Seven/Eleven

I was recently watching the Ocean's Eleven remake.  It's ten years old now, and I don't think there's been a better caper film since.  Pulling off this mix of intricacy and insouciance is trickier than it looks--as the two sequels demonstrate.  I suppose if it were easy, Hollywood would churn them out.

The film is all surface.  If you actually stop to think about it, you realize how silly it is.  The artificial set-up of the casino's vault and security, and the equally artificial and near-impossible solutions the gang pulls off, don't really make sense.  A movie like this is a plate-spinning act, and if it ever slows up, the whole thing comes crashing down.  If the film has a problem, it's maybe a bit too too pleased with itself.  Many of the characters are so ostentatiously "cool" they border on obnoxious.  But the jokes are strong enough, the plot swift enough, and the audience sympathy solid enough, that it's able to glide over any problems.

It's got a major cast, with at least four stars (George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Matt Damon) who could carry a film.  But big names don't guarantee quality.  The original Ocean's Eleven (which the remake is only vaguely based on) had all the glories of the Rat Pack, but, aside from some almost coincidental side pleasures, isn't really much of a film.

The remake was, commercially speaking, the high point of both George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh's career.  Indeed, both could use a hit like it again.  But not another sequel.

I couldn't help but think about it when I recently watched another rob-a-casino movie, Seven Thieves (1960). It's a Henry Hathaway film starring Edward G. Robinson, Rod Steiger, Eli Wallach and Joan Collins (who, as opposed to Julia Roberts, is part of the robbery plot).  This time they set their sights on Monte Carlo.

Robinson is the old mastermind who needs to pull off one final heist.  Steiger is his protege, the cool leader who runs the operation.  They've also got an inside man at the casino, a safecracker, a driver and a guy who creates a diversion that allows them to get the money out.

One clear difference between the two films.  These days, criminals can get away with it.  Back then, the Production Code ensured that Crime Does Not Pay.  So while I was watching, I was also wondering how things would fall apart.  Ultimately, the way it did seemed pretty silly.  Robinson, who'd been discredited in the past, does have his triumph, and then dies of a heart attack. The rest of the gang fights over the loot, until Rod Steiger realizes the money is too hot and simply has to be returned.  Huh?  This thing took a year to plan.  Couldn't they have figured that out sooner?  So they give it back.  I'm impressed that no one is arrested, even though they did commit a crime.  Steiger gets Collins and they walk away laughing.

The plot is simpler because nowadays, unless there are double, triple and quadruple crosses--even if they make the film ridiculous--Hollywood is afraid the audience isn't getting their money's worth. (Speaking of which, the take is much smaller in the old film--$4 million versus something like $180 million in Ocean's Eleven.) Still, there are enough similarities that I wouldn't be surprised if this was a central inspiration for Soderbergh, producer Jerry Weintraub, and whatever screenwriters they employed.