Review of Gun Crazy

Usually I like to review films that are under-rated. Every now and then I will take the other end of the pole, and come before you, kind reader, shell-shocked at how some critics can make so much out of nothing. A friend told me that this film was rated one of the "100 best" of all time on a competing net database, and supposedly a great example of film noire. Since I had never heard of it, I borrowed his copy. OMG. Here are some notes. If you don't agree, fine. I have some swampland in Boca you might find equally appealing: 1. Aside from the date, all the earmarks of a 50s B-movie. Stars you may never have heard of, unless they are relations. Bit parts go to the same group of character actors you see in every 50s film. Closeups for no other reason than they were popular in that era. Drenched with hidden moral judgements, pregnant pauses, ominous looks. 2. The music. Oh, if you really wanted to make prisoners confess, don't send them to Gitmo, make them watch a dozen films like this, one after the other. They will tell you whatever they know. While it is true that all 50s B-movies are equally guilty, any cinephile from an earlier period (the 40s saw some of the best films ever made) or a later period (anything after 1979) would be able to stand no more than a few minutes of this over-loud, brazen, intrusive, unctuous, music track; and then ask the musical question, what were these guys smoking? Did they have no concept that less is more? (Answer: no they did not). 3. Camera work is very 50s. It is as if they suddenly discovered that you get very high depth of field with certain apertures, so the whole movie is filmed as though it were just one scene. To consider this film up there with the great filmes noires of the 40s is heresy. The only redeeming factor is the memorabilia from the era, the cars, the clothes, even the diner where the two stars, short of cash, refuse onions on their burgers because it is 5 cents extra. A classic? What are you thinking?