The Great Train Robbery

Michael Crichton made his book "Great Train Robbery" into a movie and its attention to detail makes it one of the best caper movies ever. A caper movie is defined as a movie about a team of skilled people getting together to rob an establishment. Caper movies have been around for a while. Besides the original "Great Train Robbery", the earliest capers date back to the fifties ("The Asphalt Jungle"(1950) and "Rififi"(1955)). In the 1980's, the genre was abandoned with the rise in popularity of films like "Raiders of the Lost Ark"(1981),"Road Warrior" (1981), and "Rambo"(1982). They belong to a genre I call "One Hero against the World" The screen was only big enough for one ego-infested star.

After a decade of beating that theme to death, "Lethal Weapon"(1987) introduced a new genre: "The Buddy Picture". Hollywood thought this so revolutionary even Schwarzenegger tried his hand in the forgettable “Red Heat”(1988) However, the "One Hero" genre proliferated, with stars who did not like share the spot light with anyone. Think Stallone, Schwarzeneggger, and Cruise.

In 1992, Quentin Tarantino burst on the film scene with "Reservoir Dogs".(1992) This was more of a caper movie than anything else made in decades, even though none of the planning or executing was ever shown. I hoped for a sea of change. In 1996, I was even encouraged when the classic caper TV show “Mission Impossible” was released as a feature film. The TV show was about a team of experts planning and executing very detailed and impeccably timed capers. Teamwork always won out over individual heroics. Unfortunately, in the movie, Tom Cruise got involved in the project and the whole team was killed off in the first fifteen minutes, leaving Cruise as the one hero against the world. Give me a break! Even after almost 20 years, the "One Hero…" was still alive and well in mainstream Hollywood. Luckily, Tarantino’s next movie "Pulp Fiction" took the world by storm. There was no main hero and plenty of characters. This movie went on to become the most influential movie of the next decade. "Pulp Fiction" put Miramax on the map and other smaller studio tried to copy the “Pulp Fiction” formula. Soon, mainstream Hollywood followed suit. By 2000, the caper movie was revitalized with offerings such as "Ocean's Eleven", "The Heist", and "The Italian Job"

Movie capers follow this rough plot element outline: gather the team, plan the caper, execute the caper, and the aftermath. Each movie emphasizes different elements, but certain patterns create sub categories. The major subcategories of the caper genre are: “Crime Doesn’t Pay”, “No Honor Among Thieves”, ”One Last Job”, and “The Robbery is the Thing”

Many of the early caper movies including "The Asphalt Jungle"(1950), "Rififi"(1955) are among the "Crime doesn’t pay". The caper planning and execution is de-emphasized. Both of these movies are shot like documentaries and the robbery plans are equivalent to "smash and grabs" The focus is in on the thieves themselves and their social and economic background. In the aftermath, the double-crosses that happen don't really matter since all of the crooks seem to be under a cloud of bad luck that follows them all the way to the gallows. Other movies of this type are: "Anderson Tapes"(1971), "Lady Killers"(1955), "Bob le Flambeur"(1955), and "Ocean’s Eleven"(1960)

The “No Honor among Thieves” subcategory is similar to the “Crime Doesn’t Pay”: the emphasis is on the aftermath. The purpose of the planning and the execution of the crime is to setup the alliances which play out at the end of the movie. Any caper movies that was released after "The Spanish Prisoner" can be assured of at least one twist or double-cross at the end. Unfortunately, most of the recent caper movies fall into this category: "The Score"(2001), "The Heist"(2001), "Ocean’s Eleven"(2001), "Entrapment"(1999) and "The Italian Job"(2002).

I find that the most annoying subcategory is what I call “One Last Job”. Too much of the movie is spent on gathering the team. Usually it’s the character played by the main star who needs convincing to come out of retirement and do one last job. This subcategory is actually "One Hero…" disguised as a caper movie. The main star is introduced as "the only man in the world who could the job". He protests and whines, but you know he will join otherwise there is no story. When the team is finally on the job, you find out that he is not so amazing. Caper movies that waste time with this are "The Score", "The Heist", "Thief", "Ocean's Eleven", "The Getaway", "The Asphalt Jungle", and "Sexy Beast".

Finally, my favorite sub category is "The Robbery is the Thing". These are movies that emphasize the details of plan and execution of the robbery. Another common element in these movies is the implementation of low-tech solutions. None of them have any "James Bond" lock picks or "laser" safe openers. The robberies are done completely by skill and planning. These movies include "Lavender Hill Mob" (1951), "Topkapi" (1964), "Gambit" (1966), "How to Steal a Million" (1966), and "The Great Train Robbery" (1979). For example "Lavender Hill Mob" is a pure caper movie involving planning, executing, and the aftermath of gold truck robbery. "Topkapi" involves the original "alarmed floor/suspended by a wire" 30 years before Tom Cruise and "Mission Impossible". “Gambit” is unique: the first half of the movie acts out the ideal plan and the second half shows how the plan actually got executed. "How to Steal a Million" is more of a romantic comedy, but it has a interesting low-tech caper plan. From this category cones my favorite caper movie: "The Great Train Robbery" It is set in Victorian England. Criminal mastermind Edward Pierce and his team plan to pull off an impossible crime. His team consists of a professional pickpocket and an actress. For the pickpocket, it just like another day at work. For the actress, her ability to disguise herself is critical to the plan. The team seems to be more interested in pulling off an elegant plan rather than getting the money. It is the filmmaker’s commitment to detail and clever planning of the caper that makes “Great Train Robbery” stand apart from the rest.