The Killing
United Artists | Release Date: June 6, 1956 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
91
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Orson Welles was so taken with this film that after seeing it he declared Kubrick could do no wrong; not to be missed. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyChris Nashawaty
The kind of Swiss-watch precision and attention to detail that would eventually get Kubrick labeled Hollywood's most notorious perfectionist. Read full review
100
Austin ChronicleMike Emery
As good as the story and direction are, though, the true strength of The Killing lies in the characters and characterizations. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunWill Miller
Stanley Kubrick was always infatuated with human clockwork, both in terms of what makes each of us tick and how we choreograph our lives, deaths, and sins. The Killing, his big heist movie, suits this obsession perfectly. It is often considered, and rightly, his first masterpiece. Read full review
100
EmpireKim Newman
Even though he was just staring out, Kubrick instantly mastered the crime genre. A stunning film. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comRoger Ebert
The word that occurs to me in describing Kubrick's approach to Johnny and the film, is "control." That may suggest the link between this first mature feature and Kubrick's later films, so varied and brilliant. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
From the heroes’ complicated planning to the story’s cruel twist ending, The Killing illustrates how human beings have a bad habit of getting in their own way. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineGlenn Heath Jr.
One of the great devils of 1950s American cinema. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Forty years later, The Killing has lost little of its punch. It's both vintage '50s noir and a stunning introduction to a killer director. [22 Jul 1998, p.L]
80
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
Characteristically Kubrick in both its mechanistic coldness and its vision of human endeavour undone by greed and deceit, this noir-ish heist movie is nevertheless far more satisfying than most of his later work, due both to a lack of bombastic pretensions and to the style fitting the subject matter. Read full review
80
The GuardianPhilip French
Thematically, The Killing anticipates themes, motifs and incidents to come in Kubrick’s oeuvre, most famously the notion of master plans undone by human fallibility, that are also to be found in the tales of fate and life’s absurdity of by his mentors Lang and Huston. Read full review
80
The New YorkerPauline Kael
Centering on a racetrack robbery, it has fast, incisive cutting; a nervous, edgy style; and furtive little touches of characterization.
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh Larsen
If anything identifies The Killing as a Kubrick picture, it is the movie’s overall sense of fatalism – even as we watch how carefully things are planned, there is a sense of impending doom. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA. H. Weiler
Though The Killing is composed of familiar ingredients and it calls for fuller explanations, it evolves as a fairly diverting melodrama. Read full review
70
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
This story of a $2 million race track holdup and steps leading up to the robbery, occasionally told in a documentary style which at first tends to be somewhat confusing, soon settles into a tense and suspenseful vein which carries through to an unexpected and ironic windup. Read full review
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