Un homme d'action

Its a film full of entertainment, its full of funny action, and its full of stuff and gadgets that belongs to the era of time. I notice that the police used a peugout just like the one i was born into and thats cool...

its environment of autentic caracters makes me smile over and again, its rude and witty ways to slide out of the polices strongholds are just amazing, the plotspeed is up to your thyroid gland, and the actors casted for this french/spanish/navarranian/basque/catalonian anarchistic freestyler of a biographical drama is just brilliant.

So if you want to lay back to the 1960's paris environment, be my guest, the grumpy old man recommends, and catch me if you can.

Despite the interesting premise, the plot fell flat after the intriguing opening sequence. The story starts in 1962, with main character Lucio Urtubia and girlfriend reaching the Paris airport with a bag full of cash. Costumes and set look spot on and the audience is left wondering what will happen next, since the police is in hot pursuit.

There follows the first annoying flashback to 20 years previously, in Spain with teenage Lucio attempting and failing his first bank robbery to help his sick father. Move forward 10 years and Lucio is in Paris, joining his sister and working as a builder. On his construction site, Lucio meets some anarchists who introduce him to the doctrine and Lucio decides to "expropriate" bank money to help comrades in need, with the help of more skilled anarchist robber Quico.

At this stage the timeline starts to get muddles, with Lucio meeting Anne, the love of his life, robbing banks and eventually getting caught and incarcerated, then out again for another round that includes falsifying banknotes and finally printing fake travellers cheques.

The actor playing Lucio looks much older than a twenty-something in the section taking place in 1952 and still much older than girlfriend Anne, even 10 years later. Also, he's not a particularly good actor and seems to be sleepwalking through the movie. Most un-engaging, gets a couple of stars for costumes and sets.

Lucio Urtubia Jiménez was born in 1931 in Cascante, a small town in Navarra in the north of Spain. He lived most of his life in Paris. He was a legendary bank robber, not interested in personal enrichment; the proceedings of his heists were used in attempting to bring down Francisco Franco's fascist regime and thereby free Spain.

He was an admirer of the Cuban revolution and other liberation movements and he tried (unsuccessfully) to interest Che Guevara in a scheme to bring down the US economy by circulating counterfeit dollars. He was instrumental in the capture of Klaus Barbie in Bolivia and in helping Black Panthers to flee the USA, which put him on the CIA's crosshairs.

Opinions about Urtubia vary, He rated high among his fellow anti-Franco fighters. One of them, Albert Boadella, whom Urtubia helped escape Spain defined him as "a Quixote tilting not at windmills but at real enemies." Unsurprisingly, the French police took a dim view of him as "a criminal mastermind pulling the strings of an international criminal organization." However, he had many admirers and friends on France such as Albert Camus and André Breton.

His most celebrated exploit was in 1977. With the help of master engravers he forged and circulated 20 million worth of Citibank travellers checks. Initially, Citibank tried to force the French police to make an example of Urtubia. However, the plan was too sophisticated for either the police or Citibank and they were forced to capitulate. Urtubia escaped with a short sentence and a substantial take which he distributed among guerrilla groups. Superficially one could compare Urtubia with Robin Hood, However, the latter only led a showy but ineffectual revolt against a few corrupt lords, while Urtubia dealt a lot more successfully with the real villains.

I liked this movie. It takes some liberties with the facts and the point of view is somewhat naive and hero worshipping; the psychology of the characters is not really touched or developed. But the final result is positive. Excellent acting, direction and cinematography.

No pun intended - but I'll add one: you gotta cheque yourself, before you wreck your(home) self ... ah well. I can do this all day ... Captain Greece that is if you even care. But back to the point or rather the movie. Real life stories can be good - but they can also make some viewers roll their eyes ... not in a good way - also if you are thinking of anything other than annoyed, those are your thoughts and your thoughts alone.

Sorry for that, but I am certain some people have a dirty mind - shame on them. Talking of dirty ... what about dirty money? What about banks, who have too much of it? I mean it is mostly the money of workers ... but they play with it ... and they are insured ... so it is ok to .. no, do not even think about it! Especially because you'll get in prison ... which is a possibility for the main characters here ... since they are based on real people, you may already know their story.

Let's say you don't - I didn't ... and the movie was really well thought of ... and edited. Very well acted too ... and the suspense of it ... great too. Will not make my top 20 list - but it was an interesting and entertaining watch ... especially with the real life factor included ... credits reveal more ... well a bit more! It is not a documentary after all ...

This is my first time ever to come across a very interesting figure--Lucio Urtubia--and his exploits. His story is fascinating and the movie brings to the screen what is known about the man to a large extent. It's acknowledged however, that what it shown is not true one hundred percent. Still, by and large, it's out of the ordinary.

Someone has remarked that the movie lacks depth considering the rich material that is at the disposal of the makers. Yet, it's good enough considering it's running time.

The central point of Urtubia's story is how he succeeds in challenging the biggest American bank and in outwitting it in an extremely creative way. He didn't give up when an earlier plan fails to take off. What's also significant is his association albeit brief with a legendary anarchist--Quico Sabate. Their association brings out their contrasting anarchist approaches to dealing with the banking establishment. But both agree that what they're doing is not robbing banks but expropriating on behalf of poor people.

All told it's a satisfying viewing experience. Juan Jose Ballesta does a good job portraying Urtubia. Luis Callejo, Miki Esparbe and Liah O'Prey provide able support.