with citing Lang's technical prowess
while persistently denying his ability to deliver
emotional impact. A look at the charged passions
at play in FURY renders such opinionations absurd.
In utilizing camera angles to show a subject's
detachment from pleas of the heart or points of
sobering common sense, Lang avoids mawkish melodrama
and brandishes cinematic artistry of the highest
order; letting the narrative -and its hapless
participants- speak its own absorbing
piece.
Indeed, one of the film's strongest points
-totally ignored by Bogdanovich- is the presence
of African Americans in FURY. While it could
certainly be argued that FURY's absence of Black
people in principal roles is a glaring omission
in a film whose subject has involved the murder
of untold masses of Black people in this country
over the course of centuries, the fact is that
any Hollywood film which depicted African
Americans as something to be respected -even
in a symbolic light- was one hell of a daring
move in 1936!
It would have been informative had some light
been shed upon these handful of Black actors
spotlighted in something other than the period's
coonshine caricatures; particularly the young
lady hanging her laundry while singing a wistful
song about freedom, or the bartender whose
comments help to set the film toward its
pulsating climax.
Certainly, having a young shoe-shine boy dash
out the way of a raging lynch mob -in itself-
makes an emotionally ironic point which was not
lost upon FURY's viewers... or its worst
detractors.

Great work from a marvelous array of character
performers -among them Bruce Cabot and Walter
Brennan- add to the intricate depiction of the
issues and people involved, and a sharp score
from composer Franz Waxman heightens the depth
of tensions tightening its beckoning noose. Most
of all, Tracy and Sidney are superb in their
depiction of hard-working lovers fighting the
despair of post-Depression America, fraught with
racketeers, political graft, and a dangerous
complacency.
Master Tracy is brilliant as the working man
striving to make an honest living, only to be
imperiled by blind Fate and civic irresponsibility.
Equally the master, Sidney is dynamite as the
sharp teacher who stands as the film's single
voice of unwavering compassion and clear
wisdom.
If the film's period stands out as the years
move on, it matters little. Almost any of the
finest films made will reflect the times from
which they came. Look at the films of Cagney
and Bogart. Yet, the tale and its impact
carries its point of origin proudly, while
effectively addressing untold generations
across the span of decades. Too, the fact
that Lang had considerable conflict with
many parties over FURY's conception does
not lessen the immense success of this
probing story. One might as well deny
the genius of SPARTACUS because Director
Stanley Kubrick fought with star & Executive
Director Kirk Douglas over the nature of
that film's content. As was the case in
SPARTACUS, behind-the-scenes conflicts
seem to have actually contributed to a
momentous, visionary effort with FURY.

It is an effort which deserves its just due as a
milestone in one of the most turbulent careers
in the history of motion pictures. No mere
cinematic curio, Fritz Lang's FURY is a powerful
drama which entertains serious thought about a
subject which still rears its ugly head to mock
decent people, and true civilization, everywhere.

Average customer rating:

A stark tale of the damaged human psyche

Gray Matter
Director: Joe Berlinger
Manufacturer: New Video Group
ProductGroup: DVD
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Sister Helen
Brother's Keeper
The Staircase
Night and Fog - Criterion Collection
Jupiter's Wife

ASIN: B0007WFUR4
Release Date: 2005-06-28

Description

From highly acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Brother's Keeper, Paradise Lost 1 & 2, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster)--one of the leading voices in American independent non-fiction cinema-comes Gray Matter, a riveting true-life mystery and perhaps the most baffling conspiracy story ever told about World War II. In the spring of 2002, Berlinger traveled to Vienna to witness the burial of the preserved brains from over 700 children who were experimented upon in a Nazi "euthanasia" clinic. Gray Matter chronicles the director's personal journey as he searches for forensic psychiatrist Dr. Heinrich Gross (notoriously nicknamed "the Austrian Dr. Mengele"), who allegedly participated in these mad-scientist trials for decades after the Holocaust and the end of the war. Along his path towards the unknown, Berlinger meets clinic survivors and other remarkable voices, each of whom has new light to shed upon this shadowy legacy and the nation that now grapples with its own denial. Is Dr. Gross alive? Is he in hiding? Should his advanced age and scientific aspirations be measured today against the accountability of his misdeeds? Raising provocative yet respectful questions of guilt, redemption and the ethics of mankind, Berlinger sorts out the twists in one of history's lesser-known, unsolved puzzles.

