Absolutely the worst movie.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This time I watched "the killing of a Chinese bookie".It is a neo noir film, about a man (Cosmo) who is forced to terms with himself as a man.A strip club owner who thinks he's got the world by the balls, makes a fiesta when he pays off a gambling debt ending with a bigger one. When his creditors lose their patience waiting for him to pay them, they force him to do a job, but he ends up trapped.At first I liked how the film was going, low light, quick scenes, I expected something great to come.Unfortunately, that didn't happen as its interesting mood gave its place to an awful directory, useless scenes and plot holes.First of all, all those shaky scenes made me dizzy. Many scenes had these close-ups on people's faces and blurry image which made the movie difficult to follow and to watch. It was like an amateur film. Sometime in the club, each scene looked like an ending to me, with all the music and stuff.An other major mistake is that there was no character development. All the characters were just so flat. No story behind Cosmo's gambling addiction, or his affair with his girls.At last, there were many scenes that just to justify the almost 2 hours long film (fortunately I watched the shorter version). I mean, there was absolutely no reason showing those long scenes of the girls' performance in the club.A major plot hole was the simplicity with which Cosmo went into the "Chinaman's" house, with all his dogs and bodyguards, killed him and a couple of them and left on his feet.The ending was kinda terrible too, with another long scene of the girls in the club performing and suddenly it focuses on the man of the show who walks away, like the audience cares about him.To conclude, the plot had potentials, but the bad directory and screenplay ruined it. Also, the acting was kinda good! That's why I give it a 3/10...

On this 50th anniversary I remain surprised that no one has commented that "The Killing of a" must have been inspired by Jack Ruby's enigmatic role in the Dallas tragedy. The similarity between Ruby's club and Cosmo's is obvious. More to the point: Cosmo is sent out to attack a heavily armed target. The only purpose is to get him killed by the bookie's bodyguards. (Late in the film Cosmo says "I see I was set up.") As it turns out, he skillfully and unexpectedly completes his mission impossible. In the same way Ruby was able to approach and shoot the person who should have been the most closely watched and carefully guarded prisoner in the country. But somehow he got through. Maybe someone he had crossed wanted him to fail. I'm not saying that Cassavetes was seriously interested in explaining what happened in 1963 -- only that he saw it as an intriguing plot possibility.

The real world can be at times a bland and ugly place. The world of reality cinema is by nature a mirror image without embellishment. The Director's style is an in your face, life is what it is, and that is as much entertainment you are going to get, so deal with it.So we have a bland and ugly film. Minus any attempt at gloss, except maybe on the lips of the strip-club girls, that the anti hero so respects and loves. This film tries so hard to be Avant Garde that it is painful and embarrassing. The shaky camera, it must be said, is a precursor of things to come with the advent of video, although this is probably an unintentional insight, and only a way of stating, life has no tripods. But the unfinished scenes, the over extended scenes, the off camera action and results of action, the pans that end up nowhere, and the mumbled dialog are too pretentious and do the opposite of the "reality" the Director had in mind. In fact, it only clearly demonstrate that a movie is being made and by a filmmaker that looks like he has yet to enter the first semester of film school.This movie is self-indulgent to the point of narcissism yet it means to be free spirited with an ever penetrating, soul searching gaze outward, irritating when it means to be comforting, and an exercise in the most deceitful of behavior, using the entertainment business, not to entertain but to offend our sensibilities, not with art, but with artlessness. We are like the saps that paid money for the most not sexy, strip club shows ever. It's a calculated rip-off, it is not clever it is a semi-talented movie makers masquerade.

It may sound unusual to suggest that a quite fleshy movie about a wiseacre strip club owner is about family values, but I think that in this portrait-movie, the self-worth of Cosmo Vittelli is largely founded on his status as a provider for his girls. He's somewhat of a softie for his family of performers, as a young lady of 5"2 highlights when she mentions that no-one else would have taken her in being that short. His foisting of Dom Perignon champagne on one of the girls, who has no idea of the appreciation that she is required to display, demonstrates this sense of needy machismo. Cosmo can't exist outside of this role. He has a perverse attachment to the shows that he scripts and choreographs, which are in their own way quite poignant and strangely well made their smuttiness notwithstanding. The star of the show, Mr Sophistication, is an odd cod who acts as an ironic honey for all the lady bees and manages to somehow dignify what is being seen, as well as lend the Crazy Horse club a pathetic sheen.One of the strengths of cinema, the theatre of the face, has been manifestly apparent since the Maria Falconetti close-up-athon that is The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). There's ample use of it in this movie as well. In the first scene where Cosmo appears, the camera follows only his face as he converses with a gentleman who is just out of shot. The hardest part of acting can be in the response to the lines of another rather than in the deliverance of your own, here Gazzara (Cosmo) responds brilliantly, and his character's persona is established almost immediately.The ostensible plot of the movie, which concerns the titular assassination is almost superfluous, although it adds an extra lemon twist of the bizarre to what is often a lurid Warholian vodka martini of a movie.Definitely one for frequent rewatches.