Italian Job, The (UK)

Charlie Croker has just been released from prison but already he has plans for a new job, The Italian Job. He proposes to rob 4 million pounds worth of gold from an armoured van in Turin by causing the worlds biggest traffic jam. He meets up with old mates and makes some new ones whilst assembling his team of crooks. He attempts to get financial backing from the notorious Mr Bridger and they are off to pull off the heist. With the Mafia on to them, as well as lots of police about, the odds arent too good..........

This is in every terms a solid classic. Michael Caine is great in his role as a slick but up front Londoner Charlie Croker. There is good support from an all star cast including Noel Coward and Benny Hill. The script is slick and well written with a famous ending. The movie does boast a lot of patriotism towards Britain but thats great because there are so many americanised movies out there. Patriotism is quite a major theme in the movie as there is also a sporting event(football match I think) going on near the time of the heist between England and Italy. The song "This is a self preservation society" has since become a major theme for English people since and is played during England football matches all the time.

The anamorphic widescreen picture is fabulously rich in colour and reasonably sharp. The menus are superbly animated and basically look fantastic. There are only a few specks of dust and small amounts of grain present in the picture. If anything the picture suffers from inconsistency of the sharpness as it varies from below average to a very sharp, almost perfect picture. It is a small detail and considering the movie is 34 years old, It is not that important but my point is that if they can do it for most of the film, would it be too much trouble to perfect it and make it brilliant throughout? Nevertheless it is a fantastic remastered picture from paramount. Great Job

The sound is really marvellous. We have a choice of either a newly created DD 5.1 or a restored mono soundtrack. The DD 5.1 soundtrack is loud and fantastic. Surrounds are well used although this aint really the kind of movie that needs that kind of sound. A good job.

I was a bit worried about this being a paramount release as they have a tendency to produce F.A. extras. I think I`ll leave you to work out what FA stands for! Shockingly, this dvd has some great extras including 3 comprehensive documentary covering the making of the movie. Obviously with the movie being this old, there is little/no shooting footage. The bulk of the documentaries involve the crew and the cast talking about the movie and their experiences and roles. There is some archive footage. There is a deleted "Blue Danube" sequence that was to go in as part of the chase but doesnt add nothing to the story in general. Its well worth viewing and is a treat for fans. It is presented in widescreen and is remastered from its original state. There is an audio commentary from the Matthew Field, author of the book "The making of the italian job" and Michael Deeley(any relation to Cat?), the producer. Its quite good, just like your normal commentaries. The commentary also has optional subtitles. Finally there is a trailer, restored and presented in widescreen. I would have liked to have seen a little more but as its paramount, we should be grateful there is anything else at all.

A fantastic package, surprisingly from paramount. The disc is quality all round and is available to buy cheaply from most e-tailers. Its a classic and is too good to be missed. Let me just close by saying "You`re Only Supposed To Blow The Bloody Doors Off" :D

Introduction
What can you say about this film that hasn`t been said!

A classic 1960`s British film, starring Micheal Caine in possibly one of his most memorable rolls - certainly his most memorable catch-phrase about blowing the bloody doors off. A phrase that crops up more than once on the disc!
The Plot
The whole film is a tongue in cheek view of Britishness, from the outrageous upper class accents to the mini colours and so on. I do find it hard to forgive the trashing of the Aston-Martin though.

All filmed without the use of CGI and so on. The minis really do make the jumps and amazing tricks you see.

Of course the ultimate cliff hanger ending is almost as memorable. I recall watching this film on TV (probably for the 2nd time) as a callow youth with my mother and grandmother - and them being outraged at the ending. "But... did they get away or...??"
The Extras
The extras are very interesting - the ballroom scene is a nice extra, but as the commentary says, it doesn`t really fit into the pace of the car chase, so was probably well left out.

The documentaries are informative, the fact that FIAT were willing to pay and donate huge amounts of cars if they would swap the minis for FIATs shows how much they understood the signifigance. At the end of the day though, as the commentary says, this would have ruined the whole underlying subtext. So well done for sticking to their principles.
The comments about the stunt drivers trying to get the minis to loop the loop in the sewer scenes are also quite incredible.
Summary
I haven`t seen the remake - and I don`t know if I want to. Sometimes you can`t improve on things, and I have the feeling that Hollywood can`t get the same excentricity into the plot as shown here - I may be wrong.
Definitely worth a watch (or two!)