Strike Talks and Heist Movies
Elice Island News September 20, 2023
“Stories are dream-like steps toward developing understanding.”
Hello and welcome to Wednesday, September 20, 2023. Let’s kick things off with some Hollywood news. The WGA-SAG negotiators are sitting down with the MPTP negotiators in a fresh bid to resolve the ongoing strike. These two groups haven't met in what feels like as long as it's taken George R.R. Martin to write a sequel to Game of Thrones. All jokes aside, I'm hopeful—as I believe the entire Hollywood industry is.
There’s a fair bit of animosity aimed at Hollywood, stemming from the perception that it's full of self-entitled elitists who are entirely out of touch with the audience they claim to serve. While there's a kernel of truth to this, it's not the whole story. The majority of Hollywood workers, especially those whose names you've never heard, genuinely love movies and television. Just like the audience does.
We all can be flippant about whether there's enough to watch on TV, but at our core, human beings are story-hungry creatures. And the only folks who can satisfy that hunger on a grand scale are the writers, actors, directors, producers, and the under-the-radar talents working tirelessly on these large-scale productions. Hollywood remains the world's only true dream factory, and we should all be rooting for an end to this strike, which has now dragged on for 142 days.
The crux of the issue, in my humble opinion, is the studios' and broadcasters' reluctance to admit that the business model that's been in place for roughly 50 years is now broken. It's ironic, considering they eagerly embraced streaming but failed to build a sustainable system around it. As a result, the calculation for when and how much residuals should be paid to the creators has not been updated to suit the streaming era. All the lofty promises of streaming riches made by tech and media companies didn’t trickle down to the people who actually create the shows.
During the Covid lockdown, when the world turned to Netflix for entertainment, the studios and streaming services pocketed more than their fair share. They raked in tons of money but never managed to make the system work—operationally or financially. It's a bit like crying wolf; these companies have already lost more money than it would take to settle the WGA strike. Yet they're still unwilling to pony up.
Fingers crossed that today’s negotiations, happening in just a few hours, will bring some much-needed change. If there’s a meaningful update, I’ll be sure to post it here on the blog and on social media.
In some personal news, I am hard at work revising my latest novel, The Crew which is book 2 in The Eddie Ankin series. This book picks up in the months after the events of the first book in the series, The Double, with Hollywood stuntman, Eddie Ankin, back in his hometown of New York to film a movie. After his friend and colleague, movie prop master, Curtis O’Connor comes to see him, only to turn up dead a day later, Eddie finds himself on the trail of a band of thieves looking to pull off a heist at The Empire State Building. The book will be published in October of this year. In writing it I looked to some of the great hard-boiled crime writers of the genre, notably Richard Stark, the pseudonym of prolific author Donald E. Westlake. Stark’s most famous character (appearing in 24/28 books is “Parker”, a professional thief and all around bad ass. Making his debut in “The Hunter” Parker has made the leap from the pulp pages of Stark’s crime novels to the silver screen, being portrayed by Mel Gibson in “Payback” and Jason Statham in “Parker.” My novel The Crew takes at least some inspiration from the fifth book in the series, “The Score” which tells the story of Parker and a band of thieves who plan to rob an entire town.
Also serving as inspiration are the many great heist movies I’ve loved in my life. Below are my Top Ten:
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999): Rarely do I think a remake out of the original, but the Pierce Brosnan – Rene Russo, romantic caper movie of 1999 Topps, the original starring Steve, McQueen, and Faye Dunaway. Directed by John McTiernan, and written by Leslie Dixon and Kurt Wimmer, what elevates this film for me is its artful cunning. Pierce Brosnan embodies Thomas Crown, a guy who not only robs the Museum of Modern Art, but also manages to return the stolen painting just to woo Renee Russo in what has to be one of the coolest robberies in any movie. Add to that Brosnan’s masquerading as a suave billionaire who flies Russo’s insurance investigator to island getaways plus one of the hotter dance sequences in movies and that is why this movie is the first on this list of ten. Russo’s character is not just the typical female sidekick. She is Brosnan’s intellectual, physical, and spiritual equal. Add in a sensational soundtrack featuring Nina Simone's "Sinnerman," which sets the mood for the final robbery scene, and you've got a heist flick that's also an unlikely love story.
Hell or High Water: You want grit? You got it. Directed by David Mackenzie and written by Taylor Sheridan this movie stars Chris Pine as a divorced dad and Ben Foster as his criminal brother going up against predatory banks. The movie is underpinned by the relationships with the brothers, a bond that's as complex as it is compelling. And let’s not forget Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham as the Texas sheriffs chasing them down. Bridges is particularly great as a soon-to-retire Texas sheriff. It's like the anti-Thomas Crown Affair in the best way possible.
Topkapi: A 1964 heist film directed by Jules Dassin and starring Maximillian Schell as the leader of a band of robbers looking to steal the emerald-encrusted dagger of Sultan Mahmud. One of the first heist films I fell in love with, a gem I unearthed thanks to Quentin Tarantino's favorite films lists. Topkapi assembles a sort of 'A-Team' for a Turkish museum job. It's lighter fare than I usually go for but a classic nonetheless. The Mission Impossible CIA break-in? Total homage to this film. It's been 50 years, but that heist sequence still gets my pulse racing.
