Ace in the Hole

ACE IN THE HOLE is one of the great American movies: deeply rooted in specific ailments of the country, while celebrating other aspects. The film begins with Kirk Douglas' Chuck Tatum, a reporter who's been fired by all the major newspapers, arriving at the Albuquerque Sun in New Mexico. Boisterously, he barges in and demands a job, promising he'll find the paper a big story. A year passes and no such story has come along, Tatum is with a kid-photographer on his way to a story about rattlesnakes, and he comes across a big hit: a man has trapped himself in an old indian cave while searching for pottery. First on the scene, Tatum manipulates the situation, gaining the trust of the captured Leo, and making deals with the sheriff, Leo's wife, and anyone else he can coerce. With Leo under the rocks, Tatum furnishes a seven-day maximum story, brining nationwide attention to what is supposed to be an inevitable triumph against the elements. Tatum's methods are gross and risky, but in order to further himself, they're carried out. Billy Wilder's direction is perfect, the shots are beautiful, and Tatum's decline is one that is complex and riveting. So many films are made nowadays about deplorable people who are supposedly charismatic and thus interesting, but Tatum's decline is one that we all succumb to in admittedly smaller ways.

★★★★★