Robbery

A robbery film set in Britain. The film opens with a jewel theft. What follows is a long car chase through the streets of London. That section runs nearly fifteen minutes. Narrow streets, real traffic and unbroken driving; no music, only engines. Then the real job is discussed. A mail train will be robbed. There is a bank transfer aboard and the date is known. Clifton puts the team together. Everyone has a task; one will change the signal, one will drive the lorry, one will enter the carriage. A prison break is needed as well. One of the men is inside and has to be got out. From there the film is a story of preparation. A field, an airfield, a farmhouse, practice drives and calculations of timing. There is an inspector on the other side. Langdon is running the file and has almost nothing. The robbery is carried out at night. The scene is quiet, fast and without speech. What the narrative is interested in is not money but coming apart: the job succeeds but the team cannot hold together, and the real story begins after that. The narrative lets nobody be sympathised with. The characters' private lives are barely shown; the film introduces them only through their work. The source is a real event. It draws on the great train robbery carried out in Britain in 1963 and the plot is substantially altered. The opening chase won the film a larger place than it might have had. Steve McQueen watched that section and asked for the director, and Peter Yates went to America the following year to make Bullitt. Stanley Baker, Joanna Pettet, James Booth and Frank Finlay are in the cast. Peter Yates directed and co-wrote. Who it is for: anyone who likes cold, procedural robbery films. Who it is not for: anyone looking for character; nobody is introduced and the narrative is interested only in the mechanics of the job.