The Brink's Job (1978)

Must See Movie...

A different way of telling a story

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It's amazing how many WF films creep in among his others. Only seeing this movie for the first time, the other week, I only knew beforehand, from reading the cover, Friedkin directed this cute little crime flick. The movie which has a inventory of topline actors, who all give wonderful performances is based on fact, another thing I didn't know, about the two bid crooks, who pulled off the greatest bank heist in history, a few hiccups, prefore, as blundering their way to their objective, in some quite hard to believe blunders, which I'm frightened to believe this is fact too. This robbery had attracted much notoriety, the public praising and admiring the robbers, who are much suspect than the usual suspects, and are brought in, and I think you can gather what results, or might not result, where some astounding and approving facts revealed later, as if rooting for these guys,which is hard quite not too, despite, their illicitness. Falk is just super fantastic in this, an acting force to be reckoned with, while I liked Allen Garfield a lot in this too. The film is patchy here and there, and takes a while to get to where it's going. I was actually quite disappointed for the first third of it, but it picked up. For me, it's one of those films, where earlier in the peace, you really don't know where it's going, but as I said, it's a cute little film, and worth the rental fee. Don't snub it. My recommendation.

"The Brink's Job" is a comedy caper film based on a real crime. The January 17, 1950, Brink's robbery in Boston was called the "Crime of the Century." This movie is a light treatment of the event, and the characters who pulled it off. The movie implies that none of those involved in the incident "squealed," and it omits anything to do with killing. In reality, the gang tried to kill Specs O'Keefe who was imprisoned for anther petty robbery after this one. O'Keefe was mentally unstable and the gang thought he might talk. But after their attempts to kill him failed, he apparently talked to the FBI and named all involved. While the movie just shows seven people involved in the heist, there actually were 11. Except for three who died, all who were convicted and sent to prison were out within 14 years – by 1971. The $2.7 million heist included $1.2 million in cash, and the rest in bonds and checks. Just $53,000 was ever recovered to this day. The acting is good by the entire cast in this film. It was shot in Boston. The robbery was two years in the works – with careful casing of the Brink's place. Considering the first 40 years of the 20th century with so many bank robberies, the very low level of actual security measures by Brink's in 1950 is astonishing. But, as Peter Falk's Tony Pino says in the movie, the Brink's people were so cheap they didn't want to spend money on real security. Instead, they lied in their advertisements about the great security they provided. The movie notes how the gang members were idolized by some youth of the day. This romantic and light-hearted treatment of crime is fun, but I wonder about it when it involves real crime.

William Friedkin directed this period piece caper-comedy, adapted from Noel Behn's non-fiction book "Big Stick-Up at Brinks", chronicling real-life 1950 robbery of Brink's headquarters which netted the crooks some three million dollars. Often-filmed heist gets a joshing tone this time out, cast with actors comfortable with each other and familiar to audiences in these particular characterizations. There are no surprises; everything has been preconceived for a safe, nondescript entertainment. For his part, Freidkin displays a light, casual touch, but the broader moments of comedy don't really come off--slapstick doesn't seem to be Friedkin's thing. Peter Falk heads up the amateur squad of thieves; he's right at home here, and his repartee with Peter Boyle, Allen Garfield and Paul Sorvino (and with Gena Rowlands as his wife) is smooth. In fact, the whole film is smooth...so smooth it slides right out of the memory. ** from ****

When you look at this now and hear all the language in here, it's amazing this was rated "PG," but that's the 1970s rating system for you. Peter Falk spews out the Lord's name in vain six times in the first ten minutes alone in this movie! Yet, few people consider that offensive, and certainly not the scumbags who make movies nor the people who "rate" them.The cast is a clue to how profane this film can be: Falk, Peter Boyle, Allen Garfield, Warren Oates, Gena Rowlands and Paul Sorvino aren't exactly actors you wouldn't find in "The Sound Of Music."I like heist movies, and a lot of films by director William Friedkin, but this script doesn't deliver and it just has way too much of the "Sleazy '70s" feel to it, visually and audibly. For those who loved Falk in TV's "Columbo" it must come as a shock to hear him use as much profanity as he did in films. This is far from the only case.