Year: 1951
Director: Billy Wilder
Country: US
Language: English
"I was attacked by every paper because of that movie. They loathed it. It was cynical, they said. Cynical, my ass. I tell you, you read about a plane crash somewhere nearby and you want to check out the scene, you can't get to it because ten thousand people are already there: they're picking up little scraps, ghoulish souvenir hunters. After I read those horrifying reviews about "Ace in the Hole", I remember I was going down Wilshire Boulevard and there was an automobile accident. Somebody was run over. I stopped my car. I wanted to help that guy who was run over. Then another guy jumps out of his car and photographs the thing. 'You'd better call an ambulance,' I said. 'Call a doctor, my ass. I've got to get to the L.A. Times. I've got a picture. I've got to move. I just took a picture here. I've got to deliver it.' But you say that in a movie, and the critics think you're exaggerating." - Billy Wilder
Kirk Douglas stars as a frustrated former big-city journalist named Chuck Tatum who is now stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper. He exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to re-jump start his career, but the situation quickly escalates into an out-of-control circus.
Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole is a unique film noir; there are no private eyes in rundown offices, nor any femme fatales, nor are there any heroes. In this picture there are only victims. Douglas is a victim of his own greed and ambition, the man trapped in the cave is a victim of fate, and everyone is a victim of the media. This satire of the media circus that would envelop us all goes beyond noir and falls into something more deep, more personal and more honest. Douglas' chilling over-the-top performance will chill its audience to the very core.
The story, inspired by a 1925 incident in which a Kentucky man, trapped in a mine, was turned by reporters into a nationwide sensation, and eventually given to Wilder as a treatment by radio writer Newman. The media circus is only made possible by an apathetic society, under the guise of empathy. Essentially everyone is out for themselves, even when real lives are on the line. It is as true in post-war America as it is today, though nobody would make a film about the same kind of greed today because all the money is in Star Wars and the newest Comic Book adaptation.
In conclusion, Ace in the Hole is a remarkable picture that expands the definition of "film noir". Billy Wilder has made a picture so grotesquely uncommercial that it is satisfying to see for the first time. It is a fundamental critique on North American society that must be viewed. Chuck Tatum is the most vile Wilder creation ever put to the screen, even he succumbs to his own self-hatred. Praise it! 5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment