A BLEND OF BRITISH FACT AND FICTION : "THE BANK JOB"

As you know by now, I’m all for innovation and trying new things. Be it different genres, directors or countries of origin, variety is the spice of life and never more so when it comes to movies. But then again… There’s nothing really like re-visiting old favourites is there? I personally think that old favourites in matters such as this are specifically to be re-visited not “had” every day. First of all, if you consume said favourite every day (in whatever form it happens to come in), it will be “the everyday” thing. Part of your routine almost. And slowly, it will cease to be a favourite. You will, undoubtedly, become bored of it. However,  if you have it there, shining like a gem in a whole selection of different  “things”, it will always be special, your enjoyment will always have that edge to it. For me, as you know, there are several favourites. But nothing really beats a good old gangster movie. Especially a heist. I don’t know what it is about them, especially because the element of surprise is not always at the forefront of the creators minds.  (And I mean, let’s be fair, there are only so many directions the plot can go in, right? Actually wrong when it comes to this film, but you know what I mean. ) But anyhoo. That’s my guilty little treat. A bit like that totally kitch ‘90s tune you have on your mp3 player that you only play on the train when no one can see your screen (come on, you KNOW the one I mean…). And I’ll tell you something else. I don’t even care if its stars Jason Statham. Again. Because he is good at heist films. Period.

The Bank Job is based on a true heist. Of course “based on” means that there is a significant amount of truth in it with some imagination to fill in the gaps thrown in. This is the story of a group of petty criminals (the leader of the gang being, as always, Jason Statham) who are handed the opportunity of the bank job of a lifetime by an acquaintance (Saffron Burrows). The idea is to tunnel into the bank from the empty shop that they have leased almost next door and empty out the safety deposit boxes. This is, of course, a brilliant opportunity to get rich quick for the friends because, as the acquaintance points out, a lot of people hide compromising stuff in there. They may not even want to risk reporting it stolen. The friends think about it for a minute, and then pounce on the idea. But there are complications. First of all, the acquaintance is not as innocent as she may have first seemed; she is acting on the part of MI5 (or is it 6??) because there are some VERY compromising pictures of VERY important people that need to be got back NOW.  Secondly, like we said, there indeed is compromising material in the bank, put there by rather unpleasant people. And while it is true that they will never report it missing, this does NOT mean they will not come after it themselves... Have our friends finally bitten off more than they can chew? Will this heist actually turn out to be (literally) the last thing they ever do? You’ll have to watch and find out.

Now, I did a bit of research on this one as I jotted down my thoughts and considerations. First of all, the heist bit, as far as we can ascertain, is spot on. Down to the details. It occurred in 1971 and there was, according to one website, actual talk of compromising photos being found but of whom they were and how they compromised them remains a mystery to this day. I will not go into the details of the robbery as yet seeing as you haven’t watched it yet (probably) but I found it especially amusing to find out that the “discovery of the walkie talkies” as it were was also spot on the money. Nothing as queer as folk, eh?  All other connections (including “the photos” and the connections to the intelligence services) are more a matter of speculation but still, stranger things have happened in life…

The film itself is about as British as they come. Not surprising since, it turns out, it was written by the co-creators of British classics like “The Likely Lads” and “Porridge” (I apologise if that means nothing to you, but Porridge is one of my favourite sit-coms and I had to give it a plug). The humour is British, the characters are VERY British and well, it’s a 1970’s period film to boot. Now, this is my filmic equivalent of chocolate cake with chocolate-fudge sauce (and if, like my mother, you hate chocolate, I mean this as a compliment). But if it isn’t yours, I have to add that the combination of extraordinary real life events and some really creative writing and directing has meant that this is one heist movie you will NOT see coming. The plot twists come left and right when you least expect them and the characters are so charming, you end up rooting for them without quite understanding what happened. I mean, I started watching this after a very tiring shift, just to unwind for half an hour with every intention of leaving it half-way and going to bed early. I ended up watching the whole two hours and completely upsetting my own sleep patterns for a week. Totally worth it.