The Bank Job: Great Entertainment, Disturbing Facts
I just came back from the cinema, and I wasn’t disappointed. I haven’t been too impressed with the film industry lately, but with The Bank Job, they’ve got it right.
This movie has what every movie should offer: entertainment, story, decent acting, and more entertainment. You would think that the fact that it is based on a true story might make it less interesting. You don’t really get bored at any point during the movie, and Jason Statham and Saffron Burrows both give a good performance, which is further backed up by Richard Lintern.
Now, for those of you who have not yet seen the movie, spoiler alert! I’m going to reveal a bit of the movie to ask the one question that I have.
Here goes: so basically a psycho black guy called Michael X has photos of a certain Royal Princess indulging in some sexual activity in the Carribean. This guy is responsible for importing drugs into the UK, probably running some brothels, and other crimes. The government or intelligence (MI5 or MI6) cannot prosecute him or take action against him because he threatens to make the photos public.
However, they know of the exact location of the photographs: a locker 118 in the Lloyds Bank on Baker Street. A bank robbery is set up up with some rather amateur robbers, the lockers broken into, and a bunch of things stolen from the bank. Other high profile criminals also have items that have been stolen, and they get involved to recover their own items. The stolen items also contain photos of various British MPs engaging in kinky sexual activity at a brothel in London.
Eventually, MI5 gets the photos, corrupt cops are arrested and prosecuted, and MPs have to resign. It became a big mess because MI5/MI6 hired a group of amateurs to rob the bank, so it all looked like the intelligence or the government had nothing to do with it. They eventually catch the black Michael X fellow once they have the photos. The whole idea here was that when the photos are taken away, it doesn’t seem like the government has any involvement in it, because any of it could pose a threat to the reputation of the Royal Family.
Now, the movie was great as it is: fantastic entertainment. Maybe this is too 21st centry, but won’t you agree, that if 2 guys wearing black suits walked into the bank, approached the manager, flashed their badges, and said they need to get into a certain locker, and the information has to be kept secret or the manager becomes a victim, break into the locker, and simulateneously go arrest Michael X. Now they have the photos and they have Michael X, and the whole thing is hush hush. Isn’t that how intelligence is supposed to operate anyway?
I know there are laws and regulations and procedures etc. etc. But I don’t think the MIs in the UK or the CIA in the US typically operate within the law. After all, their being above the law is the whole point. Nonetheless, you could argue that they have had other copies of the photographs that they could have exposed if Michael X was busted like that. Well, that could have happened the way he eventually gets busted in the movie too, and of course, eventually it all leaked, but was hushed with a D-Notice apparently. And now we have a movie on it.
What do you think? Wouldn’t the modern day methods have saved them a lot of hassle, although, I must confess, in that case we would not have had an entertaining movie.
Tell me what you think. Vote & Comment!
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March 1st, 2008 at 7:03 pm
The Bank Job: Great Entertainment, Disturbing Facts
This is a short review of what I thought was a fantastic movie. It was very entertaining, and revealved some very interesting facts about recent British history. However, I do have one question that I’ve asked at the end of this short article, about…