The Bank Job

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The Bank Job
Promotional movie poster
Directed by	Roger Donaldson
Produced by	David Alper
Written by	Dick Clement Ian La Frenais George McIndoe Aaron Shuster
Starring	Jason Statham Saffron Burrows
Music by	J. Peter Robinson
Cinematography	Michael Coulter
Editing by	John Gilbert
Distributed by	Lions Gate Entertainment (US, UK)[1] Paramount Pictures (Australia)
Release date(s)	29 February 2008
Running time	1 hr. 51 mins.[2]
Country	UK
Language	English
Gross revenue	$63,754,550 (worldwide)

The Bank Job is a 2008 British crime film directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Jason Statham, based on the 1971 Baker Street robbery in central London, from which the money and valuables stolen were never recovered. The producers allege that the story was prevented from being told because of a D-Notice (now known as a DA-Notice) government gagging request, allegedly to protect a prominent member of the British Royal Family.^[3][4] According to the producers, this movie is intended to reveal the truth for the first time,^[5] although it includes significant elements of fiction and the extent to which it represents historical fact is difficult to determine.

The premiere was held in London on 18 February 2008, and the film was released in the UK on 28 February 2008.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Production 3 Cast 4 Reception 5 Box office performance 6 Soundtrack 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Plot

Petty-criminal-gone-straight Terry Leather (Jason Statham) owns a failing car-sales garage and is being harassed by two debt-collectors. His friend, the photographer Kevin Swain's (Stephen Campbell Moore) ex-girlfriend, a former model named Martine Love (Saffron Burrows) offers Terry a chance to earn enough money to never worry about debt again: a bank robbery in Baker Street, London. Leather gathers a group of his petty-criminal friends, including Swain, a sometimes pornography actor Dave Shilling (Daniel Mays), a Cypriot mechanic named Bambas (Alki David), and an elegant con-man "Major" Guy Singer (James Faulkner) to help execute the plan. While scouting out the bank, Leather and Love enter the bank and inspect the vault while Shilling poses for photographs taken by Swain. The gangster Lew Vogel (David Suchet), who keeps his records of his pay-offs to the police at that branch of Lloyd’s bank, happens upon Shilling and Swain, and recognizes the former from his work in pornographic films for him.

The gang of robbers lease a shop named Le Sac two lots away from the bank and start digging a tunnel underneath The Chicken Inn (a chicken fast-food restaurant) in order to reach the underground bank vault. Terry employs Eddie Burton (Michael Jibson), a worker in his garage, as a "watchman" with a walkie-talkie to sit on the roof of the building opposite and keep a look out for trouble.

What they don't know is that Martine, who has been caught smuggling heroin into Britain and desperately wants to avoid jail, is setting them up on behalf of MI5, which wants the contents of a certain safe deposit box (No. 118) within the bank. This safe deposit box contains compromising photos of a female member of the British Royal Family (identified in the film as Princess Margaret) participating in a threesome. The photos are in a box belonging to a black militant and petty gangster who calls himself Michael X (Peter de Jersey); he is using the photos to avoid trouble with the Metropolitan Police, and MI5 is desperate to keep the photos out of circulation.

As Terry and his crew dig, their radio chatter draws the attention of a local amateur radio operator, who listens in on the conversation and realises he's overhearing a bank robbery in progress. He calls the police, but with a ten-mile radius to search and a lack of concrete details, they fail to pin the robbery down.

After they have broken in and begun looting the vault, Martine goes for the deposit-box with the photos. A suspicious Terry opens the box with her and, upon seeing the pictures, knows that Martine has a hidden agenda. In addition to those photos, further photos of a number of high-ranking government officials are found, at the top a senior MP in compromising positions in a local S&M brothel. The robbers pocket these with the money and other valuables. Terry arranges for alternate transportation "to be safe", throwing off MI5 who had intended to immediately intercept them.

Guy (James Faulkner) and Bambas (Alki David), leave with their share of the spoils. When Terry confronts Martine over the photos, she explains their predicament. Meanwhile, the robbery is discovered, and the police — both corrupt ones receiving payoffs and honest ones — start their investigation. MI5 is likewise searching. Lew Vogel (David Suchet), a local club owner and organized crime figure, is worried about the contents of his ledger, which lists every payoff he's made to the police, which by chance also was stolen during the robbery. He also phones Michael X to inform him that his box containing the royal 'portraits' has gone missing. Michael X starts to get suspicious of Gale Benson (Hattie Morahan), a British spy who is the lover of his American colleague and fellow Black Power militant Hakim Jamal (Colin Salmon) and has travelled with him and Jamal to Trinidad.