The Score: Directed by Frank Oz, starring Robert De Niro, Ed, Norton, and Marlon Brando, this heist film is set in Montreal in a roll that for De Niro so it very much like it was a follow up to heat, this movie strikes a very different cord cinematically. The production itself was troubled by a contentious relationship between Director, Frank Oz, and his three stars. Rumors are that Frank Oz was eventually reduced to directing the movie via walkie-talkie where he would give his direction to Brando, De Niro, and Norton from afar having affectively been banned from his own set. The interplay between Robert De Niro's old-school safecracker “Nick” and Ed Norton's ambitious young thief, “Jack” hits a sweet spot for me. Norton's deceptive hubris brings a unique spin to the typical ‘heist-gone-wrong’ trope. The finale has De Niro cracking an impregnable safe inside the Montreal Customs house to steal a golden scepter. The best part is the method he uses to get into the safe. It’s unconventional to say the least. This was Brando’s last film. Movie Life Lessons: Make a list of everything you want now and spend the next twenty five years getting it, slowly, piece by piece.
Heist: Written and directed by David Mamet and starring Gene Hackman, Delroy, Lindo, Ricky, Jay, and Danny DeVito, Rebecca Pidgeon, and Sam Rockwell. This David Mamet flick showcases Gene Hackman as a master thief, the kind of calculating crook who's playing 4D chess while everyone else is still learning the rules. His last big score? Robbing a plane full of gold bars. Mamet’s snappy dialogue elevates every scene. But what really wins me over is the twist, where Hackman comes back the next day disguised as a freight shipper and walks out with his gold, escorted by the cops. It’s a confidence game inside a heist movie. Movie Life Lessons: Think of a man smarter than yourself and then ask, ‘what would he do?’ Also, Always have a backup plan.
Point Break. 1991 Directed by Katherine Bigelow, written by Peter Ilif, and starring Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Lori Petty, Gary Busey and John C. McGinley. Most people don’t think of Point Break as a heist movie, but indeed it is, and it follows the classic cops versus robbers steps of a heist movie. And when it comes to originality you have to give the movie credit — surfers who rob banks! That’s pretty good. “The ex-President rip off banks to finance their endless summer.” The movie is particularly clever at incorporating the specifics of surfing into the detective work Reeves and Busey do to catch Swayze and his gang. Though the heists scenes are shorter than in some of these other movies, the getaway attempt by Swayze in the final heist is as good as they come. Kidnapping Lori Petty as leverage over Reeves. Flying to their rendezvous with Rudy down in Mexico and Reeves jumping out of a plane without a parachute to “get his man.” Movie Life Lesson: As long as you’re alive and you’re not in the box yet, don’t be afraid to believe in what might seem like your wilder theories. Life is not about money. It’s about standing for something and showing people that the human spirit is still alive. Also, don’t be a Blue Flame Special.
Den of Thieves: Written, directed, and produced by Christian Gudegast.and starring a stellar ensemble including Pablo Schreiber, O'Shea Jackson Jr. (yeah, Ice Cube's son fresh off "Straight Outta Compton"), Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, and Gerard Butler as the LAPD's grizzled detective leader. Drawing clear inspiration from "Heat," this is less about cops and robbers and more like robbers vs. robbers. Gerard Butler and his team aren't just detectives; they're essentially another gang, recalling "The Shield's" Strike Team. While Butler's storyline is somewhat formulaic, the narrative heft comes from Pablo Schreiber, O'Shea Jackson, and 50 Cent. Their planning and execution of the heist, especially targeting the Federal Reserve's soon-to-be-destroyed cash, makes this film pop. Plus, the Kaiser Soze-like reveal at the end? A cherry on top. Movie Life Lesson: In what is easily the funniest moment in the movie, a young man comes to take 50 Cent’s daughter to the prom.
Thief (1981): Written and directed by Michael Mann in his directorial debut, this Neo-noir heist movie stars James Caan, Tuesday Weld, and a young John Belushi, feels like a precursor to "Heat," but grittier. Caan's diamond thief character works for mob boss Robert Prosky to set up a life with Weld's character. When adoption agencies won't give them a child due to Caan's ex-con status, Prosky becomes their unconventional fairy godfather, but at a steep price: a high-stakes heist in LA. The film gives us a step-by-step breakdown, from the tools to the timing. Its finale veers off from the "Heat" philosophy: Caan walks away from everything to exact revenge on Prosky, leaving a somber note that resonates. Movie Life Lesson: We are all always chasing time. And no matter how fast we run we will never make up for lost time. So, don’t lose time, and focus on what’s important.
Inside Man. Directed by Spike Lee and starring Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, and Denzel Washington, I love this movie not only as a heist film, but also as a quintessentially New York movie. Spike Lee does a great job of intercutting the heist itself with the interviews by Denzel of the hostages taken during the heist by Owen and his band of thieves, some of whom may actually be the criminals. What’s unique to this movie is that the heist itself involves stealing something more than the diamonds the thieves are after. It is a revenge tale, mixed with a hostage movie, that’s really a heist film.
Heat: Written and directed by Michael Mann, starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Val Kilmer, Wes Studi, Dennis Haysbert, Rachel Ticotin, Natalie Portman, Danny Treo, Ashley Judd, Hank Azaria and the list goes on (hello, Henry Rollins). I was lucky enough to catch this cinematic gem in a classic movie house in Westwood, California when it premiered in 1995. The downtown LA bank robbery scene remains unmatched. Sure, it's got some heavy-handed subplots (Natalie Portman’s suicide attempt, anyone?), but it paints a vivid tableau of cops and criminals in LA. Where other films offer a Hollywood fantasy of heists, "Heat" delivers gritty realism. Mann, also behind “Thief,” sets a gold standard for authenticity in crime sagas giving us the lingo of the thieves, the steps to taking down scores, while also depicting its effect on their professional relationships and personal lives of both the cops and robbers. DeNiro’s “Neal McCauley” famous credo is the Movie Life Lesson, "Don't have anything in your life you're not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you spot the heat around the corner,” which captures the essence of Neal McCauley’s character and Mann’s approach to storytelling. Focus on what you’re after at the expense of everything else (just maybe apply it to something other than robbing banks.)