4.34 - THE ITALIAN JOB (1969) & Nationalism

The Prestige

This week, our focus turns to the 1969 classic THE ITALIAN JOB. After our usual opening reviews, we go on to talk about the development of the on-screen working-class criminals, British v Italians on film, and the continuing evolution of the heist genre.

Next Time
Our next film, much to Sam’s delight, is the 1973 crime classic (and recipient of the Best Picture Oscar, among many others) THE STING.

Recent Media
AGAINST ALL FLAGS (1952): George Sherman, Douglas Sirk, Errol Flynn
KNIVES OUT (2019): Rian Johnson, Daniel Craig, Chris Evans

Recommendations
HARRY BROWN (2009): Daniel Barber, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer
KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE (2014): Matthew Vaughn, Colin Firth, Taron Egerton
SLEUTH (1972): Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier
THE ITALIAN JOB (2003): F. Gary Gray, Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron

Footnotes Firstly, here’s more info to bring you (and Sam, to be honest) up to speed on the historical events of the Great Train Robbery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Train_Robbery_(1963). Here’s more on framing in film, and why that’s important, after Rob’s discussion of the presentation of the mafia: www.hollywoodlexicon.com/frame.html. This article is interesting, on a film that will be unsurprising to anyone! www.theguardian.com/film/2019/sep/23/butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid-paul-newman-robert-reford. For your regular hit of theory, this book is recommended. And finally, here are the lyrics to ‘The British Grenadiers’, a tune which is used to such good effect in the film: https://genius.com/Traditional-the-british-grenadiers-annotated.

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