The Bank Shot

This may be the one that George C Scott cringed about, but WHAT a laugh it was! Certainly not an intellectual feast, but why should every movie be just that? I like my mind to be tickeled, but laughs are always welcome and badly needed to! This is one of those movies that is small and light and fluffy and is simply truly great entertainment, simply because it is so unpretentious. If you want a break from every day life, this is great watching with gags galore, and it is precisely Scott's very annoyed attitude that makes it work. His "Leave me alone you crazies" attitude makes the other characters carry through a vision of a crazy world, that is despite its outrageous insanity closer to the truth of every day senselessness than we all would admit. I first saw this one as a kid, and I can still laugh about it. It is from the same period as "Harold and Maude" and while by no means carrying any social or philosophical comments like Harold and Maude, it certainly has that irreverent flair of the 70s. Does a movie always have to be serious? Whatever happened to simple laughter and charme and the kind of babedom and sexiness displayed by a young Joanna Cassidy? Every character punched through and was flavorful and strong. I will also take this movie's camera-work over anything done with the 90s vintage (and still in use) "new look" stupid jiggling camera and zoomiezoom wiggle-jiggle and zoom-in-zoom-out-pretending-to-be-documentary stuff that makes me sea sick and makes me hit the "off" button regardless of what the story line may be! This one is one of my all time favorite comedies , and I don't care what critics think or Scott thought! It feels right and it lives in a different world. Now isn't also what movies can be all about?

Scott cringes when this film is brought up and rightly so; it's one of those capers that start all stops out, but then have nowhere else to go. Gags that have potential and a cast that could have worked a little harder, but the biggest problem was the amatuerish script and the obvious look of boredom on the face of star Scott. If you didn't want to do the film...why did you sign on for it?

I'd like to know.

THE BANK SHOT is a lightheart comedy from 1974 which stars George C. Scott in a rare appearance for the genre. It begins as a prison drama before moving into an oddball heist movie packed with some top character actors, including Frank McRae and Don Calfa, although it's Scott's slightly smug performance that leads the way. The escape scene with the bulldozers is a highlight here, but the inventive heist that happens later on in the film is handled very well. The suspense doesn't let up afterwards either, and I doubt I'm the only person who gets a kick out of a Clifton James appearance. The ending is a bit abrupt, but otherwise this works.

Although I think George C. Scott is much better at drama than at comedy, he controls his normal intensity and does well with Bank Shot. Scott plays a master criminal who's on temporary hiatus in prison when his disbarred lawyer Sorrell Booke visits him with an idea for a heisting a bank.

Scott escapes with relative ease the penal institution run by Clifton James where he's incarcerated. Which gives James an obsession to catch him that he leaves the job and supervises the manhunt. But that's like the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.

Booke's only half right. He wants to rob a bank where a bank is temporarily housed in a mobile home. But Scott doesn't like his original plan. Let's heist the bank itself.

Some pretty funny gags are in Bank Shot and the crew Booke gives Scott would be closer to The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. Funniest is his nephew Bob Balaban former FBI employee who apparently developed an admiration for the criminal lifestyle while employed there. A gambit you could never use while J. Edgar Hoover was running the show.

Best bit is the faux railroad impending crash at a crossing where James and security guards are forced to flee for their lives after the temporary bank has been heisted.

Scott also is of the opinion that women and his kind of work don't mix. With reluctance he has Joanne Cassidy who assisted with his escape as part of his team. The saltpeter in his prison diet have made him somewhat resistant to her beauty although Cassidy does her best to see it her way.

Scott and the cast do a wonderful job. James is really the funny one here. Scott plays it absolutely straight and let's the rest of the cast get the laughs. It works out well in Bank Shot.

This movie was lots of fun from start to finish with Scott in an unusual comic role. The madcap hijinxs that ensue are outrageous and the excellent cast of characters do a fine job. I'm not sure why the very low rating- were people looking for masterpiece theatre? Sit back and enjoy this 70s romp that's much better than most "great" movies I've seen lately.