The Killing

Having demanded that Mueller’s team submit all of their questions for Trump in advance of their interview with him, Trump’s not-so-stellar legal team today leaked the questions to the press. While I know I should be writing about it, I’ve decided instead to take the evening off to watch Sterling Hayden, Timothy Carey, Elisha Cook, and Marie Windsor in Stanley Kubrick’s 1956 film, The Killing. [I never get tired of exploring the courageous, inspired and insane acting choices made by Timothy Carey.] If you haven’t seen it, you really should.

update: In spite of the fact that the questions where leaked by his legal team, Trump is blaming Mueller, calling the leak “disgraceful.” Also of interest, he says there are no questions concerning collusion, when, in fact, there are many. I’m particularly fond of this one: “What knowledge did you have of any outreach by your campaign, including by Paul Manafort, to Russia about potential assistance to the campaign?

update: It turns out that the questions noted above didn’t come directly from Mueller, but from Trump attorney Jay Sekulow. According to individuals interviewed by the Washington Post, Sekulow “compiled a list of 49 questions that the team believed the president would be asked.” So, not only was Mueller not the leaker, but these questions didn’t even come from the Mueller team. “Disgraceful,” indeed.

This entry was posted in Art and Culture, Politics and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

19 Comments

  1. Jean Henry
    Posted May 1, 2018 at 4:31 am | Permalink

    Based on a Jim Thompson novel. also recommended.
    Jim Thompson is good for these times.

  2. Jean Henry
    Posted May 1, 2018 at 5:54 am | Permalink

    Shit. Need to post when awake. Jim Thompson wrote the screenplay (though Kubrick took credit) based on a book by Lionel White. Kubrick was kind of a dick by all accounts. Thompson was a madman. And perpetually broke, so not in a position to complain, and yet he did. Loudly. Great film though. Multiple perspectives works well. At least for me.

  3. Posted May 1, 2018 at 6:59 am | Permalink

    I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Thompson, based on the dialogue he wrote for The Killing, had a pretty simplistic view of women.

  4. Eel
    Posted May 1, 2018 at 7:57 am | Permalink

    Mueller also wants to ask, “During a 2013 trip to Russia, what communication and relationships did you have with the Agalarovs and Russian government officials?”

    “No questions on Collusion,” indeed.

  5. Meta
    Posted May 1, 2018 at 8:04 am | Permalink

    From The Telegraph:

    Another question asks what the president may have known about a possible attempt by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to set up a back channel with Russia before Mr Trump’s inauguration.

    Read more:
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/01/leaked-questions-reveal-robert-mueller-wants-ask-trump-team/

  6. Jean Henry
    Posted May 1, 2018 at 8:35 am | Permalink

    “I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Thompson, based on the dialogue he wrote for The Killing, had a pretty simplistic view of women.”

    I’m not in the practice of judging historic records by contemporary standards. Thompson was a man and wrote about women from the commonly held perspective of men living when he did. These records are useful. Thompson was also a pervert (I view this as a compliment) who wrote strong and fucked up women on occasion. A feminist critique of Thompson would be interesting.

    When I was getting divorced and dealing with far too much interpersonal drama, I read a bunch of books written in the 30’s and 40’s, in part because the gender politics were so clean, but the women could be bad-ass (though certainly not realistic, but who was in those books?). This elevated those female characters far above the gender tropes of the post-war years, up to and including into the liberal 70’s. Updike, Mailer, Roth et al.–Those dudes really resented women. They hated their own desire. And the objects of their desire. I’d rather see a woman character killed after putting up a fight or perpetrating a grift than relentlessly belittled.

    I don’t actually think you understand feminism very well. Mark. Doesn’t bother me one bit and I will keep reading what you say anyway.

  7. Jean Henry
    Posted May 1, 2018 at 8:38 am | Permalink

    Kubrick, BTW, falls very neatly into the latter category articulated above. He hated women. That’s clear. I watch his films anyway, because, in this world, understanding the machinations of asshole men is necessary. Eyes Wide Shut though… Cant get those 3 hours and $10 back.

  8. M
    Posted May 1, 2018 at 8:49 am | Permalink

    Nixon White House Counsel John Dean this morning on Twitter:

    “I have little doubt these questions were drafted by Trump’s attorney(s) based on conversations with the special counsel’s ofc (SCO) and should not be read as the questions the SCO has prepared for, and passed to, Trump’s attys. There is a big difference.”

    https://twitter.com/JohnWDean/status/991137126304514048

  9. Joe Scarborough by proxy
    Posted May 1, 2018 at 9:03 am | Permalink

    I’m not sure if you are mentally disoriented this morning, but…
    1. There is an entire section of questions about OBSTRUCTION
    2. The story was written from YOUR attorneys’ notes.
    3. Over 2 dozen indictments against Russians and your officials so this is not a witch hunt.

  10. M
    Posted May 1, 2018 at 9:06 am | Permalink

    Spoiler alert, The Killing ends like the The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

  11. M
    Posted May 1, 2018 at 9:10 am | Permalink

    Kola Kwariani and Tor Johnson should have worked together.

  12. James
    Posted May 1, 2018 at 10:41 am | Permalink

    eh, what’s the difference?

