Bandits
Short description
Joe Blake and Terry Lee Collins, two inmates in an Oregon prison, break out and set off on a spree of bank robberies across the western United States. Their plan is to raise enough money to disappear south of the border and start over. Terry is a hypochondriac given to complaints about ailments he does not have; Joe is the smoother, more confident half of the pair. They take bank managers and their families hostage the night before a job, stay with them, then walk into the branch with the manager in the morning, which lets them avoid forced entry and surprises. Their robberies make them popular with the public, and they become something close to celebrities.
Their routine is disrupted by Kate Wheeler, a bored suburban wife who enters their lives by accident. Rather than being frightened off, she joins them, and both men become attached to her. The arrangement complicates the partnership and the plans they have been working toward.
Barry Levinson directed, from a screenplay by Harley Peyton, and produced alongside Paula Weinstein and Arnold Rifkin. The film is the seventeenth of the twenty-eight features Levinson has directed, arriving after Liberty Heights and before Envy. Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett lead a credited cast of twenty-seven. Made for about 75 million USD, it took in roughly 68 million USD worldwide, a shortfall against its cost. On IMDb it holds 6.5/10 from 74,000 votes and on TMDB 6.3/10 from 1,156 votes; a critics' rating of 6.3/10 from 135 reviews places it close to both.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on the true story of two American robbers, Joseph V. Doherty and Terry Lee Conner, who robbed a bank in 1985 using the same method as the film's protagonists. They were arrested a year later.
- Willis’s two daughters, Scout and Tallulah, appeared in cameo roles in the film.
- In real life, Billy Bob Thornton suffers from a fear of antique furniture, and the screenwriters added this rare phobia to the character of his persona.
- Barry Levinson greatly hoped that German composer Hans Zimmer would write the original music for the film, but he was heavily committed to "Hannibal" and "Pearl Harbor." Levinson was prepared to wait for the composer to finish his current projects and delay the release of "Bandits" accordingly, but Zimmer still declined.
- The setting of the house where Terry and Joe give their interview was also used for the film "The Big Lebowski" (1998).
- Initially, Val Kilmer was planned to play the role of Joe, and Bruce Willis was to play Terry. However, due to scheduling conflicts, Kilmer turned down the role, and Willis ultimately played Joe instead of Terry.
- The film was originally intended to be based on a novel by Elmore Leonard, but the producers decided it was too weak and hired a screenwriter to completely rewrite the story.
- The song “Kill The Rock” by Mindless Self Indulgence can be heard in the film, but it was not included on the soundtrack.
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