Ocean's Eleven (1960)

Directed by Lewis Milestone

movie cinema review

After seeing a handful of the remakes, I recently decided to sit down and watch the original 1960s Ocean's Eleven. I assumed, without giving it a second thought, that the remakes inherited their structure from the original movie. Everybody knows that Ocean's Eleven is the original heist movie, after all. And a heist movie is a series of stylish flash-forwards describing how the plan is supposed to go juxtaposed by what actually happens, and a final revelation that everything that went wrong was part of the plan all along. The twist to Ocean's Eleven is that it's not a heist movie.

That is, Ocean's Eleven is indeed a movie about a heist. But it's not that kind of heist movie. It doesn't do all the things you expect from a heist movie. It just does the exact thing it promises from the start. A heist is planned, and then a heist is executed, and then everybody deals with the fallout. That's it. There aren't any stylish shots of the Rat Pack being too cool for the screen, the cinematographer plays every shot straight, the story's pretty loose, and the tension is nominal.

I'm not making these observations as critiques. Ocean's Eleven didn't know it was the first heist movie and that 40 years later it would be remade with such style that people would expect it to be something different. It's no The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (which really does live up to its reputation). I think Ocean's Eleven significant in several ways, outside of the reputation its remake implied it should have.

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First of all, its heroes are anti-heroes. They're ex-military losers who haven't found their footing as civilians, so they turn to petty crime and then to really big crime. For the audience of 1960, that's a pretty big leap to take. Honestly, it's a little bit of a leap for a modern audience. The guys you're cheering for are out to steal money exclusively for themselves. They aren't doing it to save a children's hospital or to get medical treatment for an old army pal. There's no Ed Woods style morality lesson at the the end. They're criminals.

Secondly, there's an ensemble cast, for better or for worse. I'm sure there were movies prior to this that had too many main characters, but this one tells you about it in the title. There are eleven guys in this movie, or so the title claims. Honestly, there are more like four or five. Maybe eight in a pinch. There are definitely a few blokes in the planning meeting I swear I'd never seen before, and then never saw again. Still, the movie lays claim to eleven, and the core crew are pretty famous, so you feel like you're getting a lot of bang for your buck, and that helps make the heist feel significant.

It's meta, but it works. I only care so much about Las Vegas in real life or in movie life, but for-cryin'-out-loud this is Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Cesar Romero (um, and a bunch of other guys I vaguely recognise from old movies) robbing Vegas. That's a big deal!

Who's got the plot

I do feel like the script might have been a first draft, and I say that as someone who's a big fan of first drafts. Many of my favourite books are pulp sci fi famous for being drafts taken straight from the typewriter and put into binding. I often don't mind plots that get a little distracted. And I don't mind this movie's plot, but it does feel like it could have been workshopped a little. In retrospect (again, they didn't know they were making a big famous heist movie at the time), the real feature of this movie is the heist. The script probably should have focused heavily on that.

What the script actually does is meander around while Danny Ocean assembles his team. Sure, that's an iconic component of the modern heist movie, but in this movie Ocean answers to a wacky crime boss who has all the brilliant crime ideas and otherwise sits around doing double takes at how hard it is to do crime well. One guy is in prison. Oh wait, no now he's out. Danny has an ex-wife. Oh wait, now he's got a girlfriend and his ex-wife is jealous. Oh no, nevermind, they aren't actually part of the story, forget about them. This guy's got a wealthy busybody mother who finances his bad habits. Well, actually that actually develops into a plot point.

The script is kind of all over the place. Threads are exposed, and then forgotten. Other threads are followed through to their logical, and sometimes surprising, ending. Is it a clever storytelling technique, redirecting your attention here and then there, so you never know exactly what possible trope is going to come to fruition? Or is it just that the script writer didn't understand he was writing the foundation for an entire genre? And did all of these loose threads and duds actually help build the genre, after all? Most of the story threads, even the ones that don't come to anything substantial, are things we see in later heist movies. It's almost as if the screenwriter was laying out variations for future authors to grab hold of and iterate upon.

It works

The thing is, the movie works as designed. It isn't a modern heist movie, but it's a heist movie.

  • Danny Ocean assembles his team.
  • Danny Ocean outlines the plan.
  • Ocean's eleven executes the plan.
  • Some things go right, other things go wrong.
  • Danny Ocean has to think on his feet.
  • There's a surprise twist at the end.

It's all there, except the parts that aren't.

I enjoyed the movie, but maybe a little more as a historical artefact than as just a story. I never felt very close to any of the characters, but I was invested enough in the story to enjoy it. I don't think I'll go out of my way to see the movie again, so unless it happens to be on TV some evening I'll probably never see it again, and I don't mind that. If it had a Mancini score, it'd be a different story, but then again if it had Mancini it probably would have Blake Edwards, and then it really would be a different story. As it happened, it's a good movie. You should watch it for context at least, and besides it's an entertaining story.

Also, if you're a fan of Fallout New Vegas, you must watch this. I feel a little silly for not realising it, but I had no idea how much Ocean's Eleven is in New Vegas. Now ain't that a kick in the head?

Lead photo by Anika De Klerk on Unsplash

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