So here's my screenplay idea for anyone who wishes to run with it: Heist movie with the bank manager as protagonist. Elements include:
- Building suspense of when and how the robbers will strike
- Seeing the minutia of bank protocols (and how, when and by whom they are not followed) so the viewer can plan their own robbery
- All characters major and minor create the guessing game (always for the viewer but only gradually for the protagonist) of who is honest and who is just slowly setting up the heist for their never seen partners in crime. Is it the old high-school drinking buddy who has recently descended into the drug underworld? Is it the too good to be true sexy new lover? Is it the disgruntled teller who is resentful of the "Wall Street" villians of our day? Is it that eccentric customer that keeps on coming in with the requests that require extra trips to the vault? No, it couldn't possibly be Rusty the guard who can't afford the nursing home for his wife, could it?
Rating: 7 out of 10
Also recommended: Kubrick's The Killing. Before Reservoir Dogs, this was the most famous Rashomon heist movie.
A constant frustration is the marginalization of great shorts.
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing a brilliant one, we have no way to direct other viewers to it...shorts just don't go into wide release except years later as part of anthologies. A hilarious short recently (i.e., sometime in the last 10 years) shown at the VCU French Film Festival played out each of the inept would-be robbers' plans. When they finally come up with a plan that might work, they arrive at the bank to watch much more able thieves exiting the bank with their target cash. Now that I think about it, I guess it was something of a metaphor for dubious accomplishments of a maker of film shorts.