Daryl Lee - The heist film : stealing with style

SHORT CUTS

INTRODUCTIONS TO FILM STUDIES

OTHER TITLES IN THE SHORT CUTS SERIES

THE HORROR GENRE: FROM BEELZEBUB TO BLAIR WITCH Paul Wells

THE STAR SYSTEM: HOLLYWOODS PRODUCTION OF POPULAR IDENTITIES Paul McDonald

SCIENCE FICTION CINEMA: FROM OUTERSPACE TO CYBERSPACE Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska

EARLY SOVIET CINEMA: INNOVATION, IDEOLOGY AND PROPAGANDA David Gillespie

READING HOLLYWOOD: SPACES AND MEANINGS IN AMERICAN FILM Deborah Thomas

DISASTER MOVIES: THE CINEMA OF CATASTROPHE Stephen Keane

THE WESTERN GENRE: FROM LORDSBURG TO BIG WHISKEY John Saunders

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND CINEMA: THE PLAY OF SHADOWS Vicky Lebeau

COSTUME AND CINEMA: DRESS CODES IN POPULAR FILM Sarah Street

MISE-EN-SCNE: FILM STYLE AND INTERPRETATION John Gibbs

NEW CHINESE CINEMA: CHALLENGING REPRESENTATIONS Sheila Cornelius with Ian Haydn Smith

ANIMATION: GENRE AND AUTHORSHIP Paul Wells

WOMENS CINEMA: THE CONTESTED SCREEN Alison Butler

BRITISH SOCIAL REALISM: FROM DOCUMENTARY TO BRIT GRIT Samantha Lay

FILM EDITING: THE ART OF THE EXPRESSIVE Valerie Orpen

AVANT-GARDE FILM: FORMS, THEMES AND PASSIONS Michael OPray

PRODUCTION DESIGN: ARCHITECTS OF THE SCREEN Jane Barnwell

NEW GERMAN CINEMA: IMAGES OF A GENERATION Julia Knight

EARLY CINEMA: FROM FACTORY GATE TO DREAM FACTORY Simon Popple and Joe Kember

MUSIC IN FILM: SOUNDTRACKS AND SYNERGY Pauline Reay

MELODRAMA: GENRE, STYLE, SENSIBILITY John Mercer and Martin Shingler

FEMINIST FILM STUDIES: WRITING THE WOMAN INTO CINEMA Janet McCabe

FILM PERFORMANCE: FROM ACHIEVEMENT TO APPRECIATION Andrew Klevan

NEW DIGITAL CINEMA: REINVENTING THE MOVING IMAGE Holly Willis

THE MUSICAL: RACE, GENDER AND PERFORMANCE Susan Smith

TEEN MOVIES: AMERICAN YOUTH ON SCREEN Timothy Shary

FILM NOIR: FROM BERLIN TO SIN CITY Mark Bould

DOCUMENTARY: THE MARGINS OF REALITY Paul Ward

THE NEW HOLLYWOOD: FROM BONNIE AND CLYDE TO STAR WARS Peter Krmer

ITALIAN NEO-REALISM: REBUILDING THE CINEMATIC CITY Mark Shiel

WAR CINEMA: HOLLYWOOD ON THE FRONT LINE Guy Westwell

FILM GENRE: FROM ICONOGRAPHY TO IDEOLOGY Barry Keith Grant

ROMANTIC COMEDY: BOY MEETS GIRL MEETS GENRE Tamar Jeffers McDonald

SPECTATORSHIP: THE POWER OF LOOKING ON Michele Aaron

SHAKESPEARE ON FILM: SUCH THINGS THAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF Carolyn Jess-Cooke

CRIME FILMS: INVESTIGATING THE SCENE Kirsten Moana Thompson

THE FRENCH NEW WAVE: A NEW LOOK Naomi Greene

CINEMA AND HISTORY: THE TELLING OF STORIES Mike Chopra-Gant

GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST CINEMA: THE WORLD OF LIGHT AND SHADOW Ian Roberts

