The Killers · reception & legacy

1964 · Don Siegel

How The Killers has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Dismissed in 1964 as a lurid B-programmer that even NBC wouldn't air, it's since been reclaimed as a foundational neo-noir — Criterion now packages it alongside the 1946 Siodmak version as an equal, not a knockoff.

What's debated

The eternal cinephile face-off: is Siegel's brutal, sun-bleached pulp version actually better than Siodmak's shadowy 1946 'classic' — or just cooler?

Its footprint

Lee Marvin's methodical, shades-wearing hitman became a template — you can draw a straight line from this to Point Blank and to every deadpan hitman duo since, Pulp Fiction's included.

Where it stands

A cult object turned canon climber: the 'wait, Reagan's in this?' noir that hardcore genre heads insist you see, ideally double-billed with the 1946 version.

★ Did you know? It was shot as the first-ever made-for-TV movie, but NBC rejected it as too violent for broadcast — so it went to theaters instead. It's also Ronald Reagan's final film and the only time he played a villain, a role he later said he regretted taking.