Neil Young’s Film Lounge – Bandits

Published on: March 23rd, 2004

BANDITS

6/10

USA 2001
director : Barry Levinson
script : Harley Peyton
producers include : Levinson, Peyton
cinematography : Dante Spinotti
editing : Stu Linder
music : Christopher Young
lead actors : Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett, Troy Garity
122 minutes

Breezily enjoyable bank-robber comedy, with a basic premise lifted straight from The Friends of Eddie Coyle: Terry (Thornton) and fellow ex-con Joe (Willis) are the sleepover bandits, taking bank managers hostage overnight before making their early-morning withdrawals. Their plan works just fine until unhappy housewife Kate (Blanchett) stumbles into the scene and, before you can say Jules et Jim, falls for both of them in turn

Scriptwriter Peyton adopts what seems to be a clumsy double-flashback structure, with the gangs exploits being told to us by the anchor of a tabloid-crime TV show who interviewed the bandits shortly before their violent demise. At one point Terry tells Kate that the problem with being smart is that there’s no suspense, you always know whats going to happen next, and the movie appears to be robbing us of suspense by straight-away telling us our heroes fates. Another apparent problem in the screenplay is Joes dimb-bulb cousin Harvey (Garity), aspiring Hollywood stuntman and the gangs getaway driver. Hes a distractingly superfluous figure but when Levinson and Peyton pull the rug from under our feet with their satisfying final twist, the Harvey subplot suddenly makes perfect sense, along with the wider flashback approach.

But this is really a movie about characters rather than action the bank-robbery scenes are just OK, but Levinson is clearly much more interested in the central menage a trois. Willis coasts on his well-worn smirking asshole routine as horny hothead Joe, and he’s made to look very one-paced by the engaging performances from Blanchett and, especially, Thornton the motormouth Terry could hardly be further removed from the taciturn Ed Crane in his other current release, The Man Who Wasnt There. His phobias are the weirdest since Sybils unseen mother in Fawlty Towers, and include growing shorter, Benjamin Disraelis hair, and Charles Laughton and he has a Zelig-like ability to manifest the symptoms of anyone in his vicinity.

In lesser hands, Terry could easily be a grating figure but Peyton and Thornton catch it just right: he takes Kate to an atmospheric coastal diner, and after visiting the jukebox the romantic strains of Just the Two of Us fill the air. Kate compliments Terry on his choice but he confesses its a result of obsessive-compulsive need to press the A 1 buttons. Its a typically sly use of soundtrack music (Bob Dylan, and U2s Beautiful Day feature prominently), while the diner scene is one of several lifted out of the ordinary by Dante Spinottis terrific neon bleu nuit cinematography. Its obvious why he’s Michael Manns DP of choice one visual coup in particular is worth the price of admission on its own: a shot of Blanchetts face illuminated by the light of a refrigerator, taken from inside the fridge. So when she closes the door, its an automatic, witty, perfect fade to black.

21st November, 2001
(seen 15-Nov-01, Odeon West End London Film Festival)

by Neil Young

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