Movie Review ‘The Killers’: Kubrick’s Most Influential Movie

The spoofs of, and homages to, Stanley Kubrick films are so ubiquitous in our culture (see, for instance, the scores of callbacks in The Simpsons alone) that it’s surprising that his most profound influence is almost wholly unrecognized and derives from one of his least-known films.

The legacy of The Killing (1956), Kubrick’s first accomplished movie (following the experimental Fear and Desire and the prosaic Killer’s Kiss), is these days omnipresent in prestige television, which routinely mimics Kubrick’s then-unfamiliar technique of chopping up the story and telling it out of order, leaving the viewer to do the work of assembling a jigsaw puzzle in his mind.

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Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

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The spoofs of, and homages to, Stanley Kubrick films are so ubiquitous in our culture (see, for instance, the scores of callbacks in The Simpsons alone) that it’s surprising that his most profound influence is almost wholly unrecognized and derives from one of his least-known films.

The legacy of The Killing (1956), Kubrick’s first accomplished movie (following the experimental Fear and Desire and the prosaic Killer’s Kiss), is these days omnipresent in prestige television, which routinely mimics Kubrick’s then-unfamiliar technique of chopping up the story and telling it out of order, leaving the viewer to do the work of assembling a jigsaw puzzle in his mind.