FILM AND PHILOSOPHY: TAKING MOVIES SERIOUSLY Daniel Shaw

CONTEMPORARY BRITISH CINEMA: FROM HERITAGE TO HORROR James Leggott

RELIGION AND FILM: CINEMA AND THE RE-CREATION OF THE WORLD S. Brent Plate

FANTASY CINEMA: IMPOSSIBLE WORLDS ON SCREEN David Butler

FILM VIOLENCE: HISTORY, IDEOLOGY, GENRE James Kendrick

NEW KOREAN CINEMA: BREAKING THE WAVES Darcy Paquet

FILM AUTHORSHIP: AUTEURS AND OTHER MYTHS C. Paul Sellors

THE VAMPIRE FILM: UNDEAD CINEMA Jeffrey Weinstock

HERITAGE FILM: NATION, GENRE AND REPRESENTATION Beln Vidal

QUEER CINEMA: SCHOOLGIRLS, VAMPIRES AND GAY COWBOYS Barbara Mennel

ACTION MOVIES: THE CINEMA OF STRIKING BACK Harvey OBrien

BOLLYWOOD: GODS, GLAMOUR, AND GOSSIP Kush Varia

THE SPORTS FILM: GAMES PEOPLE PLAY Bruce Babington

THE HEIST FILM

STEALING WITH STYLE

DARYL LEE

WALLFLOWER

LONDON and NEW YORK

CONTENTS

Let me firstly thank Yoram Allon, Commissioning Editor at Wallflower Press, and his devoted team for undertaking the publication of this book. Research travel for the book was made possible by generous funding from the College of Humanities and Center for the Study of Europe at Brigham Young University.

Thanks to experts and institutions: Mark Quigley of the UCLA Film and Television Archive, Elena Cazzaro of the Archivo Storico delle at the Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia, the Inathque of the Bibliothque Nationale de France, and Kathleen Dickson of the British Film Institute. I add my gratitude to the family of Sir Michael Balcon for granting me access to the Balcon Collection at the British Film Institute.

I am grateful to my students Allison McCall and especially Jonathan Smith for their thoughtful assistance in research, and to my students in my crime film courses. I received constructive feedback on parts of my manuscript from the Brigham Young University Film Studies Group, and from colleagues and friends: Travis Anderson, Brent Bingham, Bruce Burningham, Corry Cropper, Bob Hudson, Chip Oscarson, Laura Rawlins and Steve Riep.

I reserve my warmest gratitude for my wife, Mary, and our children, Sophie, Maude, Henry, Theo and Cy, who sacrificed much for this book to be completed.

Lastly, I dedicate it to my parents, the origin of my interest in movies: Pat Lee, a movie buff and projectionist during a lonely year in Thule, Greenland, and Carla, who had a hand in getting movies to US military personnel abroad in the 1960s.

The heist film, or big caper as it is sometimes called, is back on the marquee. The year 2001, annus mirabilis, saw the production of four major heists. Original titles from seasoned directors Frank Ozs The Score, Barry Levinsons Bandits and David Mamets Heist were all successful, but the smash hit of the year was Steven Soderberghs star-studded reprise of the 1960 Rat Pack showcase Oceans Eleven (Lewis Milestone). The draw of Soderberghs remake came in part from its ensemble cast George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Elliot Gould, Andy Garcia and Matt Damon among others and the mere hint of a revived 1960s title seemed promising to audiences. Witness John McTiernans 1999 remake of Norman Jewisons The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), replacing Faye Dunaway with Rene Russo and Steve McQueen with Pierce Brosnan in the title role. Other remakes followed: the high-profile F. Gary Gray picture The Italian Job (2003) reclaimed Peter Collinsons original 1969 feature starring Michael Caine, Neil Jordans low-profile The Good Thief (2003) took a gamble in redoing Jean-Pierre Melvilles Bob le Flambeur (1956), and in 2004, Joel and Ethan Coen put their signature on a remake of the darkly comic caper The Ladykillers (1955, Alexander Mackendrick) with Tom Hanks in the lead role. More significantly, 2004 marked a new, serialised step in remakes, giving us