8 days of happiness #4
May. 9th, 2009 01:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
essayelThis probably won't mean much to non-Brits or to young Brits come to that but it makes me very happy that The Italian Job is having an anniversary. Just FYI this is the original film made in 1969 not the travesty of the same name made more recently.
Charlie Croker[Michael Caine] is released from jail and is greeted by the widow of a colleague who proposes that he complete the job her late husband was planning - stealing £4 million in gold from a bank in Turin. Charlie hasn't a bean so gets backing from Mr Bridger[Noel Coward} a criminal mastermind currently locked up in Her Majesty's Prison Wormwood Scrubs. He collects a gang, trains them and commits the robbery despite interference from the Mafia and Turin police.
It's silly, politically incorrect, stereotypes abound and yet it is such fun!! Highlights include Professor Peach, the computer expert, who ADORES 'big women', Mr Bridger, who's incarceration doesn't rob him of one whit of dignity, Camp Freddie who may be a stereotype but who is clearly not a man to mess with, and the poor bemused people of Turin who are unwitting stars of the film during the traffic jam scenes [nobody told them a film was being made]. The hero is a personable, likeable, resourceful, amoral rogue, the locations are spectacular, the score is memorable and it is one of the last films made where it was just cool to be English [though you'll notice that they've had to make 'bad guys' the heroes in order to let them have fun]. I can't find it online anywhere apart from a few little clips on Youtube but iTunes has it for a price. If you're Anglophile, enjoy the ridiculous, and like caper films it might be worth your while.
It's been on my mind lately because of something I've been writing - yeah I should learn to concentrate on one thing at a time - so hearing about the anniversary has given me the impetus to look at some websites. This one impressed me with it's thoughtful first paragraph. Yes it is safe to click on the link, I tested it.
Charlie Croker[Michael Caine] is released from jail and is greeted by the widow of a colleague who proposes that he complete the job her late husband was planning - stealing £4 million in gold from a bank in Turin. Charlie hasn't a bean so gets backing from Mr Bridger[Noel Coward} a criminal mastermind currently locked up in Her Majesty's Prison Wormwood Scrubs. He collects a gang, trains them and commits the robbery despite interference from the Mafia and Turin police.
It's silly, politically incorrect, stereotypes abound and yet it is such fun!! Highlights include Professor Peach, the computer expert, who ADORES 'big women', Mr Bridger, who's incarceration doesn't rob him of one whit of dignity, Camp Freddie who may be a stereotype but who is clearly not a man to mess with, and the poor bemused people of Turin who are unwitting stars of the film during the traffic jam scenes [nobody told them a film was being made]. The hero is a personable, likeable, resourceful, amoral rogue, the locations are spectacular, the score is memorable and it is one of the last films made where it was just cool to be English [though you'll notice that they've had to make 'bad guys' the heroes in order to let them have fun]. I can't find it online anywhere apart from a few little clips on Youtube but iTunes has it for a price. If you're Anglophile, enjoy the ridiculous, and like caper films it might be worth your while.
It's been on my mind lately because of something I've been writing - yeah I should learn to concentrate on one thing at a time - so hearing about the anniversary has given me the impetus to look at some websites. This one impressed me with it's thoughtful first paragraph. Yes it is safe to click on the link, I tested it.