The Heist Film: ‘The Killing’ (’56) & “Reservoir Dogs’ (‘92)
The “heist film.” It has been around for generations. It has permeated the oldest of classic films in The Great K & A Train Robbery (1926), classic film noir in The Asphalt Jungle (1950), non-American film noir in Rififi (1955), and even more popular films like the original Ocean’s 11 (1960) and the 2001 remake, The Italian Job (1969) and its 2003 remake, and films that could be considered neo-noir like Heat (1995).
Perhaps the most famous heist film, the one that has embedded itself in our cultural memory more than, arguably, any other, is Quentin Tarantino’s intense, darkly beautiful 1992 neo-noir Reservoir Dogs: infamously known for its black suit-clad baddies and the poor, bound, and blindfolded cop (Kirk Baltz) who loses an ear to Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) and the straight-razor he keeps in his cowboy boot while Stealers Wheel’s ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ plays in the background. Reservoir Dogs is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
Tarantino’s 1992 epic take on a jewel heist gone wrong, however, takes much of its cue in terms of its non-linear narration structure, and even the bloody ending, from another film that celebrated its 60th anniversary recently: Stanley Kubrick’s seminal classic film noir about a daring horse-race track robbery gone horribly wrong, The Killing (1956).
