While it may not have the class of some of Billy Wilder's other films -- you could say it's a bit lurid -- this is an absolutely brilliant satire on the news media, one of the best there's been, and it's absolutely relentless in its attack on not only media hypocrisy and amorality, but the seediness of human nature in general. Few films are quite so misanthropic and almost completely lacking in any display of human goodness (you'd have to look to Pasolini's 'Salò,' although I wouldn't encourage you to look in that direction), yet you can't really argue what's being presented here.
This is a comedy that is almost perfect without quite being funny. It's satire that cuts so close to the bone, it's scary. One could call it prescient because it resembles recent news items, but those recent news items resembled less recent news items which resembled even less recent new items, as the media repeats itself. 'Ace in the Hole' will always be timely, because it will always apply. The media is now as it was then and things aren't changing any day soon. When the carnival finally rolls into town here (the movie is aka "The Big Carnival"), it's at once absurd, metaphoric, and completely plausible.
And that title. "Ace in the Hole." Triple, possibly even quadruple entendre.
Amazing.
This is a comedy that is almost perfect without quite being funny. It's satire that cuts so close to the bone, it's scary. One could call it prescient because it resembles recent news items, but those recent news items resembled less recent news items which resembled even less recent new items, as the media repeats itself. 'Ace in the Hole' will always be timely, because it will always apply. The media is now as it was then and things aren't changing any day soon. When the carnival finally rolls into town here (the movie is aka "The Big Carnival"), it's at once absurd, metaphoric, and completely plausible.
And that title. "Ace in the Hole." Triple, possibly even quadruple entendre.
Amazing.