Discuss Kiss Me Deadly
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One of my favorite films noirs
posted by tmdb53400018STAFFMOD on February 27, 2018 at 12:34 AM
It stars Ralph Meeker playing the Mike Hammer character, a rather brutal P.I. written in the hard-boiled tradition. I mean, Hammer is thuggish. The ending stands out like a sore pinky as the contents of (I believe) a case turn out to be ultra-dangerous. Director Quentin Tarantino homaged this part of the film with the briefcase in Pulp Fiction and its glowing contents. Despite the unwieldiness of the film's conclusion, it still holds together and even stands out, due to this element. One of my favorite films noirs.
Reply by AusFem
on March 4, 2018 at 5:17 AM
I love film noirs. This is one of my least favourite. The entire cast were really mean and nasty.
Reply by tmdb53400018
on March 4, 2018 at 11:23 AM
I know what you mean. I had to like the film in spite of that factor.
Reply by rooprect
on December 3, 2021 at 3:33 PM
Late to the party but I just watched this for the first time last night. Believe it or not, the crazy ending (which I agree is implausible as hell) was what made me love this film. In a genre where the "macguffin" is usually some forgettable cliché like money, jewels or "the microfilm", Kiss Me Deadly practically makes fun of the genre by giving us a macguffin to end all macguffins. Literally. (I won't spoil in case anyone reading this hasn't seen it yet)
To me it had a similar effect as the ending of Night of the Living Dead which raised an otherwise formulaic zombie story to classic status with its punch in the gut ending. Both films give us an unexpected cynical twist that sorta catapults us back into the real world as the credits roll. Long before John Carpenter made a career out of doing this ;)
As for the mean & nasty characters that ausfem mentioned, yup that threw me for a loop also. But I watched a few bonus features that mentioned how the character Mike Hammer was deliberately shown to be a dumb brute with a sadistic streak. How about the scene where Hammer nearly breaks the coroner's knuckles off in a desk drawer, and we get a cut to Hammer's face with a disturbing look of rapturous glee. This was a huge departure from the all-American goodguy of the Hitchcock school.
So while I agree with everything that's been said here about Kiss Me Deadly not being as enjoyable as the typical noir, I think it's a great flick because of its genre-defying twists: that crazy apocalyptic ending as well as one of the first "anti-heroes" portrayed on screen. This flick definitely broke a lotta rules.
Reply by tmdb53400018
on December 3, 2021 at 4:42 PM
Cheers.