heist films

The heist film or caper film is a subgenre of crime film focused on the planning, execution, and aftermath of a significant robbery.

One of the early defining heist films was ''The Asphalt Jungle'' (1950), which ''Film Genre 2000'' wrote "almost single-handedly popularized the genre for mainstream cinema". It featured robbers whose personal failings ultimately led to the failure of their robbery. Similar films using this formula were ''Armored Car Robbery'' (1950), '' The Killing'' (1956), and '' The Getaway'' (1972). By the 1990s, heist films began to "experiment and play with these conventions," incorporating things like comedy into heist stories.

Characteristics of the genre

While there is sometimes some confusion as to what counts as a heist film, there are characteristics that most films in the genre follow.

The most basic of these is that films in the genre tend to follow the planning, execution and aftermath of one large robbery. While there can be smaller crimes leading up to the major crime, this major crime is the centerpiece of the film and is the event which informs much of the film's plot. As a result of this, heist films tend to focus on the process of the heist, often showing how the criminals plan the heist in great detail. They also tend to devote a large portion of the film's runtime to the heist itself, giving the viewer a detailed look of how the criminals complete the heist.

The genre is also distinct for almost exclusively following the people who are committing the crime rather than following the people trying to stop the criminals. This often leads to the viewer building some form of sympathy or respect for the criminals. Another common characteristic of the heist film is the assembling of a team to complete the heist. Each team member often has some unique skill or set of skills which are needed to complete the heist.

Over time filmmakers have taken these characteristics and changed them to create interesting plays on the genre. For example, ''Reservoir Dogs'' (1992) skips the planning and execution of the heist, choosing instead to focus exclusively on the aftermath. Another example of this is ''The Italian Job'' (1969), which shows the planning and execution of the heist but doesn't fully show the aftermath.

While those characteristics stand as the defining characteristics of the genre, there are other tropes and trends which frequently appear. One such trend is the failure of the heist due to some failing of the criminals involved in the heist. These failings include one of the criminals in the heist getting injured during the heist, or one of the criminals betraying the others during or after the heist. This trend started as a result of the initial films in the genre being made in Hollywood during the Motion Picture Production Code. Under the code, criminals were not allowed to get away with crime, so the heists in these early movies all fail, establishing it as a trend in the genre. In the years since the code filmmakers have made heist films where the criminals get away; however, the trope of failed heists still exists in modern films. One of the most dynamic examples is ''Reservoir Dogs'', which focuses solely on trying to figure out which of their group members betrayed them after a failed heist. Another popular trope is "one last job", whereby a criminal looking to stop being a criminal enlists the team to do one last heist so they will have money for the rest of their life. This can be seen in early films such as ''The Asphalt Jungle'' (1950) as well as more recent films like ''Heat'' (1995).

History

While elements of the heist film can be seen in movies as early as '' The Great Train Robbery'' (1903), the genre didn't begin until the late 1940s and the early 1950s. The film widely agreed upon as the first film in the genre is John Huston's 1950 film ''The Asphalt Jungle'', starring Sterling Hayden and Sam Jaffee (with Marilyn Monroe in a supporting role). The film contains many of the hallmarks of the genre, the most obvious of which is its following of the planning, execution, and aftermath of a single heist from the criminal's perspective. It also devotes a large amount of time to the heist itself and involves a group of variously skilled criminals who are brought together to complete the crime. Two earlier films that some consider earlier examples of the genre are '' Criss Cross'' (1949) and ''The Killers'' (1946). While these films do follow the planning, execution, and aftermath of a single heist from the criminals' perspective, critics argue that they devote too much time to the planning and aftermath of the heist and too little to the actual heist. As a result they are frequently cited as key films in the development of the genre but not the start of the genre itself. All of these films are also notable for having elements which are indebted to the film noir genre. This includes their moody, expressionistic black and white cinematography as well as a dark and fatalistic tone key in film noir. As a result, scholars such as Daryl Lee refer to this era of heist films as “noir heists”. Anne Billson of the BBC
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