I’ve always been a fan of films that are special little treasures that get lost in the shuffle. The kinds that are buried in the attic of popular cinema’s consciousness. This edition of Crimewatch covers such a movie. It’s Martin Brest‘s 1979 crime-caper film Going In Style. To start, there are some interesting details about this one that set it apart from other films in the genre: 1) it involves regular people who decide to commit a crime on a whim. 2) the characters are senior citizens 3) It’s a caper subgenre film: Caper films usually revolve around planning a intricate heist or robbery and often have a slight comedic touch (see others like Gambit and Kelly’s Heroes).
Joe (George Burns), Al (Art Carney) and Willie (Lee Strasberg) are three old friends that live together in New York City. Their only real excitement in life comes from cashing social security checks and taking daily walks to the park where they sit on a bench and feed the pigeons. We can see that their time as relevant members of society is pretty much over. One day Joe gets a wild idea: they should rob a bank. To him, it will be one last shot to have something exciting to do before they shuffle off this mortal coil. When they hear Joe’s suggestion, Al and Willie are shocked and have to mull it over awhile but Joe is able to convince them it’s a doable job if they execute it just right. They finally agree and proceed to plan everything out and get ready for their debut as bank robbers. They even buy disguises: three Groucho Marx masks. The pals are able to pull off the plan successfully but unforseen troubles soon arise, throwing their plans of one final glorious ride into the sunset, like three bandits in the Old West, out of control.
George Burns’ career in comedy spanned from the days of vaudeville to film into radio through to the advent of television. For me, Joe is one of his all time best onscreen roles. Art Carney is someone I grew up watching on reruns of the TV show The Honeymooners where he played Ed Norton, a goofy sewage worker. Often overlooked, Carney was an excellent dramatic actor as he showed in the film Harry and Tonto (another favorite) and this film. Lee Strasberg, legendary teacher at the Actors Studio and the man who played one of my all time favorite characters Hymen Roth in Francis Ford Coppola‘s The Godfather II, gives a quiet but moving performance as Willie. All three actors are able to create such depth for their characters by not overacting. Joe, Al and Willie each have a lifetimes worth of tales to tell us, but they only give tiny glimpses of these things which actually make the film that much more resonant.
Going In Style is a film anyone young or old can watch and enjoy. Its got humor but it’s not a laugh riot, its got emotion, but it’s not heavy handed, and its got three incredible acting legends who do an excellent job in their roles as forgotten men way past their prime who decide to experience something out of character before their collective time is up.
