Film Summary DCXCIX (Thieves Like Us)


Strangest Coca-Cola advertisement, ever.

I originally intended that to be more of a joke statement. Coca-Cola is advertised in a movie within several places and you make a joke how the film starts taking a back seat to the product.
But my God, that's not even a joke anymore.
Coca-Cola has more screen time in this movie than two of the leads on that poster.

'Thieves like us' is the story of three bank robbers who go from small town to small town (mainly within the state of Mississippi) robbing banks in a very nonchalant and basic fashion.

Or at the very least that's what the film wants you to think it is. Really it's a movie about one of these bank robbers sitting around waiting for the next bank robbery. Interacting with this weird Country Village girl played by Shelly Duvall.

A fair bit of the film is just our three leads sitting around and talking to each other. Sometimes about their future and previous heights. But for the most part just about random things.
There people without any real purpose in life, they seem to be robbing banks just for the sake of robbing them and there's no great plans for the future.
One of them tries to settle down by eventually buying a spot of land with cheap motels on it. But he's killed.
And we don't even see how he's killed.
It's just implied later on through the radio.
In fact a good amount of the story is for the radio.

In a lot of ways this feels like a half movie.
We're only getting 20 to 30% of the actual plot throughout the entire story while everything else is either implied or forgotten about.
We don't see how they set up for the robberies. We don't see them getting cars, or understand how one of them can eventually get a sheriff's badge than take one of their other members out of a prison after they're caught.

I do find it strange that the ending is so formulaic. You can see it coming a mile away and it feels at odds with the rest of the film which is so disjointed and mysterious.
You have no idea what's going to happen.
They might go on to do the heist, they may not. Maybe they just spend a half an hour sitting around the weird family or get lost in the woods for a bit sleeping in a random Barn.
Sometimes they're incredibly Rich, other times they're destitute and you're never entirely sure when any of this is happening. Only that it is happening.
Then plot elements come along which you think are going to be important; Like a random Dog being introduced, but it's immediately forgotten about it.
Perhaps the most intriguing part about all of this is; I can't tell if this is some sort of artistically interesting way of telling the story or if it's just sloppy script writing. In reality it's most-likely a little of both.

Overall it's an interesting flick. If you're going and expecting a fun Bank Heist movie than you might want to look somewhere else.
If you like awkward romance and watching a bunch of weirdos prattle about for an hour then it's a movie for you.

Oh and Shelley Duvall is absolutely wonderful. No big surprise there. She plays this super Oddball girl but is oddly Charming in a way that only Shelley Duvall can really pull off.

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