Trust me, this is the best movie to discover Fritz Lang

If you want to see a really good movie and gently discover the world of director Fritz Lang, I have some tips for you: watch his 37th feature The Big Heat.

The story follows a police officer, Dave Bunyon (Glenn Ford), who investigates the possible reasons for the suicide of one of his superiors, but in doing so, he is disturbed by some people who attack his family. Abandoned, alone against all, Bannon chooses revenge…

What happened to me immediately?

I’m downright amazed by the film’s opening: a close-up of the revolver being held by his hand. A shot is heard and the man who took the gun collapses. The camera pulls back to find the woman, who is not at all sad, finding the papers left on her desk. Then he calls a certain “Lagana”, then only the police.

I also loved finding this film noir vibe in between settlement of accounts Almost an archetype with a femme fatale, a detective who everyone lets go, a corrupt authority figure, but exactly what makes it more than that is Fritz Lang’s work on the production.

An affordable film, a great introduction to Fritz Lang’s cinema

Because at the time I was surprised by the violence of the film: brutal revenge, suicide, murders, fights and even hot coffee being thrown in the face (!), I thought it was very clever that Fritz Lang always kept the camera behind the camera. , so that this violence is clearly identified, but not clearly shown. I heard the movie was restricted to under 16s when it came out.

But that’s exactly why settlement of accounts There is an archetype that is immediately accessible, and its heightened violence in 1953 makes the film more appealing to an audience that has seen much more since then, and we find the talent of Fritz Lang, perhaps one of the best Americans for me. Movies.

If I’ve convinced you and you like it, you can continue with Red Street and Portrait of a Woman, both of Lang’s detective films with Edward Robinson and Joan Bennett.