The Bank Job (2008) - Honest Review

Read Time: 4 minutes

Year of release: 2008
Run time: 1 hr. 51 mins. | Rated: R | Genre: Action / Thriller / Crime | Language: English

Martine offers Terry a lead on a foolproof bank hit on London’s Baker Street. She targets a roomful of safe deposit boxes worth millions in cash and jewelry along with a treasure trove of dirty secrets.

Synopsis

Self-reformed petty criminal Terry Leather (Jason Statham) has become a financially struggling car dealer and settled into a pedestrian London life with his wife and kids, but takes the plunge into big crime when his ex-girlfriend, Martine (Saffron Burrows), turns up with an offer to pull off a lucrative bank heist. After Terry assembles his crew of misfits and begins the operation, he finds that there are other agendas at play, and powerful players who have designs on the vault’s contents.

Introduction

We’ve already talked about Inside Man (2006) as being one of the most feasible heist plans ever made (hypothetically). Now we’re going to dive into this, The Bank Job, as the title implies, it is what it sounds like. Directed by Roger Donaldson, his works can be seen in films such as Species (1995), Dante’s Peak (1997) and McLaren (2017).

Based on real life events which took place in 1971. The Bank Job outright displays how much a government can and will protect their secrets, even dirty personal ones. I’m actually surprised they were allowed to release this. Although some sources are saying that the heist was a ploy by MI5 to retrieve the scandalous photos of Princess Margaret. Which was safely hidden in Trinidadian militant gangster Michael X’s safety deposit box. I guess we’ll never know for sure.

Characters

With a crew of outstanding cast members, most of them I’m honestly not familiar with, led by Jason Statham, come together to put on a show. The chemistry was on point and it did seem like they’ve been on quite a few jobs already, and this would’ve been their last. I love the way they distributed screen time among the cast, in a way, it showed that Statham’s character was on the same footing as the others, its just that he’s the one calling the shots. All performances from the cast were equally great. No one fell short of anything.

Director’s Dilemma

Roger Donaldson said one of the hardest days of filming was when they shot the brothel scene. The scene required the women to walk around wearing only garters. However, Donaldson discovered that most of the women had shaved their pubic area, which wasn’t typical for 1971. As a result, the actresses had to wear fake pubic hair called “merkins.” The problem was that the merkins kept slipping off, which caused Donaldson a lot of frustration.

Based on real events

The thing that made The Bank Job great was not the cast, but the story itself and how it actually happened in real life. Known as “The Baker Street robbery”, the infamous burglary was committed on 1971, and up to this day, no one was convicted of anything. The criminals made headlines for a few days and then disappeared. The UK government implemented a “D notice” regarding the situation, which its sole purpose is to protect the country’s national security. This film however reveals what was in those safety deposit boxes.

Real life facts stated towards the ending of The Bank Job before credits roll:

Reveals that the stolen loot from the bank heist was never recovered, primarily because most of the safe deposit box owners were criminals who refused to report their losses.
Lew Vogel, the corrupt politician whose incriminating ledger was the real target, is eventually imprisoned for 8 years.
Michael X, the black power activist with compromising photos of Princess Margaret, is hanged in 1975 in Trinidad for murder of Gale Benson.
His file in the British National Archive will remain classified until the 1st of January, year 2054.
Soon after the robbery, Scotland Yard underwent a major purge of corrupt police officers.
A number of senior members of the government resigned following the revelations of their activities during their stay at Sonia Bern’s brothel.

Conclusion

The Bank Job’s production, direction or script writing wasn’t the best, but the story speaks for itself. The history alone is sufficient enough for any crime/heist and history buff movie goer.