Bandits!

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Movie
German title Bandits!
Original title Bandits
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2001
length 118 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 12
Rod
Director Barry Levinson
script Harley Peyton
production Patrick McCormick ,
Harley Peyton ,
David Willis
music Christopher Young
camera Dante Spinotti
cut Stu Linder
occupation

Bandits! (Original title: Bandits ) is an American feature film from 2001 . The director was Barry Levinson and the screenplay was written by Harley Peyton . Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton played the main roles .

action

A television journalist was able to record an interview with bandits Joe Blake and Terry Lee Collins before they were apparently killed. The plot of the film is told in the form of a flashback .

Reckless Joe Blake and hypochondriac and pessimistic Terry Lee Collins are in jail. One day Joe sees a construction site on the prison grounds, takes control of a cement mixer, breaks all fences with him and manages to escape together with Terry in good time before the heavy prison gate is closed, even though the guards are shooting at them.

Terry had the idea to rob the directors of banks in their apartments in the evening, to go to the banks with them the next morning and to steal the money. According to this scheme, some raids succeed. One day the two meet the frustrated housewife Kate Wheeler, who is married to a wealthy manager but has no children and is bored in the country villa. A romance develops between her and Joe Blake. Later, Kate and Terry Lee also get closer when she gives him first aid after an allergic attack . From then on, the two men compete for their favor, the tensions finally discharge in a fight between the two. But Kate demands from both of them to reconcile with each other again.

In the meantime, a million dollars has already been exposed for the capture of the "overnight bandits". The accomplices Joe, Terry and Kate set about their last and most spectacular coup. Kate apparently betrays Joe and Terry to the police, but only to get the reward. Joe and Terry storm a bank, but pretend to get into a heated argument in front of employees and customers; they shoot each other and seem to lie dead. But they shot at each other with blank cartridges , the alleged gunshot wounds had been manipulated: Joe's nephew Harvey, an electronics tinkerer, burst small plastic bags with red paint by remote control .

As the alleged occupation of an ambulance , Harvey and his girlfriend put the apparently dead bank robbers in body bags . Then the car continues unmolested with warning sirens. After several blocks, Joe and Terry and their girlfriend get out. Nephew Harvey provokes an accident, jumps out of the overturned car and uses a remote control to detonate an explosive charge attached there, so that the car burns out completely. The police and the press are of the opinion that the bodies of the two bank robbers were burned in the process.

But they leave for Mexico with Kate . There they take over a restaurant that they want to expand into a night club.

production

The production costs were 75 million US dollars and were borne by the US film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the production company Hyde Park Entertainment .

Reviews

Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times of October 12, 2001 that it seldom happens that a film has three such “lovable” characters and is so “unsympathetic” itself. He is so concerned about being “clever” and “crazy” that he neglects everything else. Individual scenes would work.

The lexicon of international films judged: "An excellently cast crook comedy that shoots all its powder in the first half of the film and then only delivers tired self-imitations."

The film magazine Prisma said: “Anyone who regards this story as a modern fairy tale will have fun. Because you can't take this crook comedy with borrowings from the western classic " Zwei Banditen " for full . Thus the disputes of the crooks are more in the foreground than their criminal potential. The well acting actors make up for the not always perfect timing with witty dialogues and funny situation comedy. "

Awards

Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett were nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won the Florida Film Critics Circle Award . Cate Blanchett was also nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award and the AFI Film Award . Billy Bob Thornton won the National Board of Review Award and was nominated for the Phoenix Film Critics Society Award .

Soundtrack

Trivia

  • In the last third of the film you can see how Joe Blake the book The Art of War by Sun Tzu reads.
  • The interior of the reporter's house, where the bandits tell their story, is also used in The Big Lebowski (1998); it is the Sheats-Goldstein residence of the architect John Lautner.
  • Joe and Kate sing the song Total Eclipse of the Heart together .
  • In the film, Terry mentions his fear of old furniture and Benjamin Disraeli's hair , which actor Billy Bob Thornton claims to actually suffer from.
  • The two daughters of Bruce Willis Scout LaRue (Monica Miller) and Tallulah Belle (Erika Miller) play two supporting roles in the film.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Age rating for bandits! Youth Media Commission .
  2. ↑ boxofficemojo.com: Bandits , accessed September 13, 2012
  3. ^ Film review by Roger Ebert , accessed on September 13, 2012
  4. ↑ Bandits! In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ^ Film review on prisma.de, accessed on September 13, 2012
  6. ↑ imdb.com: Billy Bob Thornton - Biography , accessed September 13, 2012
  7. ↑ contactmusic.com: Billy Bob Explains Benjamin Disraeli Fear , April 14, 2003, accessed September 13, 2012

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