The first installment of a two-part series, Killer Instinct chronicles the first part of Jacques Mesrine’s life of crime. when the gangster operated in France and Canada in the 1960s. Many aspects of the film are taken from other pictures; the film seems to be part Goodfellas, part Bonnie and Clyde, there is even a scene taken exactly from Thelma and Louise. Though the derivations – camera angles, plot elements, even a couple of nearly identical scenes – are obvious, the way that everything is deftly combined does not cheapen the film. Ultimately, there is no shame stealing from master directors …
Shutter Island
So what if Shutter Island is a visually stunning work of art? Would you expect anything else from the best director of the past quarter-century? The overhead shots – which give the audience the impression of peering down and spying on the mysterious island – are a captivating technique employed by Martin Scorsese. Some of the long shots which zoom into extreme close-ups rival the visual interest of the dolly zooms in GoodFellas. Irrespective of the rest of the film, the cinematography is spectacular. The plot befits a blunt felt-tipped marker rather than an elegant quill. I cannot blame the …
A Good Fella or a Wise Guy?
Both sides of a tragic tale – the glitz and glamour and the nuts and bolts – are told by Martin Scorcese and Nicholas Pileggi, retelling Henry Hill’s journey from hijacker and street tough to drug dealer and gambler to federal informant. The two works exemplify the difference between film and literature; Goodfellas enables you to visualize the events and see how a character chooses a course of action and Wise Guy recounts exactly what happened and how it was done. In retrospect, Goodfellas will be recognized as one of the top three films of the 1980s, although stylistically it …