  13. site admin
    Posted May 1, 2018 at 12:13 pm | Permalink

    James for the win.

  14. site admin
    Posted May 1, 2018 at 12:13 pm | Permalink

    Context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTyJt9JEznk

  15. Meta
    Posted May 1, 2018 at 12:18 pm | Permalink

    The Hill: “Mueller’s former assistant says grammatical errors prove leaked questions came from Trump”

    Michael Zeldin, a CNN legal analyst and former assistant to Robert Mueller, said Tuesday he believes President Trump leaked the list of nearly 50 questions the special counsel allegedly wants to ask Trump.

    “I think these are notes taken by the recipients of a conversation with Mueller’s office where he outlined broad topics and these guys wrote down questions that they thought these topics may raise,” Zeldin said on CNN’s “New Day.”

    “Because of the way these questions are written … lawyers wouldn’t write questions this way, in my estimation. Some of the grammar is not even proper,” he continued. “So, I don’t see this as a list of written questions that Mueller’s office gave to the president. I think these are more notes that the White House has taken and then they have expanded upon the conversation to write out these as questions.”

    Read more:
    http://thehill.com/homenews/news/385602-muellers-former-assistant-says-grammatical-errors-prove-leaked-questions-came

  16. Kostel
    Posted May 1, 2018 at 3:30 pm | Permalink

    The Killing was Rodney Dangerfield’s first film role.

    “He appears as an extra in the racetrack fight scene. When the fight is shown the first time he is at the end of the bar. A clearer shot of him doing a characteristic double take occurs when two cops come out of the door to the stairwell to the safe room with Sterling Hayden next to it, watching the fight/distraction develop.”

  17. Posted May 1, 2018 at 7:23 pm | Permalink

    I should preface this by saying two things. 1. I agree with you, Jean, about the need to asses such things within the context of the time in which they were created. Not only was this film created over half a century ago, but it’s a noir, and, as such, was expected to conform to certain accepted architecture. 2. I don’t know enough about the work of either Lionel White, the author of “Clean Break,” the book upon which “The Killing” is based, or Jim Thompson, the hard-boiled crime novelist who wrote the film’s dialogue, to comment knowledgeably about how indicative the “The Killing” Is of their other work. And, while I’m certainly familiar with Kubrick’s work, I’ve never really watched his films consciously with an eye toward how he treats women, although, based on Clockwork Orange and Dr. Strangelove, I’m inclined to accept your analysis..

    With that said, though, I was struck by the the characterizations of Fay and Sherry in “The Killing”… Fay, the clinging woman who appears to only exist for her man, and Sherry, the conniving manipulator who sees her husband as an easy mark to be bled dry. There didn’t seem to be a lot of nuance. I found Fay’s dialogue to be particularly cringeworthy. (“You don’t have to sell it to me. You know I’ll go along with anything you say… I’ve always believed you, everything you’ve ever told me.”) At least Sherry, while two-dimensional, was interesting.

    But, yeah, it’s like there are two ways for women to be; clingy and manipulative. Again, I get that it was 1956, and that it’s noir, but, even within those parameters, some have found room for complexity. (Look at Bacall in “The Big Sleep.”)

    And, for what it’s worth, I don’t know if I would have commented on this at all, if Sherry were the only female character in the film. It’s the fact that Fay existed as the counterpoint that I really objected to. Her subservience just really rubbed me the wrong way from the start. And, then, when Fay was introduced, it just occurred to me that we’d been offered these two stereotypical extremes. I’ll grant you, however, that Sherry, when with her lover, did show a different side of herself. Still, though, it struck me in a way that other noirs don’t. For instance, I don’t think, when I watch Double Indemnity, I feel compelled to comment on Barbara Stanwyck’s dialogue, even though she too is a manipulative, self-serving nightmare of woman. Maybe the writing was better. Or maybe it’s that she didn’t have a Fay to play off of. I’m not sure.

  18. Jean Henry
    Posted May 1, 2018 at 9:07 pm | Permalink

    You should read Jim Thompson. All the women are awful. Usually, they are con artists. Sometimes they are fools. They are often sexually forward. They are as well developed as the men. Only the main characters get an interior voice in Thompson books and it’s usually the voice of a psychopath. I don’t expect realism of noir. I do expect some complexity of interpersonal dynamics. I don’t care if women in films are admirable. A lot of women are pathetic. And I love a bad girl, especially a hot mess of a bad girl. ‘More filthy women!’ is as close to a girl power salute as you’ll ever hear from me. I don’t look to noir for role models.

    I don’t have a well-developed theory that explains why I think Kubrick hated women; I just do. I feel the same way about Cronenberg. I can still appreciate their films. Most of them, anyway.

    Thanks for taking the time to explain your perspective.

  19. Anonymous
    Posted May 2, 2018 at 6:16 pm | Permalink

    Ty Cobb says he’s sure Mueller didn’t leak his questions: “It’s very difficult to see who if anybody benefits from the leak of that other than people who have been trying to sabotage the possibility of an interview.”

    http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/exclusive-ty-cobb-special-counsel-interview-trump-off/story?id=54878028

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Connect

BUY LOCAL... or shop at Amazon through this link Banner Initiative No One Cares