Melville’s first straight-out gangster film is also one of his best. A sharp, twisting, and fascinating rumination on friendship and loyalty in the criminal underworld, it is infused with a perverse sense of violence and a classic noir feel that creates a sealed universe that is completely artificial, but also utterly compelling. Melville’s use of inky shadows, canted angles, and fluid camerawork creates a crucial sense of fatalism, and as characters step in and out of the light, we are reminded of both their moral duality and the fact that nothing can be trusted until the final bullet has been fired. (DVD)