One story, three films, one Blu-ray disc. Excellent! Last night I finished my dive into the Criterion Collection‘s new Blu-ray release The Killers, which features two feature films and one short film, all adapted from the short story by Ernest Hemingway and all different in their own right and yet the same. From the noirish black-and-white of Robert Siodmak‘s 1946 original to Don Siegel‘s made-for-TV, 1964 adaptation shot in bright colors and telling the story from completely different perspective and yet, coming back to similar moral ground, or at least what may be referred to as “guy code” a la Hemingway. And don’t forget Andrei Tarkovsky‘s 1956 short he made as a film student and you have one impressive package.
If you’re unfamiliar with Hemingway’s short you can read it here, or, better yet, there’s a reading of it by actor Stacy Keach included on this Blu-ray. Playing closest to Hemingway’s story is Tarkovsky’s short, which is pretty much a word-for-word adaptation telling the story of two gunmen that stroll into a small town diner and begin asking for a man known as the Swede, though not before intimidating the diner’s owner and tying up one of the guests as well as the cook.
Why are they there to kill him? They don’t know and don’t care, they’ve got a job to do and they’re going to do it. The killers, however, eventually leave, realizing the Swede isn’t going to be coming in that evening, but the story isn’t over yet. The Swede has pretty much accepted his fate, laying in wait in his lowly apartment. The man that was tied up with the cook goes to warn him, but can’t get him to budge or even attempt to save himself. The man returns to the diner only to say, “I can’t stand to think about him waiting in the room and knowing he’s going to get it. It’s too damned awful.” The owner of the diner replies, “Well, you better not think about it.” A powerful line… cut to black.
[amz asin=”B00W69F2VA” size=”small”]As I said, Tarkovsky’s short plays it pretty much exactly as the short story, but Siodmak and Siegel expand the story into two feature films. Siodmak’s 1946 film-noir centers on an insurance investigator (Edmond O’Brien), looking into the death and life insurance policy the Swede (Burt Lancaster) took out before he was murdered. Siegel, who was originally looking to direct the film in ’46, turns the story on its head and actually has the killers (played by Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager) carrying out their own investigation, curious as to who would have them carry out the hit and why.
Both films feature stunning femme fatales at the center of the story, Siodmak’s featuring Ava Gardner while Angie Dickinson takes on the role in Siegel’s feature. Siodmak’s original is delivered in high contrast black-and-white, no shot more sinister than those that open the film as the killers walk from out of the shadows and into the diner. Alternately, Siegel’s version, shot in bright, bright, bright colors is almost a shock by comparison, but come the end of the film, as vivid red drops of blood fall to the ground, you can see Siegel getting everything he can out of the spectrum.
This is a point, in fact, that had me wondering just how many of today’s filmmakers actually ask themselves why they are shooting in color. Sure, perhaps that’s the default, but at the very least ask why and who knows what might come of it.
Along those lines, I personally prefer Siodmak’s film to Siegel’s, but mostly because of the way it is shot in stark black and white. Siegel’s film, however, is actually darker, particularly in the way it ends, up to and including Dickinson getting punched square in the face by Gulager, not to mention earlier in the film getting slapped by Ronald Reagan.
In this respect, the inclusion of Siodmak, Tarkovsky and Siegel’s films in one collection actually elevates the value of each. Having never seen any of them prior to this new Blu-ray release, I’m not sure where exactly any of them would stand on their own (though I enjoyed each of them thoroughly on their own merits), but collectively they are different enough that each bring value to the story despite each telling it in a different way.
On top of each film, the collection also includes an intriguing 2002 (when the set was first made available on Criterion DVD) interview with writer Stuart M. Kaminsky about both films, the previously mentioned recording of Stacy Keach reading Hemingway’s original short, a Screen Directors’ Playhouse adaptation from 1949 starring Lancaster and Shelley Winters, a 2002 interview with Gulager and an audio excerpt from Siegel’s autobiography, “A Siegel Film“. Finally, there are a pair of essays by novelist Jonathan Lethem and critic Geoffrey O’Brien.
As far as a recommendation is concerned, any fan of film noir ought to already have this in their shopping cart. Three films for the price of one and at the quality of these three is well worth the dollar of any film fan and collector. Criterion has delivered a spectacular package, the films look amazing at the included supplements only add to the overall value.
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