Just perfect...

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good idea lost in the noise

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

First-rate Mickey Spillane adaptation, easily the best film version of any of his novels that I've seen. Private eye Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) investigates the reasons behind the death of a hitchhiker (Cloris Leachman in her film debut). It's a gritty, tough, violent noir with some good dialogue and morally grey (at best) characters. Meeker's the perfect Hammer. Albert Dekker has a small but important part. The rest of the cast is good except for Nick Dennis, who goes full Eli Wallach in his role as Hammer's mechanic friend. Robert Aldrich directs with style. The ending is pretty cool, but it's definitely one of those "love it or hate it" things. It's certainly memorable, which I think most of us can agree is part of what makes any film great.

Movies like "Kiss Me Deadly" are reassuring that there's more to each genre than meets the eye. "Kiss Me Deadly" is part hard-boiled detective story & part apocalyptic sci-fi horror film. The movie suspects its own plots and its conventions are ludicrous. The result is a highly inventive film with a ridiculous but highly enjoyable storyline and comically fascinating characters.The basic plot, loosely adapted from Mickey Spillane's bestselling novel,is: after private-eye Mike Hammer picks up a hitchhiker who is later murdered, he becomes determined to learn the truth about her death. Although the plot becomes more and more insane, it's highly interesting. There are no empty twists, as each one leads to something larger and more confounding.I've never had more fun with a film noir character than the aptly named character of Mike Hammer. He isn't intimidated by any man and denies the world's hottest women. If he holds the upper hand in a situation, he seems virtually impenetrable. This characteristic leads to the ever-prevalent theme in film noirs of men vs. women and their places in relationships and society.The film is a masterpiece of cinematography, exhibited in the disorienting camera angles and unique and unconventional compositions of Ernest Laszlo. In fact, Ernesto Laszlo's cinematography is so apt with the film's randomness that it made me giddy.One of the most distinctive aspects of Kiss Me Deadly is the outrageousness of its final few seconds: the movie doesn't conclude, it detonates. In the hands of the director Robert Aldrich, the film becomes a starting point for a delirious expression of 1950s anxiety and paranoia, starting with opening credits that run backwards and ending with an atomic explosion.

This film could fairly be deemed as fascist-noir. If often misogynistic, noir is rarely this brazenly phalocentric. Mike Hammer (yup, really the character's name) is a seducer of women and abuser of both genders. The audience is to applaud his every bullying gesture. The many women in the film exist to move the plot along and/ or to worship Hammer as a sex-God. He, like all good entrepreneurial Americans, is humbled only when he learns that some "alien" may be getting its hands on the destructive power that America alone is "supposed" to wield. Having said all that, I must guiltily confess my love for this film. Shot, it seems, almost entirely on location, it transports one to the lost LA of the early '50s. And, if Hammer, um, rams his way through all forms of otherness, he still encounters many forms of it on a dazzling tour through the underbelly of 1950s American urbanity. For all that is reactionary about the film, it contains strikingly unracist depictions of African-Americans compared to many other films of its era.

I must confess that, with this film I have seen a good noir film that is well nuanced and spine chilling.From the titles in the beginning to the final frozen frame, there is a sense of mystique that prevails. It helped me hang for the whole length of the film and I felt grateful at the end. The film poster itself has too many details that need some good time to decipher.To begin with, it's all in the writing of the script and placing them well in screenplay. Now, this film has done that part exceptionally well. Dialogues are good and they carry a certain intrigue that made me hold back to the whole length of the film.It has many undertones and many references too. It's disapproving of many conventional film making norms that were there in 1950's. But in the same structure, the body and the heart of the this film are radically different and we have been offered a very niche film. It's classically noir and it's classically left for viewers interpretation.The end climax is debatable and left me with questions. That's the kind of film that I like. The good films are good, but the great ones start asking questions about why anything happened. They start a debate internally within the mind and even with others, when you discuss about the film. Thus, this definitely is a great film.With sharp editing and superb cinematography, this film is a landmark technically in 1950's. The production design is wonderful too. All kudos to the technical team who have got the infrastructure of this film together.The acting, the nuances of emotions are done well by all the actors. Though, Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer stole the show.Great work by Robert Aldrich the director and great work by Criterion in giving us the film unedited, with even the alternative ending preserved. This is not a film for general viewers, it's strictly for aficionados.A 5/5 for a definitive, science fiction, noir film. http://braddugg.blogspot.in/