The Killers (1964)

A merciless opening scene with a shooting in front of an army of witnesses who cannot see: two killers enter a school for the blind and kill a teacher (John Cassavetes) who did not flee despite warnings. His resignation to his fate puzzles the killer duo: methodically and with a pinch of greed, they investigate his past. The trail leads to car races, a robbery... and a repulsive gangster boss (Ronald Reagan's last role). Don Siegel's visionary version of Hemingway's The Killers takes the perspective of the title characters with cold-blooded efficiency and crisp action staging: Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager shine as a brutal ‘murder is our business’ duo (unforgettable is an execution accompanied by the growled comment: ‘Lady, I don't have the time!’). John Boorman's influential Lee Marvin gangster film Point Blank in 1967 only had to draw the modernist conclusion from Siegel's existential cool. (C.H.)

Introduction Karl Sierek