Η Ζούγκλα της Ασφάλτου

theshrillest3.5

this mf's name is "dix handley" lmao

Justin Peterson3.5

Criterion Collection Spine #847"People are being cheated, robbed, murdered, raped. And that goes on 24 hours a day, every day in the year ... But suppose we had no police force, good or bad. Suppose we had ... just silence. Nobody to listen, nobody to answer. The battle's finished. The jungle wins. The predatory beasts take over."I was going to tease that this was just the American remake of 'Rififi', but it might be the other way around since this came out 5 years earlier. The Asphalt Jungle is pretty much your standard heist flick, but I suppose it should be given credit for being one of the early entries in the genre with great performances, and the underlining theme that crime just does not pay.I liked seeing Sterling Hayden in this playing yet another one of his on edge characters. Also, I was excited to see Marilyn Monroe, but while lovely, she was not quite the blonde bombshell yet that made my jaw drop when I first saw her in 'Some Like It Hot'. Overall it was neat to see the heist play out, and get an insight into the intentions of all those involved. But these are bad dudes, so it ends up playing out as you would expect. "Don't bone me! ... Now, look, I'm not boning you ... Did I ever welsh ... Nobody said you did ... You just boned me!"Thanks for reading.Happy movie watching ... Skål!🍻

spap13.5

we are all human, so why are some of us seen as though we are not so?in a film that seems like a oh-so-subtle takedown of the stereotypical convention of ‘male-immortality’ in the face of extreme, gangster-related danger, Huston manages to create a perfect masterpiece for Hollywood’s golden age. sometimes, at least for me anyway, things just feel as though they’re just not going your way. no matter how hard you try, anything you do will never seem as though it is enough for those around you, it will seem as though you’d be better off being dead rather than wallowing around in desperate attempts to please. the sadness that pursues from this alone can feel all too much at times, so why couldn’t an expectation of super-human ability when you are indeed just the same as everyone else, at least physically so? these overwhelming moments can create an unliveable atmosphere for the air in which we breathe, everything may seem to become so stifling, so difficult to understand, and so much so beyond what we may think possible of ourselves that our thoughts are stretched to breaking point. this pressure is something that is eventually only going to tear you apart, it’s going to cause a breakdown and make your performance worse as a consequence. of course, this pressure is something that cannot be avoided, but not is it anyone’s fault in particular. it is the consequence of people’s upbringing, it’s a consequence of the environment they’re thrusted into, and of course a consequence of societal conventions. another Huston film and, of course, it was absolutely brilliant. the humanity in each and every character here beamed through with such glory, an almost pride for the strength that everyone possesses seems to stand at the front of its emanations. while it is a 1950’s Hollywood film, it rejects much of the glamorisation that is often so harmful later down the line. i suppose what stands out here is that he was unafraid to stand put amongst a crowd at any time, and made sure his face was one that would be known and remembered. shadows… SHADOWS. i love that ‘noir’ took a page out of the expressionist movements book in making shadows a huge part of their characteristic charm. there’s just something about the way that they move across walls and floors, doubling up our characters and allowing us to realise that there are two sides to them, that there is more to them than meets the eye. the shadow may perhaps hold the secrets to why the reality is so harsh, the reality issues a shadow in order to call out for help, in order to make itself known and never forgotten. despite her small role, Marilyns allure was absolutely incredible. no wonder she was classed a star so soon after this. it’s interesting to watch these early films of hers as they had attempted to move her around within the studio system, plainly in an attempt to find her niche - and boy did they, eventually, find it. she really did stand out, easily outmatching the acting skills of almost everyone else in this film - which is just a testament to how brilliant she was, and how underrated she was in terms of pure skill and talent. it’s a shame that that society could just not look two inches past her beauty. i enjoyed this.