One of the best films i have seen

One of my all time favorites.

Am I Missing Something?

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

My assessment of this film leaves aside the film's historical connections and the screenwriter's biography.The script, direction, and acting (with two exceptions, noted below) are one-dimensional and heavy-handed. John Payne performs in a single mode -- snarling -- until the end, when he woodenly tries to appear chastened, with equally unconvincing results.The feebleness of the filmmaking is illustrated by the relationship between the brothers Matt and Tim Brady. Their rivalry is supposed to be the key to Matt's motivation. But all that comes across in their encounters is the same unexplained belligerence that marks the rest of Payne's performance.His refusal to end his marriage to a woman he despises shows the same failure: the filmmakers are reaching for a complexity that lies beyond their powers (or budget), and the result seems arbitrary and schematic.Two redeeming features of the film are the portrayals of secondary characters by Gloria McGehee and Robin Morse. McGehee, as the unwanted wife, reads her lines with a natural directness that breaks through the genre conventions surrounding her. Morse, as a gang leader, convincingly presents a contradiction: an intelligent thug. This rare bit of psychological richness culminates in his distinctive walk, a lurching gait that seems to say, Because I can kill you, I have no pretenses. The director wakes from his slumber and holds the camera on this walk in two shots.

I would have expected more from Dalton Trumbo's script. This boss comes over as something of an angel by today's standards. From a "leftist" writer this is somewhat surprising. You must not try very hard to feel sorry for this boss. I would rather have seen him murdering people with delight and becoming president or worse and, of course, never get caught. And after two terms as president, I would have had some lackey of his becoming president and on and on and then let him die of old age at least a hundred years old after having nothing but a "pleasant" life nurturing every lust and nastiness under the sun. This is not that kind of picture, for sure. He has contacts with the underworld but most unwillingly and when one of these contacts bumps off a policeman he is not happy about it and almost does not mind getting caught! Come on Dalton, I don't see much danger in bosses as far as this film goes.

In trying to jumpstart itself, this movie is somewhat heavy handed at the beginning, taking one notably big and questionable dramatic risk, but gains power slowly and turns into something of a monumental mini-epic with John Payne's changes of hair coloring registering his slow and merciless journey toward a godless end...what a performance, but it's not as good as Gloria McGehee's as the unwanted wife Lorry - which is about as good as you'll ever see from an actress on screen, period. Also great is Robin Morse as Johnny the Organization Man, a wonderful low key performance...where has this movie been all our lives? It's powerful, at times difficult to watch, brutal, and worth the ride.

This was much better than the late-night potboiler I had expected. Payne was playing such a vile character that his performance seemed a bit forced at times, but I can see why he did this picture since the portrayal is a bit different from most of his roles He's up to the stretch, and should have done more dramatic work and fewer formulaic westerns & cop/investigator parts. More plots and subplots than we're used to in this period, and it all works. Dalton Trumbo's heavyhanded anticapitalism, thoroughly-corrupt-government motif is a bit much, but that was the popular theme amongst the leftie writers of the period, much as it is even today.