The Big Heist

"The Big Heist" is a film adaptation of the book "The Heist" by Ernest Volkman and John Cummings. It's a real life crime film which has a major problem...no one associated with the robbery was ever successfully prosecuted. So, much of what's in the book and film is LIKELY the truth but there's no certainty to this.

JImmy Burke (Donald Sutherland) has just been released from prison. During his absence, his gang has pretty much floundered as the gang seem pretty stupid. However, despite being pretty dumb, they hit on a great scheme...to rob a shipment of cash from Lufthansa. In total, they stole more than $5,000,000...the largest cash robbery to date.

Much of the film is about Jimmy's actions AFTER the robbery. It seemed that to keep things quiet, he was responsible for murdering most everyone else associated with the robbery. What's next? See the film.

The story was dealt with, much more briefly, in the film "Goodfellas" with Robert De Niro playing the same role Sutherland plays in this movie.

So is this film any good? Well, it's not bad but there certainly are much better heist films. I'd call it a decent time-passer...woth seeing but not especially memorable.

"The Big Heist" is a small time flick about a small time mob boss (Sutherland) and his crew. Whether this tv film for A&E was based on a true story is irrelevant. It isn't gonna get any better than a low budget schlock flick either way. This marginally interesting story, which can't be taken seriously, wanders between comedy and drama as it fiddles around with boring details then sprints to its anticlimactic conclusion before running out of gas. Mediocre fodder for sofa spuds into mob stories. (C)

This movie takes the Lufthansa heist, which was a part of "Goodfellas", and expands it into a whole movie. While this is not a criticism in itself (and it's interesting to see how different screenwriters, actors, and directors handle the same factual material), "The Big Heist" can't hold a stylistic candle to G-F although it does contain much more detailed information; G-Fs, as far as I can remember, never mentioned the existence of Jimmy's (DeNiro's) children, one of whom plays a major role in "Heist".

While fans of Goodfellas might tune into this schlock on Cable TV thinking there would be more about the 1978 Lufthansa heist that was so important in that film, they will be sadly disappointed. Jimmy Burke was not a "small-time hood", he was simply not Italian and could never be "made" (neither could Henry Hill) so was merely "associated" with the Mafia. While the real names of the participants are used as opposed to Goodfellas (Burke instead of Conway etc.) this movie is just too distorted from the true story. Donald Sutherland gives a fine performance in a lame effort but why the Irish accent? How did Burke's son enter into the caper?

Donald sutherland, john heard in a caper film. Jimmy just got kicked out of the big house, and when a sure thing goes wrong, they need to come up with money quick. So they hatch a plan to pull a job at the aiport. With a copper sniffing up his tailpipe every step of the way. According to the narrator, its 1978. Lots of disco music. When they pull the job, it's so much more money than they planned on, now the mob is after them too. As expected, cracks start to appear in this foundation. Although i'm not sure why it's a local cops turf..... a money heist, pulled at an international airport would totally be FBI territory. And sutherland's accent keeps changing. It's mostly good. A whole lot of people getting knocked off. One of the coppers even says ten little indians, referring to a. Christie. Based on the book by ernest volkman and john cummings directed by bob markowitz.