The Killers is a film noir style movie that depicts a murder being investigated for an insurance claim. The insurance claim detective, Riordan, investigates the murder of the Swede. He recognizes a handkerchief that Swede had on his person at all times. After further investigation, Riordan realizes that the Swede was involved in a huge robbery and stumbles upon the master plan of the unsolved robbery. This film was shot in true film noir style, because it takes place in eerie night sequences. It surrounds a femme fatale character, Kitty, who ends up causing the deaths of every man she involves in her life.
The Killers attacks the idea of love. Kitty Collins is a personification of love. She takes on the form of lust in the beginning of the movie starting with her presentation and demeanor at the party when she first meets Swede, to her affair with him and resistance to being arrested. She tricks Swede into being arrested so that she could continue her luxurious lifestyle. She then abandons Swede and pursues Big Jim. The relationship between Big Jim and Kitty gives the illusion of real love. When Dum Dum kills Big Jim, the audience is presented with a very concerned, heartbroken wife. As Jim dies and Kitty is incriminated in the master plan of the robbery, she tries to rise Big Jim from the dead in order to proclaim her innocence. Kitty represents love. She shows the lust with the Swede and the seemingly deeper relationship with Big Jim, but as it turns out she was also using him. Her personification of love shows how love is only used for a person’s own gain. Kitty uses the men in this film for her own gain, showing how selfish love is and how love does not work out.