The Big Heat (1953)
Directed by Fritz Lang
After the suspicious suicide of a fellow cop, tough homicide detective Dave Bannion takes the law into his own hands when he sets out to smash a vicious crime syndicate.
6 connections found
View:
6 connections, in both directions
What critics compared The Big Heat to
It's been photographed by Robby Muller in the rich, almost liquid, black-and-white tones that recall films like ''The Big Heat'' and ''The Asphalt Jungle.''
One of Lee Marvin's initial claims to fame was disfiguring Gloria Grahame's face with a pot of scalding coffee in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat, but even for cinema's quintessential thug, there was something more terrifyingly callous about his performance in John Boorman's seminal 1967 neo-noir Point Blank.
Parmi eux, des chantres du cool et orfèvres à la Jean-Pierre Melville (pour "Le Samouraï", 1967), John Woo (pour "The Killer", 1989), Johnnie To (pour "The Big Heat", 1988) et autre Takeshi Kitano (pour "Violent Cop", 1989).
When the men attempt to cause a ruckus, a spasm of gunfire and bloodshed (including a blistering coffee pot-to-the-face allusion to The Big Heat) engulfs the restaurant, with the establishment’s everyman owner and happily married father of two Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) emerging from the fracas not only unscathed but a local hero.
Advertisement
While Gene demonstrates his ferocity on XXXX's face, following what turns out to be a minor betrayal, Morty occasions the film's stop-the-show piece, when he loses his mind (apparently) with an ex-prison mate, and takes after him with a teapot (think: The Big Heat, with more macho posturing, less Lee Marvinish hysteria).
Proyas must have seen every film noir ever made at least twice, from "M" to "L.A. Confidential," with stops in between for everything from "The Big Heat" to "Blade Runner," and it shows.