Customer Reviews:

A stark tale of the damaged human psyche.......2006-04-22

I can think of no better example than "Gray Matter" to illustrate mankind's unwillingness to learn from (or even lend an ear to) its mistakes and that at heart we are merely beasts, malicious and cold to the core. This documentary exploring an Austrian doctor tied in with and most likely the driving force behind the killing of and experimentation on hundreds of children during the Nazi era and beyond contains many horrific moments. Just the idea alone that there exists enough literature and evidence, not to mention firsthand witness accounts, to prove Dr. Heinrich Gross' guilt many times over, yet Gross has never been convicted on any counts causes double-takes, jaws to drop and hairs to stand on end. In fact, the last time Gross was brought to stand on trial, in 2003, the case was dismissed; he was determined not fit to stand trial because he was hard of hearing and the judge had positioned him at a conspicuously safe distance from the bench. The survivors' accounts of what went on in the mental hospital run by Gross are hard to bear, especially that of a former patient who delivers his horror story in a deadpan manner. An interesting point in the film -- one that underlines the director's attempt to stay objective -- is an interview with Gross' lawyer, who charges that his client is innocent of any crimes because he hasn't ever been convicted, and seems sincere. What the film doesn't say but implies is that there is something inherently wrong with the nation of Austria. Whereas Germany has genuinely apologized for the crimes of its former dictator and attempted to right some wrongs, Austria, by the fact that it never relinquished the pension it paid Gross while he was alive, and in fact continues to defend his work (which Gross continued on the Nazi-era murdered children's brains into the 1990s, mind you) and remained tight-lipped as to his whereabouts until he died this past December, as if he was some kind of mob boss, seems to be built of a damaged psyche. Maybe something in the soil that got in the water? Any more direct conclusions would only be playing the same blame and slay game.

American Experience: New York Underground

Average customer rating:

This Is Just As Advertised
Whatever!
NOT AS DESCRIBED

American Experience: New York Underground
Starring: David Ogden Stiers , Frances Sternhagen , Robert Sean Leonard , Frank McCourt , and Spalding Gray
Director: Lisa Ades , and Ric Burns
Manufacturer: WGBH Boston
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

American Experience - Coney Island
American Experience - Transcontinental Railroad
American Experience - Hoover Dam
American Experience - Streamliners: America's Lost Trains
American Experience: Surviving the Dust Bowl

ASIN: B000A0GYMS
Release Date: 2006-12-12

Customer Reviews:

This Is Just As Advertised.......2007-02-13

I don't know what these other two reviewers were expecting but this is exactly what it says it is, the story of the building of the New York Subway. No it's not Ric Burns New York Documentary...why you thought it was is beyond me...this is an excellent documentary of the early years of the Subway system.

Whatever!.......2006-12-24

Imagine my shock and dismay to find out that the gift I was most looking forward to giving my husband was not at all what it was advertised to be.

56 minutes! What a load.

NOT AS DESCRIBED.......2006-12-23

This is not a 14 hour documentary about New York City, instead it is a 56 minute long documentary about how the old Electric Subway in NYC was built in 1900, as seen on public television and "American Experience".

Average customer rating:

A Murderous Affair
Starring: Jay Acovone , Rhonda Aldrich , Peter Allas , Olivia Burnette , and Ned Eisenberg
Director: Martin Davidson
Manufacturer: Direct Source Label
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

Murder in New Hampshire
Death in Small Doses
Woman Scorned

ASIN: B000C8Q9LY
Release Date: 2006-01-31

DVD:

DVD

Town and Country [2001] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

DVD: The Stunt Man (Limited Edition)

The Millennium Collection - Karaoke - 70s Hits / 80s Hits /