Thou Shalt Steal

Rating: 6/10 (24 December 2009)

In recent years George Clooney has produced or directed a number of films such as "Good Night, and Good Luck" or "The Men who Stare at Goats", most of which reflect his left-liberal political convictions. These convictions are not, however, always so well reflected in his choice of films as an actor. Witness, for example, the macho action-thriller "The Peacemaker". Or, for that matter, "Ocean's Eleven", a caper film which- like all caper films- preaches the message that "Greed is Good" and which- like an increasing number of modern examples of the genre- adds a further message to the effect that "Crime does Pay".
Here Clooney stars as Danny Ocean, a career criminal who comes up with a plan to rob a vast sum of money the vaults of three Las Vegas casinos, the Bellagio, the Mirage and the MGM Grand. Now the man in the street might think this scheme to be a thoroughly dishonest one, but for the purposes of the film we are expected to regard it as a highly laudable enterprise because the owner of the three casinos, Terry Benedict, is portrayed as an unpleasant, thuggish gangster. Benedict is also the current lover of Danny's ex-wife, Tess, so under the moral code which governs caper movies Danny has two quite legitimate reasons to steal from him with a clear conscience.
Now the Las Vegas gambling scene may have been under the control of the Mob back in the days of Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky, but I always understood that these days the Nevada Gaming Commission are keen to keep it squeaky-clean and to exclude anyone with criminal connections from having anything to do with running the casinos. It therefore seemed odd that the film-makers could, without falling foul of the laws of libel, imply that three major casinos (all of which are real institutions) are owned and run by an obviously crooked individual like Benedict. It seemed even odder that the real owners of the Bellagio welcomed the film and allowed the team to shoot on location. It seems that in some businesses any publicity is good publicity.
I won't go into details of Danny's scheme to relieve Benedict of some of his ill-gotten wealth, except to say it is extremely complicated in order to overcome the casinos' elaborate security precautions. (You probably have to watch the film several times to understand it fully). Suffice it to say that it is so complicated that Danny needs to recruit no fewer than ten former colleagues and other criminals, each with his own special skills, in order to pull it off- hence the title of the film. To British eyes the title "Ocean's Eleven" would appear to have sporting overtones, as both soccer and cricket are played between teams of eleven men, but as both sports are much less popular in America than they are here these overtones were presumably unintended.
Given such a large cast, it is not surprising that there is no serious attempt made at characterisation and hence no really outstanding acting performances. Although the film was made with an ensemble cast, however, the film-makers managed to attract a surprisingly large number of big-name stars, including not only those two great male sex-symbols Gorgeous George and Beau Brad but also the likes of Julia Roberts, Elliott Gould, Andy Garcia and Don Cheadle.
"Ocean's Eleven" is a slick, glossy piece of popular entertainment- a sort of superior popcorn movie; I enjoyed it more than the rather dull sequel "Ocean's Twelve". (I must admit that I have not seen either "Ocean's Thirteen", the third episode in the franchise, or the original Rat Pack "Ocean's Eleven" from 1960). My main concern about it is its apparent rewriting of the Ten Commandments so that the eighth now reads "Thou Shalt Steal". It is by no means unique in that respect among modern films, but at least the likes of "Entrapment" were honest about their own dishonesty. "Ocean's Eleven" seems to be going out of its way to justify theft and robbery provided that the owner of the stolen property is sufficiently unpleasant to make him a legitimate target. 6/10