The Bank Job (2008)

Plot of The Bank Job: It is 1971. Terry Leather, a car dealer with money problems, is approached by glamourous Martine Love, who had been apprehended in Heathrow carrying drugs, to carry out a bank robbery. She has been tasked by MI5 to recover the contents of a safe deposit box from the vault of Lloyds Bank in Baker Street. Terry and some associates take on the job, digging a tunnel from a rented shop over some time, and breaking into the vault where the contents of many boxes are looted. As well as bags of valuables Martine recovers the contents of one box for MI5 apparently photos of a member of the royal family engaged in sex, and unknown to them, a book of clandestine payments made to the police by an underworld figure, pornographer Lew Vogal. Vogal recognises one of the robbers and tortures him for information, meanwhile Terry must make a deal with MI5 to ensure his own safety before handing over the photos.

Content: There is a lot of female nudity and people having sex, featuring “thrusting”. This is a world of pornography, blackmail, brothels and strip clubs. A toff is seen engaging in masochistic activities, unknown to him, being filmed. Also a lot of smoking and drinking. Terry is seen being threatened by loan shark enforcers, who damage his stock – denting the bonnet of an Austin Healy 3000. Once they are carrying out the robbery they are seen digging the tunnel and inside the bank they destroy the boxes. They have a lookout on the top of a building who communicates by radio, and this is picked up by a Ham radio operator. The police are alerted but don’t know which bank is being robbed. People are beaten up and some are murdered.

A View: The sleazy environment in which most of these characters exist is well presented, as are the variety of mildly exotic cars seen variously throughout. One of the characters Michael X is real and was executed in Trinidad for murder. The guys are likeably presented, and if you choose to watch this you will find yourself wondering if what is presented could actually be true. It is now quite an old film so can probably be watched for nothing. It is not a waste of your time.

Fun Fact: Writers Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement are best known as writers of comedy soaps for BBC and ITV in UK.