Based on encounter with Shilling outside of the bank a few days before the robbery, Vogel identifies Shilling from his work in pornography films. Vogel manages to find one of the robbers, Dave (Daniel Mays) and has him tortured for information with a sandblaster. When he eventually tells Vogel everything, Vogel goes to the garage where Terry worked and kidnaps Eddie, who was the lookout during the robbery, taking him to the same secret location and tying him down. At the same time, the senior minister in the government, Lord Drysdale is shown the photos of himself in the brothel run by the madame Sonia Bern (Sharon Maughan), and agrees to try to help absolve the robbers of all wrongdoing and give them safe passage out of the country. Meanwhile, MI5 issues a D-Notice forbidding the press from reporting on the heist any longer. Police simultaneously release recordings from the walkie-talkie conversations, in the hope that someone will recognize the voices. These recordings are heard on the radio by Terry's family.

Vogel's accomplice, the corrupt policeman Detective Gerald Pyke (Don Gallagher) eventually shoots Dave in the head and threatens to shoot Eddie also unless he gets his ledger book (with incriminating info about payoffs) back. Vogel makes an agreement with Terry, agreeing to meet him at Paddington Station in London. During this time as well, Guy and Bambas are murdered by unknown people, and Michael X has Benson killed in Trinidad by having her stabbed and buried alive. Terry has Kev give the same instruction to Detective Sergeant Roy Given (Gerard Horan), the officer in charge of the investigation, citing knowledge of corrupt officers under Vogel's control. He also convinces Vogel to go to Paddington Station at the same time, offering him the book with details of corrupt officers in return for the safe return of his mechanic. This results in a large meeting of all of the involved parties at the same time.

Terry stands on the platform waiting for the others, while Martine meets up with Tim Everett (Richard Lintern), her original contact within MI5, on a bridge overlooking the scene. Vogel and his corrupt police accomplices arrive with the mechanic, but recognize MI5 agents present and run. At the same time, the deputy head of MI5 arrives (with Lord Mountbatten of Burma), handing over the documentation and passports that Terry bargained for, in return for the photos of the princess. Terry then chases the fleeing Vogel and his henchmen. He starts to attack Vogel, and then fights with one of his thugs, knocking them both out. A second bodyguard, the corrupt policeman Detective Nick Barton (Craig Fairbrass) appears with a gun, but Terry manages to avoid the shots and knock him out with a brick hastily dislodged from a wall.

Detective Given, the police officer in charge of the investigation then arrives, and sees the robbers being arrested. He speaks with the MI5 officers present, who direct police to let the robbers go. Terry gives the ledger to the police officer before he, Kevin, and Eddie go away. Vogel and the corrupt officers are arrested instead. Everett personally supervises Michael X's arrest in Trinidad and Tobago and has Benson's remains exhumed for reburial in Britain.

The final scenes have Terry and Martine say good-bye, and Terry and his family enjoying a relaxed and carefree life on a small sailing yacht of their own, near some sunny beach.

The epilogue states that the revelations about the brothel forces many government officials to resign. Scotland Yard starts investigating the corrupt officers named in the ledger. Michael X was hanged in 1975 for Benson's murder and his personal files are kept hidden in the British National Archives until 2054. Vogel gets imprisoned eight years for crimes that were unrelated to the robbery. The murderers of Guy and Bambas have never been found. About GBP 4 million worth of materials and money was stolen from the robbery. At least 100 safety-deposit box owners did not claim insurance nor identify their items in the boxes.

