It seems apropos that just a few months ago the Philadelphia Film Society screened Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) as part of the filmadelphiaCLASSICS series, and is now screening Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing (1956), being that Tarantino considered Dogs to be his version of, and an homage to, The Killing. For those unfamiliar with either film, both are about a complicated heist that is told by cutting in and out of different points in time of the story (read the previous blog concerning Reservoir Dogs here). The Killing, which will be showing at the Prince Theater on Wednesday, December 16, at 7:30P.M. (tickets here), is truly unique as Kubrick’s breakout film, and one of his many genre films.

Like Tarantino with Reservoir Dogs, The Killing is what earned him attention as a director to be able to go on and make several of his other films, but the film’s production was very troublesome for Kubrick. Firstly, Kubrick was given a paltry budget from United Artists (estimated around $320,000 – $200,000), with the rest of it raised by his producer, producer James B. Harris. Because of the low budget and the hiring of Sterling Hayden as the star for $40,000 (which encouraged the studio to give Kubrick a little more financing), Kubrick deferred his fee as director. Also, since this was the first union film production Kubrick was working on, he could not serve as both director and cinematographer, so Lucien Ballard was hired, with whom Kubrick had constant arguments with about camera and lighting choices.

Despite these challenges, Kubrick managed to get the film in the can, but that was just the beginning of his problems. Initial test screenings indicated that audiences had a problem understanding it because of its nonlinear structure, so Kubrick was forced by United Artists to go back and edit the film in a linear structure. However, since the script was written and designed with this nonlinear structure in mind, the film became more confusing with certain elements of the linear story seemingly missing when in fact they had not been filmed, since the nonlinear telling of the story did not rely on them for it to make sense. The film was returned to its original structure, but with a narration added at the insistence of United Artists. Kubrick hated this device however, so he purposefully made the narrator unreliable, having him sometimes provide false information. Ultimately, United Artists didn’t believe in the film, and disappointingly released it as the second half of a double feature with Richard Fleischer’s Bandido as the preceding film.

Despite all of this, The Killing still managed to be a success for Kubrick, as it has gained more and more critical acclaim since the year it was released, and also got Kubrick his next jobs. Kirk Douglas and Marlon Brando were both impressed by the film and both sought Kubrick to work on projects of their own. Indeed, Kubrick’s next two films would be starring Douglas (Paths of Glory (1957) and Spartacus (1960) — which was the film that made Kubrick a household name. Eventually Kubrick work with Marlon Brando on Brando’s project, One-Eyed Jacks (1961). Kubrick and Brando reportedly had constant disagreements over casting, and Kubrick left the project, having acquired the rights to make a film adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s book, Lolita. Brando ended up directing One-Eyed Jacks himself.

What excites you most about the screening of Kubrick’s The Killing? Seeing one of Kubrick’s first films in its original form? Or perhaps experiencing the stark blacks and whites that only a film screening of a film noir can provide? Can you think of other pioneer films in nonlinear storytelling before Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs? Respond in the comments below!

This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 9:35 pm and is filed under flimadelphiaCLASSICS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.