Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1679 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-09-15
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, Italian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 95 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The greatest Brit-flick crime caper comedy of all time, 1969's The Italian Job towers mightily above its latter-day mockney imitators. After Alfie but before Get Carter Michael Caine is the hippest ex-con around, bedding the birds (several at a time) and spouting immortal one-liners ("You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"). The inheritor of a devious plan to steal gold bullion in the traffic-choked streets of Turin, Caine recruits a misfit team of genial underworld types--including a lecherous Benny Hill and three plummy public-schoolboy rally drivers--and uses the occasion of an England-Italy football match as cover for the heist.

In his final screen appearance, Noel Coward joyfully sends up his own patriotic persona, and there are small though priceless cameos from the likes of Irene Handl and John Le Mesurier. But The Italian Job's real stars are the three Mini Coopers--patriotically decorated red, white and blue--that run rings round every other vehicle in an immortal car-chase sequence, which preserves forever the British public's love affair with the little car. Quincy Jones provided the irreverent music, naturally, while the cliffhanger ending thumbs its nose at anything so un-hip as a resolution. It's all unashamedly jingoistic--ridiculously, gleefully, absurdly so--but the whole sums up the joie de vivre of the 1960s so perfectly that future historians need only look here to learn why the decade was swinging.

On the DVD: The Italian Job disc contains three all-new documentaries--"The Great Idea" (conception), "The Self-Preservation Society" (casting), and "Get a Bloomin' Move On" (stunts)--which dovetail into a good 68-minute "making of" featurette. Contributors include scriptwriter Troy Kennedy Martin and Producer Michael Deeley, who also crops up on the sporadically interesting commentary track with author of The Making of The Italian Job, Matthew Field. The deleted "Blue Danube" waltz scene is also included, with optional commentary. The print is a decent anamorphic transfer of the original 2.35:1 ratio, and the soundtrack has been remastered to Dolby 5.1. The animated Mini Cooper menus set the tone perfectly. --Mark Walker

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

Commentary track
Documentary
Deleted Scenes
Trailers
Sound: English 5.1, German Restored English Mono, Commentary Surround sound
Subtitles: English for the hearing impaired, English, Arabic, Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Turkish
Commentary Subtitles: English, German
Anamorphic widescreen, 2.35:1

Synopsis
Charlie Croker, fresh out of prison, takes on a job to steal gold from Italy. In order to finance the raid he enlists the help of Mr Bridger, an established criminal. The team plans to distract the Italian police with a traffic jam whilst they make off with the bullion in three Mini Coopers...

Customer Reviews

They don't make films like this any more........ thank goodness
This is harmless enough stuff, I suppose, but what may have been electrifying in 1969 isn't anything like so exciting today, and apart from the famous sequences of the Minis doing their stuff in Turin, this is a rather tedious film, with an ending that is, frankly, a cynical cop-out. Fans of Michael Caine will love it, no doubt, and aging petrolheads everywhere are given a wonderful opportunity to wallow in car nostalgia. Unfortunately, though, the film's weaknesses greatly outweigh its strengths. As nearly always, Michael Caine does no real acting at all, but is simply Michael Caine. Noel Coward's cameo contribution is splendid but all too short. Benny Hill makes a fleeting appearance but is far below par. Apart from the car stunts, the direction is uninspired and by present-day standards a little too indifferent about the provision of quality - but we are of course talking about the Britain of the late 1960s. These days, the only real value of The Italian Job is to remind us of the huge amount of progress that British film-making has made over the last forty years. They don't make films like this any more, and thank goodness for that.

On Days Like These
The Italian Job is a classic film and one of the best in the last 40 years. It has great acting from Michael Caine (Charlie Croker), Noel Coward (Mr Bridger), Benny Hill (Professor Peach), Raf Vallone (Altabani) and others. The storyline is excellent, the film features the famous line 'You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off', it has two great songs in ('On Days Like These' and 'Get A Bloomin Move On') and there are some amazing stunts in it. The Italian Job is definitely worth seeing if you haven't already and the DVD is worth buying also because it has some interesting documentaries about the making of the film.

Best of British.
`The Italian Job' is the quintessential British comedy heist movie. Advertised as `The Car's the Star' due to the use of three Mini Coopers as the ideal escape vehicles which, admittedly, did perform magnificently. However Michael Cane as Michael Cane, err sorry Charlie Crocker, Noel Coward as Mr Bridges and Benny Hill as Professor Peach takes some beating. Event the supporting cast are fantastic Irene Handle as Miss Plum and John Le Messieur as a faultless prison governor.

The biggest star is however the cracking dialogue, the obvious line to quote here is of course `I only said blow the bloody doors off!' however equally impressive is Crocker's tailor on viewing his shirts `What did you do? Life?', and the timeless `The only way to get through it if we all work together and that means you do exactly what I say'

Since it has been recorded elsewhere that you cannot beat perfection then why anyone would want to remake this film beats me. `Hang on a minute, I've got a great idea...'