To Catch a Thief. A Film of the Crime Genre

Whether it’s an old or new, an original or a remake, when it’s a film of a certain genre we have definite expectations. The Pink Panther, Ocean’s Eleven, Now You See Me, How to Steal a Million, and Robin Hood. What do these movies have in common? These movies and others like them can meet our predictions with the conventions of the caper crime film. Let’s look at how this genre allows the audience to accept the crime, while giving cleverness among the characters, plots and the promise of serial form for us to have our predictions met when watching a great heist movie.

The filmmaker encourages the audience to accept crime such as revenge, theft or even murder as acceptable by making it look glamorous and justified.

For example, there’s a tale of a hero, the man who wears a hood. The poor call him a prince, the prince of thieves. He steals from the rich and gives to the poor and we know him as Robin Hood.

As we ride along with Robin Locksley in the movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves we are captivated by the fact that he’s trying to hold up justice while being an outlaw. Because a crime like this can be shown as a sake of survival and made to be understandable or moral (von Dassanowshy 114). For that to happen they need to create characters that we’ll come to like. For them to be likable it helps the characters to be funny and smarter than everyone else (McArdle).

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What about revenge? In The Italian Job we are shown an executed heist of revenge.

A certain team member gets greedy and takes off with the gold and leaves thinking the other team members are dead, but there were survivors and they’re out for revenge and set out a plan to get the gold back. We are Ireland 2 given another crime to justify, by recruiting the daughter of the man their ally killed, she works for the law-breaking into vaults and is a well-known safecracker. She’s willing to help because of her motive for revenge for her father’s death. Caper films are also known to glamorize crimes (von Dassanowshy). In the oldie but goodie, How to Steal a Million with beautiful Audrey Hepburn’s character Nicole, we can see how a theft can be glamorous. Throughout her attempt at stealing a forged statue Nicole’s wearing gorgeous outfits and going on extravagant outings with the thief she hired to help get the statue back.

Even though she’s getting this statue back, so her father doesn’t get caught, we are all along for the adventure ride and happy when she makes a clean break. We welcomed this crime because of the glamorization that was given to us through these details shown in the movie. But what else helps the genre of caper films? Is it consistency or the skill of wit? We tend to foresee a uniform in crime caper movies with characters. The qualities of characters “specifically a main character”, within a certain genre tend to be consistent (Dercksen). There can be a quick wit of a switch in reverse roles like a criminal turned good, a crooked cop, or the film could have more than one crime while we’re enjoying the offbeat characters.

What about the point of view? This genre depends on the point of view of the criminal which is the focus because of the planning and completion of the heist. I’m always excited to witness the cleverness of the caper film, it’s what I enjoy most about this genre. In the movie Clue we have examples of both humorous characters, multiple murders, and even a twist of a reversed role among one film. Colonel Mustard, Ms. White, Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green, Professor Plum, and Miss Scarlet all are strangers to each other but have something in common. They’re all being blackmailed by the same person, Mr. Body. But there’s a twist, they can all Ireland 3 choose to turn him in or someone has the chance to kill the Butler Wadsworth. Each guest was given a gift and inside each box was a weapon ranging from a candlestick to a revolver. The lights go out and there’s a gunshot, next, you see the lights come on and Mr. The body is dead on the floor. One by one someone ends up dying starting with Mr. Body, the cook, then the maid. But wait a minute is Wadsworth really who he says he is? Was he the innocent butler that he claimed to be or was he really Mr. Body who was blackmailing the guests? The cleverness of these elements were keys to making this movie into the caper film it was meant to be. When looking at offbeat characters I think of the 1963 movie The Pink Panther and the hilarious clumsy French Inspector Clouseau.

When you hear inspector, you think that there’ll be seriousness in the cashing of a thief but not with Inspector Clouseau. While cashing a diamond thief, he’s stepping on women feet, getting run over by skiers, and mistaking dynamite for a candle. Which continues to have you guessing what will happen next. What’s to be expected during a heist? Should the thief get caught or do they always slip through the cracks? Most caper genre films are predictable with their serial form. In Ruth Mayer’s article “In the Nick of Time” she tells us that serialization in a plot is all about the resolution, the quest for an ending (para. 1). We expect to be surprised with the outcome of the heist. We want to be prompted to wonder. The caper crime genre should generate a term best described as “imagination of wonder” (Bean). Even though we can predict that the caper film will be within an expected, repeated offense and character patterns, we still want to wonder what will be next. We are adaptable, accustomed to or familiarized to the serial form (Mayer). What is wonder? Jennifer Bean in her article “Early Mystery- Crime Films, Scientific Seriality, and the Imagination of Wonder” tells us that in the Oxford English Dictionary wonder is defined as to “be struck with surprise or astonishment, to marvel” (para. 12).

We can sometimes be surprised at the thought, if the person being accused of the crime was truly the real culprit. Ocean’s Ireland 4 Eleven and Now You See Me are great movies that prompt us with the wonder in the resolution. We are shown how their cleverness of their preparations comes together. For example, in Now You See Me in the opening of the movie when we are introduced to the main characters, the magician J. Daniel Atlas tells us, “Come in closer. Closer. Because the more you think you see, the easier it will be to fool you.” (Now). We see the illusionists do small heists and captivated by the generosity of giving the money to members of their audience. What are they up to? Are these small heists just covers for a much bigger scheme? Towards the end when we think it’s all concluding, but then we’re surprised by the framing of an innocent man, then shocked by the FBI agent turned crook. But once again, we’re handed a resolution to allow us to accept the crime. It all came together due to revenge for the father of the FBI agent. “Always be the smartest person in the room.” (Now). Whether it was a murder, heist, or even getting revenge you’ve been shown how heroic Robin of Locksley, glamorous Nicole, and the witty Ocean’s crew can capture you in justifying a crime. If you want a movie that will meet your expectations of providing that serial form while giving you that thought of wonder, watch a caper crim film. Anyone in the mood for a movie marathon?