Check

White Heat (1949)'s comments - page 2

Order by:

Add your comment

Do you want to let us know what you think? Just login, after which you will be redirected back here and you can leave your comments.

Comments 16 - 20 of 20

Siskoid

White Heat is an oft-quoted James Cagney classic, and I wish I could say I loved it more than I did. Make no mistake, Cagney's performance as a dangerous and irredeemable gangster should be required viewing, by far the best reason to see the film. As a crime picture, it doesn't seem to want to decide what subgenre it belongs to. It starts out as a train robbery movie, then it's an undercover cop movie and a prison movie. Then it's a about a heist, becomes a procedural manhunt story, but it ends with a "crime doesn't pay" action scene. Many strong elements are introduced that seemed to need more attention - the mother who is just as bad as her son, the assassination attempts in prison, the undercover cop getting caught in a lie - but don't as the film once again pivots. Throughout it all, you have Cagney lighting up the screen, legitimately turning it into a character portrait that makes you forget about plot and structure. But it's as if this character were too good for one film, and they tried to fit him into several at once.

5 years 11 months ago

Previous
Pages
- 1
- 2

Showing items 16 – 20 of 20