Best Heist Movies

[Patricia Abbott]

After seeing the semi-pallid Ocean's Thirteen (okay, the guys looked pretty good), we got into a discussion of the best heist movies ever. Which movies stand out in your mind? For instance, someone said Dog Day Afternoon, but would that really count? Should a heist movie be mostly about planning and executing a heist and not sidebar into other issues.

[Patricia Abbott]

How about Bob Le Flambeur? Too existential?

[Allan Guthrie]

It's up there, too. Just got a soft spot for CERCLE. Come to think of it, maybe I prefer LE DOULOS. Hah. Just thought of another that nobody's mentioned, and it's even in English: THE ANDERSON TAPES.

[Vincent Holland-Keen]

They're remaking Rififi? Why? The original holds up nowadays, but, I suppose, it's not in colour or in English... though Charade was both in colour and in English and that spawned a completely superfluous remake too.

[Steven Torres]

TAKING OF PELHAM 1,2,3. Because I used to take that train...Not like Robert Shaw did, just to work and school.

[Patricia Abbott]

Just saw this for the first time a few months ago. It was very original, wasn't it? A different rhthym-hard to define.

[Paul Brazill]

I'm with you on this, Steve. and what a great 'no frills' ending! AAchoo!

[Austin S. Camacho]

I suppose a heists movies would have to include Dog Day Afternoon, Ronin and Reservoir Dogs, all of which I enjoyed. But perhaps the term you originally were looking for is "Caper" films, which ARE about the planning and execution of the big take. Best of breed there may well be the original Ocean's 11, but the best in recent times is surely The Italian Job which maintains the spirit of the caper film which is, "how do we pull off this impossible job?" The trick in caper films is that you have to LIKE the crooks.

[Patricia Abbott]

Nice distinction. Would a heist movie have to center on the plan to rob a single facilty (bank, jewlery store, museum) by a gang of thieves then? I guess Resevoir Dogs is mostly the post-Heist movie.
I am so surprised that some of the movies mentioned are not on Netflix. British films from the forties, fifties are still hard to come by--like Perfect Friday.

[DADavenport]

The Getaway, the Steve McQueen one, of course!

[charles thiesen, the only god on ning]

Yes! Though the remake wasn't as bad as remakes usually are.

[charles thiesen, the only god on ning]

I forgot to mention The Good Thief, which doesn't so much succeed as a heist movie, and is flawed by a huge coincidence, but the low-life milieu is terrific. I want to see Bob Le Flambeur, the movie it was based on. Hey, I see you mentioned it!

[John McFetridge]

Taking of Pelham 1,2,3 and Sneakers and also that one in Montreal with Ed Norton and Marlon Brando and Robert de Niro because I worked in that customs building for years and it was nice to see a Canadian city playing itself.