Ask, and Ye Shall Recieve
Hmm. This "Top Five Heists" thing is harder than one might think.
First of all, I'm not sure I remember all the movies during which I've said: "That's one hell of a movie heist!" Second of all, there are a lot of really shitty movies with cool heists in them. Sometimes it's hard to distinguish. Also, it's hard to distinguish bona fide heists from murders, cons, other assorted noir themes.
I'll give it a shot. Here are the contenders:
Heist #1 from Heat; Heist #2 from Heat; Ocean's 11; Rififi; Le Cercle Rouge; The Killing; Heist; Theif; Bob le Flambeur; The Thomas Crown Affair; Sneakers; Topkapi; The Score; The Ladykillers
Here are my picks. Please submit yours. I might have to revise after people remind me of other great heists.
5. Heist #1 from Heat
Short, brutal, sweet.
4. Ocean's 11
Not the greatest movie, but a well-orchestrated heist. Very compelling.
3. Le Cercle Rouge
It's hard not to rate this one higher, but I think the next two are even better.
2. Rififi
An absolute classic. Glommed by #3, which is great in its own right.
1. The Killing
Leave it to Kubrick to best all others working their entire careers in the noir genre. The most absorbing heist ever captured on film.
Coming soon: the top five cons, the top five murders/murder schemes.
First of all, I'm not sure I remember all the movies during which I've said: "That's one hell of a movie heist!" Second of all, there are a lot of really shitty movies with cool heists in them. Sometimes it's hard to distinguish. Also, it's hard to distinguish bona fide heists from murders, cons, other assorted noir themes.
I'll give it a shot. Here are the contenders:
Heist #1 from Heat; Heist #2 from Heat; Ocean's 11; Rififi; Le Cercle Rouge; The Killing; Heist; Theif; Bob le Flambeur; The Thomas Crown Affair; Sneakers; Topkapi; The Score; The Ladykillers
Here are my picks. Please submit yours. I might have to revise after people remind me of other great heists.
5. Heist #1 from Heat
Short, brutal, sweet.
4. Ocean's 11
Not the greatest movie, but a well-orchestrated heist. Very compelling.
3. Le Cercle Rouge
It's hard not to rate this one higher, but I think the next two are even better.
2. Rififi
An absolute classic. Glommed by #3, which is great in its own right.
1. The Killing
Leave it to Kubrick to best all others working their entire careers in the noir genre. The most absorbing heist ever captured on film.
Coming soon: the top five cons, the top five murders/murder schemes.
posted by dd0031 at 3:16 PM
6 Comments:
Let me just clarify: Is Heist #1 from Heat the heist of the bank truck where the blow it open and wind up killing all the guards? And Heist #2 is the actual bank heist where they almost get into the getaway car but then they end up running, carrying those huge duffle bags of money?
also, let me ask this - what criteria are you basing your rankings on? the heist itself (the plan and its execution), or the cinematic portrayal of the heist (how compelling the scene is)?
also, you left out that movie Sugar and Spice, where the cheerleaders rob the supermarket bank branch while wearing richard nixon masks. not that i would rank it very high, but, it deserves mention.
Hmm. How am I making these decisions? I like to think I'm making a holistic judgment, i.e., that both the heist itself and its cinematic portrayal play into it. The Killing is so great because you see the development of the plan in steps; it walks you through Sterling Hayden's mind. Others don't quite do it that way, Heat, Rififi, for example.
My picks have a lot in common with yours, Dale.
5. The bank job in For A Few Dollars More. It's not really central to the plot, and it's over like that. But it's pretty ingenious in a funny way.
4. The Killing. I love it. I'm just not in love with it.
3. the armored-car holdup in Heat. Good call. The later bank job is a better scene, but this is the clever heist. Although I'd consider the second robbery in this movie just for being the apotheosis of the "go-in-with-guns-drawn" method.
2. Rififi. For obvious reasons.
1. Le Cercle Rouge. It's borrowing from Rififi but it rises to the top, in my opinion, because of the tasty melange of precision and bravado.
I also thought of the holdup/hijacking/robbery/whatever in Ronin, but I'm not sure that counts as a heist. I don't know. It was pretty cool, whatever it was. I think the heist in Bob le Flambeur was actually kind of weak. So was The Score. The one in Thief almost made my list, though.
Yeah; I didn't actually think The Score or Bob were going to make the list, I was just trying to come up with all the heist movies I could think of. Also, I had a hard time separating straightforward 'heists' from the more all-encompassing 'capers', such as The Sting. I guess Ocean's 11 might count as a caper, although it's leaning toward 'heist'. I wonder if the terms are mutually exclusive or not.
I think The Sting is a con, kinda like House of Games or something. Even though I realize they're stealing a lot of money. There are lots of other movies out there that have heists as part of them, like Bonnie and Clyde. But that's not really the focus of the movie, and anyway none of those are really as good as some of the ones on the top lists.
There is also The Great Muppet Caper (though "caper" is in the title, it's an actual jewel heist). There is also Mission Impossible, which raises the question, "what is a heist?" The memorable scene is the one where Tom Cruise is hanging from the ceiling trying to get the data/info from that computer. Is that a heist? If so, arean't James Bond movies filled with heists? Or Indiana Jones when he steals that idol at the beginning of Raiders. Then there was Mission Impossible 2 (I think. Or maybe it was just the first one.) with an actual safe-cracking heist. And that movie with Rebecca Stamos -- I can't think of the name. I didn't see it, but I heard it was good. It involved a diamond something or other that folks were stealing or protecting. There's also Entrapment, which I skipped. Or To Catch a Thief, though now I can't remember if there was anything memorable in the smaller heists. Bad Santa? The last heist is pretty funny. There must be TONS of movies we're not even thinking of. Though, I don't know how many actually deserve to be remembered or included in the discussion.
I have to think more about my list ...
I wanted to add that I really liked Rififi because when I watch it, I feel like I'm watching the first heist movie, as though they're creating a new theme for movies and it really works.
Oh, and I forgot to sign my last comment. That was me ...
R
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