TNMC
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Psychotic Reactions
-- John Shea
20 June, 2003
I finally got around to watching The Italian Job this week. I reviewed the script a few months back and that was the main reason I didn't catch the movie promptly. While I always enjoy the chance to read and review a script, the downside is that I can never experience the movie fresh. I know too much and thus the story can't engage me quite as much. So I often skip those movies, or wait a long time to see them. I enjoyed the script for The Italtian Job. It was light and fun with a lack of logic being it's biggest fault. When the ads for the film started appearing, I noticed that they included scenes not in the script. I was intrigued as these scenes seemed to be ones that would plug holes in the plot. I had hope that a decent script had been improved on and might end in a solid film.
Sure enough, the final film is an improvement over the script. Let me give you an example. This will be spoiler loaded so move on if you haven't seen the film yet. The decision is made by the heroes to use a trio of Mini Coopers to steal and move the gold. After the heist is an elaborate chase. Reading this I couldn't help thinking that all that gold would put a serious dent in the Mini's performance. Possibly to the point of making the chase thoroughly implausible. In the final version, they consider this and test the Mini's and then bring in a master mechanic to make the necessary upgrades to the cars for their appointed task. Thus a plot hole is closed and I am not distracted.
Another major change involves a secondary villain. The prime villain is the traitorous Steve but along the way he kills a man he was using to fence the gold bricks. This man is related to a Ukranian mobster who immediately seeks revenge. In the script, the mobster enters the story much earlier and it takes some time before we understand his relationship to the greater story. This is entirely unnecessary. We don't need to know this man. We only need to know that he is dangerous and that he wants revenge. Everything else is a waste of our time. In the movie, this man enters the story after the death of his cousin. In other words, he wastes none of our time, entering the scene at the last possible moment. Big improvement.
Generally speaking the final script is a massive improvement. They did a great job of patching holes, streamlining the story and improving the characters. The film is shot with great style and wimsy that makes it full of energy and fun. I was delighted by the final product. It illustrates why I make a point to stress that scripts can change. A good but flawed script like this can be fixed and yield a good film. The reverse is also possible and that's why I try not to make too much of reviewing a script.
On a side note, I like the fact that they showed the original Mini before bringing out the new Minis. The original Mini was an impossibly tiny car that was also a blast to drive. It was however nothing to look at. It actually manages to look smaller than it is and doesn't even look all that safe to drive hard. When the new Minis are shown in the movie, it's a stunning change. While the new Minis have a look that is reminiscent of the older version, they are also far sleeker and more muscular looking. These are now quite handsome cars, despite their tiny size. I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that sales of the British cars spikes significantly following the film's release. Beyond being a good movie, it's a spectacular ad for the cars.
Moving right along, the New York Times had a fascinating article on the development of digital projectors for movie theaters. I wrote about this in one of the first of these columns, indicating the whole thing seemed dead. Apparently, I was wrong, and if the article is right, a cause for hope. A group of technicians are using the old Hollywood Pacific Theater to test the hell out of digital projectors, looking for what to improve to develop the digital projection system that would please customers and enable the studios to jettison the costly process of printing and shipping prints of a film. Reportedly they could save $1 billion anually. This is obviously pretty enticing to the studios. Right now though, digital projection is simply not up the standards of film projection. Even a film like Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, which was shot digitally, can not compare to the image quality of a movie shown on film. The technicians are fully aware of this and so are the studios. According to the article, they want the change over to digital projection to be a wow factor. They want it to be noticeably better than film projection. This is a good thing because it means they aren't going to try and take a cheap way out. It sounds like they won't seriously move forward until they have a system that will not only provide them financial benefits, but provide an improvement for audiences that could potentially draw more of them to the movies.
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