Cast: Bruce Willis, Cate Blanchett, Billy Bob Thornton, Troy Garity
Director: Barry Levinson
Producers: Ashok Amritraj, Michele Berk, Michael Birnbaum, Arnold Rifkin, Paula Weinstein
Screenplay: Harley Peyton
Cinematography: Dante Spinotti
Music: Christopher Young
U.S. Distributor: MGM
Director Barry Levinson, the toast of Baltimore, Maryland, is one of those filmmakers whose body of work ranges from the downright awful (Sphere) to the extraordinarily appealing (The Natural). In fact, Levinson is so inconsistent that you never know whether his next film is going to be a Jimmy Hollywood or a Wag the Dog. In the case of Bandits, a big-budget Hollywood production starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett, Levinson has managed to steer clear of some of the pitfalls that have marred his worst outings, but he has also avoided the qualities needed to vault this movie into the upper echelon of his body of work. The result is a poorly-focused, meandering motion picture that occasionally offers moments of enjoyable banter and mildly amusing comedy.
The movie can't decide what it wants to be, so it gives us elements of a number of generic cinematic staples: the romantic triangle, the buddy movie, and the caper film. When Bandits concentrates on character interaction, it's generally on solid (if unspectacular) ground, but when it tries to move the plot forward in clever and unexpected ways, it falls on its face. The climactic "twist" is especially painful, since it's transparent to anyone who has been paying moderate attention. Unfortunately, Levinson still expects us to be surprised (this is evident from the way the final scenes are filmed), which gives the impression that the filmmakers are insulting our intelligence. Bandits has some nice touches, mostly in the scenes between Thornton and Blanchett, and there are some funny moments, but those can't save the movie, although they make the protracted 124-minute running length more palatable.
Bandits tells the story of the "Sleepover Bandits", the most successful bank robbers in the history of the United States. As the voiceover tells us, they are part Bonnie & Clyde and part Barnum & Bailey, and Levinson makes sure that every viewer thinks of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on at least three occasions. Joe (Willis) and Terry (Thornton) become friends in prison, then, after breaking out of jail, join forces to go on a crime spree, with the ultimate goal of heading south of the border and opening up a resort. Instead of walking into banks and holding them up in the normal manner, they decide to kidnap the bank manager the day before the robbery, spend the night at his house, then accompany him to work the next morning. Things are going well for the two until Terry is struck by a car driven by Kate (Cate Blanchett), a bored housewife who finds the idea of being a hostage to the Sleepover Bandits to be a wonderful diversion from her humdrum existence. And, not only does she become an unofficial partner in crime, but she begins affairs with first Joe, then Terry.
Ultimately, Bandits fails because Levison doesn't care enough about the film's caper aspects to make them work. They seem to be thrown in as an afterthought, rather than as an integral portion of the story. Character development is also uncertain. We develop some sympathy for sad-sack Terry, but neither Joe nor Cate grows enough to escape their stereotype roots. Thrown into the mix is a real-crime TV show called "Criminals at Large", which follows the exploits of the Sleepover Bandits. Aside from providing needless exposition, these segments serve little purpose beyond damaging the movie's flow and prolonging its running length. If they are intended to be satirical (which seems to be the point), they miss the mark.
For all of its problems, there are a few rewarding things about Bandits - the cinematography (by veteran Dante Spinotti) is consistently good, the acting (by Willis, Thornton, and Blanchett) is solid, and there are several lines of dialogue that sparkle (such as when Kate is referred to as "an iceberg waiting for the Titanic"). Scenes that work generally do so well (as when Joe and Terry spend an awkward evening eating dinner with their kidnapped victims), but too much is forgettable. Bandits may be somewhat offbeat, but that hardly makes it worthwhile.
© 2001 James Berardinelli