[edit] Production

The film is in part based on historical facts. A gang tunnelled into a branch of Lloyds Bank at the junction between Baker Street and Marylebone Road, in London, on the night of 11 September 1971 and robbed the safe deposit boxes there. The robbers had rented a leather goods shop named Le Sac, two doors down from the bank, and tunnelled a distance of approximately 40 feet (12 metres), passing under the intervening Chicken Inn restaurant.^[4]

Robert Rowlands, a radio ham operator, overheard conversations between the robbers and their rooftop lookout. He contacted police and tape recorded the conversations, which were subsequently made public. The film includes lines recorded by Rowlands, such as the lookout's comment that "Money may be your god, but it's not mine, and I'm fucking off."^[6] After four days of news coverage, British authorities supposedly issued a D-Notice, requesting that news coverage be discontinued for reasons of national security, however The Times was still reporting about the case over two months later.^[4]

The film's producers claim that they have an inside source, identified in press reports as George McIndoe, who served as an executive producer.^[7] The film's claims that the issuance of the D-Notice was because a safe deposit box held sex pictures of Princess Margaret, and the possible connection to Michael X (whose governmental file purportedly is secret until 2054), are apparently based on information provided by McIndoe, though it is not clear what is the basis of his information or how specific it is supposed to be. The film makers apparently have acknowledged that they made up the character Martine, and The New Yorker's conclusion that it is "impossible to say how much of the film's story is true" appears to be correct.^[8]

Part of the filming took place on location at the offices of Websters, 136 Baker Street where the rooftops were actually used for lookout purposes. The majority of outside shots, namely shots including the bank and adjacent shops, were done on a specially constructed set of Baker Street, to retain an authentic feel of the period and to allow for greater control of visible elements.

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Jason Statham	Terry Leather
Saffron Burrows	Martine Love
Richard Lintern	Tim Everett
Stephen Campbell Moore	Kevin Swain
James Faulkner	Guy Arthur Singer
Daniel Mays	Dave Shilling
Alki David	Bambas
Michael Jibson	Eddie Burton
Georgia Taylor	Ingrid Burton
Keeley Hawes	Wendy Leather
Gerard Horan	Det. Sgt. Roy Given
Craig Fairbrass	Det. Nick Barton
Don Gallagher	Det. Gerald Pyke
Julian Lewis Jones	MI5 Ag. Snow
Andrew Brooke	MI5 Ag. Quinn
David Suchet	Lew Vogel
Sharon Maughan	Sonia Bern
Peter Bowles	Miles Urquhart
Alistair Petrie	Philip Lisle
Peter de Jersey	Michael Abdul Malik a.k.a. Michael X
Colin Salmon	Hakim Jamal
Hattie Morahan	Gale Benson
Angus Wright	Eric Addey, Radio Operator
Les Kenny-Green	Pinky
Jamie Kenna	Perky
Rupert Frazer	Lord Drysdale
Christopher Owen	Lord Mountbatten of Burma

[edit] Reception

The movie was well received by critics. As of 31 December 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 78% of the T-Meter critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 137 reviews.^[9] Rotten Tomatoes also reports that 90% of the "top critics" gave the film positive reviews based on 29 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 69 out of 100, based on 32 reviews.^[10]

[edit] Box office performance

The film has grossed $30,060,660 in the United States and Canada, and $33,693,890 in other territories for a total worldwide gross of $63,754,550^[11]

The film opened at #4 in North America and grossed $5,935,256 in 1,603 theaters, averaging to about $3,703 per theatre.^[12]

[edit] Soundtrack

• "Get It On" – T.Rex
• "Lola" – The Kinks
• "Hey There" – The Basics
• "Money (That's What I Want)" – Covered by The Storys, seen early in the film as the wedding band
• "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress" – The Hollies
• "In the Midnight Hour" – Wilson Pickett
• "Gunshot" – Anthony Johnson

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• The Bank Job at the Internet Movie Database
• The Bank Job at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Bank Job at Metacritic
• The Bank Job at Box Office Mojo
• The Bank Job at Allmovie

Preceded by Jumper

Box office number-one films of 2008 (UK) March 2, 2008

Succeeded by Vantage Point

v • d • e Films directed by Roger Donaldson Sleeping Dogs (1977) · Nutcase (1980) · Smash Palace (1981) · The Bounty (1984) · Marie (1985) · No Way Out (1987) · Cocktail (1988) · Cadillac Man (1990) · White Sands (1992) · The Getaway (1994) · Species (1995) · Dante's Peak (1997) · Thirteen Days (2000) · The Recruit (2003) · The World's Fastest Indian (2005) · The Bank Job (2008)

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