The Killers
Bomb Rating:
This Ernest Hemingway story has been remade several times. What people don't understand is this: If the story was any good, it would never have been remade because it would have been right the first time.
Also known as "Ernest Hemingway's: The Killers," this two-disc DVD set from Criterion is being called "one of the best DVDs of the year" by critics around the country, which just goes to show you how quickly most DVD critics would perform some illegal sexual act if you offered them a free DVD.
"The Killers" is actually two movies: the 1946 Robert Siodmak version and the 1964 Don Siegel version. The former is a film noir. The latter is considered the first made-for-television film. The first stars many people I've never heard of, but introduces Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner to filmgoers. The second stars Lee Marvin. The common elements in both are that some guy gets shot and then some other guy wants to know why the guy who got shot didn't run, but just accepted his fate. Both investigations lead to the discovery of a love triangle and a robbery.
This Ernest Hemingway story has been remade several times. What people don't understand is this: If the story was any good, it would never have been remade because it would have been right the first time. This is why Shakespeare is so overrated. Everybody keeps remaking his stuff because it was never right in the first place.
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Comments
Mr.Cranky wrote: What
Submitted by MifuneKinski on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 06:01.
What people don't understand is this: If the story was any good, it would never have been remade because it would have been right the first time. This is why Shakespeare is so overrated. Everybody keeps remaking his stuff because it was never right in the first place.
Truly, bringing idiocracy to a new level.
Kwan Su
Ava Gardner is a guilty pleasure
Submitted by FearlessFreep on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 20:40.
SCH-WINGG!! (Or as SPY magazine's Walter Monheit would say, Oof!)
Ronald Reagan was in the second version. I think he played the guy who hired the killers. (Just like in real life.) BTW, that version was supposed to be America's first TV movie, but the network censors nixed the violence so they released it theatrically instead.
Trivia question: What film instead became the first US TV movie?
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