SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

PimpinAinttEasy Dear Martin Scorsese, I decided to watch Force of Evil after you spoke about it on the On the Waterfront DVD. What impressed me the most about the film were its visuals. The first shot of the enormous buildings of Wallstreet pans to the tiny people walking on the road, almost inconsequential like ants. This theme is emphasized by repeating the same visual later in the film. After John Garfield walks out of his boss' office with stolen money, there are two beautiful long shots where the gigantic buildings tower like monsters over Garfield's tiny frame. There is some great film noir cinematography just before this scene as a single key light is used to show a slightly open door. The light shines on parts of John Garfield's face as he is about to spy on his boss. The film is a bleak tale of corruption where a big betting racket company (involved in the numbers game) tries to consolidate its position by forcefully acquiring all the smaller companies. This puts two brothers in conflict. It is a world where nobody is really honest. Everyone from the boss to the janitor is corrupt at some level or the other. And what is worse. The powers that be will not let anyone leave. The dialogs which include a first person narration by Garfield's character are almost poetic as different characters lament about the state of their lives. Frankly, I can't say I cared too much for the film apart from its visuals. The plot was needlessly complicated. And apart from John Garfield, most of the other actors seemed to be quite unremarkable. None of the faces really stood out for me. I can understand how this film might have inspired the relationship between the brothers in The Raging Bull, Martin. Best Regards, Pimpin. (6/10)

Arnab Sen Ambitious lawyer Joe Morse (John Garfield) works with his powerful gangster employer to control the numbers racket in their city. The film then goes on to show the relationship between Joe and his estranged brother Leo (Thomas Gomez) who happens to run one of these rackets.A noir like no other, directed and co-written by Abraham Polonsky whose career was completely destroyed because of the blacklisting in the 1950's. Polonsky's career never did recover and he next worked in the film Industry twenty years later. The film will be remembered for its poetic dialogue written by Polonsky who based the screenplay on the novel Tucker's People by Ira Wolfert who also receives a writing credit. The dialogue has a singsongy feel to it brilliantly delivered by the actors most notably during the heated exchanges between Joe and Leo. John Garfield excels, playing a determined man who will do anything to reach his goal except crossing over the only man who helped him become what he is today, his brother Leo played to perfection by Thomas Gomez. Largely classified as a B gangster picture in America, it was lauded in Europe and has since been reevaluated as a classic of the genre and as an American masterpiece as seen when it was preserved in the United States National Film Registry in 1994. It has since inspired many filmmakers most notably Martin Scorsese as seen in many of his films which deal with gangsters and crime.Scorsese on the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeNIu8hj3S8

jsteppling Many comments have covered a lot of the film-style aspects of this film, and i only wanted to express a short observation about what a fine a script this is. Its not a naturalistic script, but rather very theatrical and stylized. For some it will take a few minutes to sink into this world, symbolic and dark, almost biblical. The final voice over of Garfield's is simply majestic. A great great film.Polansky was at this point a first time director, so the film is all the more remarkable. The HUAC witch hunts drove him out of the business, but this film remains almost archetypal; it is film noir, yet not much like the stuff from Siodmak or the Chandler adaptations, or Wilder or even Lang. It exists in an almost Brechtian landscape or ideas, while retaining some sense of that noir ethos of menace from the system.

Boba_Fett1138 "Force of Evil" is a movie that always has been regarded as a classic and important movie in the film-noir genre. Quite frankly I can't really see why. Perhaps it's because of the back-story of the movie and not so much because of the quality of the movie itself.It got directed by the blacklisted director Abraham Polonsky, who put some Marxist elements into the movie. It was also sort of fun to notice how Sovjet like the approach of the movie its visual style was at times. It uses some similar shots and framing used in Sovjet period of Sergei Eisenstein for instance.Thing that is pulling this movie down mostly for me is it's cheap look and feel. It makes the movie harder to watch and even a bit clumsy perhaps at times. It's a very low budget and no fancy writing can change this.The writing is good though and a typical example of the genre. It has some well written characters and twists and turns to it. Still it's also missing some of the usual ingredients, which can be seen as lacking but also as being different and more original.I wasn't too impressed with the movie its acting. The low budget can also definitely be seen back in the movie it's casting. First of all it's ridicules to think that John Garfield and Thomas Gomez could be brothers but it's even worse that most of the actors just weren't very good in their roles. Even John Garfield didn't impressed much with his role.It's still simply a good movie for what it is, mostly thanks to its writing but I can't think of any reason why this movie should be regarded as a relevant or classic piece within its genre really.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/