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The Original Film 

The Italian Job is a product of its time and, moreover, of its place. It transfers the light-hearted spirit of an era directly onto the screen, revelling in the vibrancy of early sixties culture, never failing to lash the right card in order to cash in on the mood of the era. It is rooted in an idiosyncratic (

The film had high production values and a wide cinema release due to its distribution by Paramount Pictures who had already established a key interest in British films like Alfie [1966] also starring Micheal Caine. "Britishness" was still a successful commodity by the time the film was made on the back of the swinging 60s, reflected in part by the memorable Mini Cooper escape sequences. The Hollywood studio Paramount remade The Italian Job [2003] with an all American cast including Donald Sutherland, Edward Norton and Mark Wahlberg. 

Genre Analysis 

The Italian Job [1969] is a hybrid of Action Adventure, Crime Thriller (heist) and Comedy to maximise audience appeals. The codes and conventions of Action Adventure are, as represented in The Italian Job: 

Codes and Conventions Continued 

  • Key focus on entertainment values
  • Stereotypically good looking, escapist, aspirational characters audiences idolise and look up to
  • Stereotypically young male, mainstream target audiences (The Italian Job was a commercial success, both at the box office, on VHS and now still on DVD/Blu Ray) but also a secondary female target audience due to lack of graphic violence
  • Edge of the seat action sequences (car chases and escape sequences and an end sequence) 

Cultural Stereotypes

Cultural stereotypes are very evident in The Italian Job for purposes of audience identification and entertainment values. The film has a predominantly masculine cast and stereotypically masculine narrative (dangerous, physical adventure with a prize) to appeal to an aspirational, young male target audience. Characters are exaggerated, hyper real and... 

Representation of National Identities 

Charlie Croker, played by Micheal Caine, benefits from his 'wide boy, cockney geezer' secondary persona representation in films like Alfie [1966] and as hyper real, dashing spy Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File [1965]. Audience understand, and expect his character to be as forceful intelligent and resourceful as he is he is at his very best when confonted by the mafia ... 

In Conclusion 

In contrast to this, the representations of Englishness or Britishness is in many ways one of the key appeals of the film for mainstream target audiences - from Mini Coopers to the Queen, to English Football Fans to Tea Drinking English or British culture ... 

Horizontal and Vertical Integration

Peter Collinson, co-founder of Oakhurst Productions produced the film and the director and crew were brought in due to connections in the film industry. As a result the film was not vertically integrated but was made through a group of independent workers who had links with eachother.

The film was funded by an American company, Paramount ...

Production of the Original 

The budget for the film was $3M, which was not a lot of money in 1969. Consequently, the crew filmed in only 2 locations - Turin and London and in many places such as sewers, that were not very glamorous.

The film has reference to the time of the British Empire too. The film shows the country desperate to re-live former times and demonstrate to Europe their superiority.

British culture is represented with the use of the popular Mini Cooper (British owned back then).

Narrative 

Common to Action Adventure films The Italian Job has a simplistic, linear, Hollywood three act narrative structure but usually with an open-ended narrative leaving audiences guessing - the film does have a closed narrative up to this point. The storyline is based around a simple idea (easy to market) ...

The narrative chain of cause and effect moves rythmically with Act 1 introducing characters and the problem (how to steal the gold), Act 2 planning and executing the robbery and Act 3 the escape. Arguably Todorov's four act structture can apply with the open ended cliff face sequence presenting audiences with a new equilibriam. 

Soundtrack 

The soundtrack, overseen by American producer Quincy Jones ... 

Synergies 

There were very few things released for the purpose of marketing the 1969 film apart from a book of the film and replicas of the minis that had been displayed in foyers of certain cinemas. There has been a video game for Playstation released in 2001 based on the film. ...

Having been made nearly 35 years apart, the difference between Collinson's and Gray's The Italian Job are very prominant. Whilst Collinson's film focused on 1960s Britain, Gray's adaption looked at 21st Century America, in particular life in Los Angeles. 

The patriotic theme presented in collinson's original The Italian Job ... 


To conclude, it is obvious that, due to ... 



 




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