SUB GENRE: THE HEIST FILM

The heist film is a sub genre of the crime film, in which the film looks at the way in which a crime is planned and carried out often by a group of people. If there is a strong cominc element it is called a CAPER FILM. There are many heist films including Rififi (1955), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) Topkapi (1964), Ocean’s Eleven (1960/2011), The Sting (1973), Reservoir Dogs (1992), Inception (2010)

The films generally come in three parts – preparing for the heist, gathering the mob, and all that leads up to the heist itself. The second part is the heist, and the last part is the unraveling of the deed.

Like all genres and sub genres one can find variations as time goes on. Some like The Killing and Reservoir Dogs (1992) both play with lineality.

While films may bear the imprint of the genre(s) or sub genre(s) they are in, they may also bear the imprint of the director. In the case of The Killing some things need to be said about the director, whose films are very heavily marked by his own aesthetic style.

Stanley Kubrick

Stanely Kubrick (1928 - 1999) was born in NY and died in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, England, UK. He directed 13 major films and a few shorts. His major films are:

1999 Eyes Wide Shut
1987 Full Metal Jacket
1980 The Shining
1975 Barry Lyndon
1971 A Clockwork Orange
1968 2001: A Space Odyssey
1964 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
1962 Lolita
1960 Spartacus
1957 Paths of Glory
1956 The Killing
1955 Killer's Kiss
1953 Fear and Desire
His films can be seen as falling into two classes one less opaque than the other. The more opaque ones come later in this career and include 2001: A Space Odyessy. The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut. Some might include Full Metal Jacket because of the way the film seems to split into two parts and the second part leaves people somewhat confused.

The only film he rejected was the 1960 film Spartacus which he was assigned to direct.

Fear and Desire and Killer’s Kiss (went over budget but came in at $75,000.) are seen as student films done by a student who shows a lot of talent

While certain aspects of Kubrick’s work is there from the beginning there is a general tendency to see similarity between the later films with the exception of Spartacus.

It is with The Killing ($320,000) that Kubrick’s “professional” reputation really begins.

Kubrick is a director who has signature pieces by which he can be recognized. Although individually they are not unique to him, the use of them regularly in his films is a solid clue to a film being one of his. One is his use of deep focus, another his use of tracking shots, and another his relatively long takes. His early films are also marked by the use of source lighting. Watch for these in the film.

Kubrick is sometimes seen as a “cool” director. Audience does not get close to people in the film. Ideas perhaps more important than people. Like Eisenstein, is not interested in identification and feeling emotion as much as looking at what internal conflicts do to people.

THE KILLING
Stanley Kubrick
1956

Time: The importance of time in the plot and the way time is handled in the film by the lack of lineality.

Unknown Narrator. The feel of a documentary in terms of an unknown narrator who gives the time.

The repetition of visual elements. Especially the dray horses bringing the gate and the end of sequences, and the horses coming onto the track. How do they function to give the viewer a sense of time and place in a fragmented narrative?

Many things happen at once – how to show? Normally cross cutting but not here.

Jigsaw like structure commented on at start: verbal statements about jigsaw, threads in fabric (threads in story)

Many parts needed to fit together.

Story is fragmented in shots as well.

Pefect plan fails (like Hal – pefect machine fails)

Pefection ruined, fate causes problem.

What is it Johnny can not or does not know or can not anticipate (get some from class) (some of which does not impact the event but might – Unger’s being drunk at the track causes some consternation but has no effect)?

Sherry is unfaithful and goes to Val (George betrays the plan)

Heavy traffic which causes him to be late

Val’s arrival and the shooting as a result of Val not predicting (realizing) that George is in next room

Nikki’s death from “lucky” horseshoe

Unprepared for the disaster relative to the shooting by Val (did not buy bag earlier, uses pawn shop rather than get new one, lock is broken, too big for carry on)

Unger’s interest in Johnny as “father?” slightly homoerotic

Dog at airport

Unable to get cab

People do not understand they have not got the kind of control they think they do. “It doesn’t matter” as end line.

Coolness: Audience doesn’t get terribly involved with the characters. They are trapped in their own personalities. George’s obsession with Sherry; Sherry’s obsession with money; Johnny’s desire to pull a big hest (not too smart according to Maurice who is making a point about gangsters and artists) Fay’s involvement with Johnny

By end of film the dead are like mannequins, and Johnny is reduced to a moving one but completely in shock.

Deep focus: Note use in scenes with George and Sherry

Long Takes: Also in shots with George and Sherry (also with Sherry and Val)

Tracking shots: Several in race track, in rooms and motel

Composition: How do the shots with George and Sherry differ from those with Val and Sherry in composition. Composition people together in frame. With George he is usually in the background behind wife, Sherry usually foregrounded George behind in the dark

George to the back or in shadow, dominated by Sherry. Val is not.

People involved are often in a single shot,

George’s posture subservient to Sherry.

Symmetry: gun targets, agents coming out of doors at the end

Entrapment images: blinds on window, bed frame puts people behind bars. Bird cage, tellers cage window

Repeated imagery: loud speakers at the track, the horses coming onto the track, the dray horses pulling the gate into position. How does this ground time and place in the film?

Lighting from natural sources. Source lighting – realism documentary feel

Legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe (we know this from Turner Classic Movies) once told colleague John A. Alonzo, a near-legend himself, that you should go with your gut on lighting a set and not let convention or habit dictate choices. "Source lighting is for sissies," Howe said. Lighting needs to be artistic not realistic. But in this kind of film, realism is what is called for.

Danger around in the darkness surrounding people

Animals: horse, dog parrot (bird in cage – prison, stool pigeon, squealer)

Sound design and sound: Voice over narration, musical score.

Reflexivity: This heist like making a movie – director (like Johnny) knows all parts. Everything is in the timing and unexpected things can cause everything to fail. Note Maurice’s comments about gangster’s and artists