review

Rating: Null/10 (30 October 2011)

This film shows the inside workings of an organized crime gone bad. Joe Cabot played by Lawrence Tierney was the organizer of the jewelry heist that ended in chaos. A group of men who barely knew each other found themselves looking at each other wondering which one tipped off the police. Amongst these men, one is Joe Cabot's son, Nice Guy Eddie Cabot, played by Chris Penn. The movie is a play on emotions; the characters are good at playing the role of criminals who have seen it all. They are out to save themselves, that is all they know. Mr. Orange, played by Tim Roth is the new guy and he gets shot in the stomach at the beginning of the movie. His life remains in the hands of these other criminals during the entire film. Mr. White played by Harvey Keitel is one of the experienced guys and he tries to help Mr. Orange, he is concerned about the nark in the group but also is the only one valuing Mr. Orange's life. Throughout the film Mr. White becomes the one character that you feel you can relate to, he proves to regard human life unlike the other criminals. Similar to American History X, there is a lot of violence in this movie; they use taboo means of violence to get the point across. The use of sound effects from the men who are injured, the sound of their struggles to breathe make the violence seem more real. The use of music when Mr. Blonde, played by Michael Madsen starts to torture the cop makes the pleas for help louder as he yells above the music to be heard. At the end you realize that the torture that the cop endured was all in the attempt to find out who the narc was, the cop proved his loyalty to his fellow undercover cop, and paid with his life. In the end you learn that there is no regard for human life amongst criminals like these. In the film you watch as the men fall apart under the pressure of not knowing who they can trust. They spend their lives being in control, never following the rules or the laws and in the process never learn to trust.