Review of The Italian Job (1969) by Seth S — 20 Mar 2013

I saw the remake of The Italian Job before I saw the original. I can honestly say that the remake is a vastly superior movie: the characters, humor, story, and emotions are all better. But don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this movie quite a bit, on a fun (but rather shallow) heist movie level. There are a lot of issues with the movie though, which I'll get to later.

After finally getting out of prison, criminal Charlie Crocker is presented with another job. Steal 4 million dollars. And it won't be easy, stealing that much money never is. Charlie assembles a team and strikes up a plan to steal the money. Standing in his way is the mafia, the police, and the ineptitude of his own team.

The pros of the movie are sufficient: clever enough story, great lead performance, a snappy sense of humor, and an imaginative, iconic car chase. The cons of the movie are also plentiful: sluggish pacing, a sometimes murky story, a huge supporting cast with no real character development, no significant villain, an alarming habit of objectifying women, and a complete lack of emotional depth. Still, if you can look past the faults, there is entertainment to be had.

The very best part of the movie is the climatic heist, namely when the Mini Coopers arrive on the scene. From the Mini's arrival to the end of the movie is rather brilliant. The car chase here is far and away better than the Bullitt car chase from the year before. The stunts they pull with the Mini's are impressive, such as jumping from roof to roof and driving down stairs. The locations during the chase are also striking: the sewer, the racetrack on top of the building, inside the shopping center, and up that concrete dam. After the chase, the ending is also brilliant. A literal cliffhanger is a bold and funny way to go out, and it works surprisingly well.

Michael Caine gives a likeable performance as Charlie Crocker. He leads the movie very well; sadly none of the characters following him have any "character" whatsoever. There must be 20 people on Charlie's team of crooks, but none of them stand out, mostly because none of them do anything really noteworthy. The only other actor who gives a distinguishable and unique performance is Noël Coward as John Bridger.

Overall, I found this heist classic to be overrated. It does have an enjoyable final 20 minutes or so and a good sense of humor, but the rest is rather slow and unclear. It has lots of problems, but if you can look past those, there is fun to be had. Still, I would take the remake over this movie any day, in every way.

"It's a very difficult job and the only way to get through it is we all work together as a team. And that means you do everything I say." 6.5/10.