The heist or caper film, in which an assortment of thieves pulls off a daring and often intricate robbery, has long been a favorite of audiences, both in the United States and abroad. Its narrative conventions and underlying psychology are at once obvious and devious: after all, conventional social morality teaches us to frown on theft and deception and to reject characters that live outside the law. As long as the Motion Picture Production Code had any life left in it, American filmmakers were obliged for a long time to maintain the fiction that crime never pays. The films chosen both challenge and validate those assumptions in ways that are entertaining, mildly subversive and wholly characteristic of this genre. Films will include: The League of Gentlemen, The Asphalt Jungle, Inside Man, Gambit and The Score.
Course Code
501630