Ocean's Eleven

Ocean’s Eleven is a light-hearted crime thriller from 2001, following Danny Ocean and his gang of 10 skilled thieves, planning to rob a collection of casinos all owned by the man Danny hopes to screw over, Terry Benedict.

This film’s plot is fun and simple, two themes which carry over into every aspect of the film, especially in the characters, these men are career criminals but they’re not bad men, they don’t take hostages, they don’t threaten or intimidate, they’re fun characters to watch and easy to root for. The soundtrack of this film is fantastic, the best way I can describe it, like so much with this film, is charming, it’s easy to listen to with no sense of urgency but a real sense of control, the soundtrack combined with the charm and charisma of each character gives the sense that Danny’s gang are in complete control of every situation, even when they are not.

The story of this film is fantastic, it’s simplicity is it’s biggest strength, the story doesn’t jump around and lose you half way through, the plan itself isn’t too hard to follow either, and even if it was it’s explained in one of the best ways, and each character is given enough screen time to develop them to their necessary points, not every character needs an excessive amount of screen time to develop them, some characters are in a lot more scenes and for longer but it doesn’t feel like that, it feels like each character has as much screentime and development as another, during the introduction phase the film makers did a good job of making the character seem interesting and funny, you immediately want to see more of them, with you having a true sense of who they are and what they can bring to the team. On the note of characters, I want to talk about the main two, Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), these two are a near perfect duo, they’re like two sides of the same coin, Danny is charming and charismatic, calm and collected, he stands up straight and never jumps ahead, Rusty is more brash and forward, he leads with his confidence as apposed to Danny leading with his charm, Rusty stands more casually, he slouches and is always snacking, in every scene, Danny talks elegantly and uses “fancy” words, Rusty talks quicker and uses more casual words in his vocabulary.

My favourite character in the film is Elliott Gould’s character, Reuben, a former casino owner who holds a grudge over Terry Benedict, Reuben is loud and somewhat obnoxious, he’s the bank of the operation, always coming out with one-liners, his sense of humour isn’t one that I necessarily share, but it is one that I find appealing, he has a personality that only Elliott Gould could pull off in the unique way Reuben’s character required.

Terry Benedict is our film’s villain, played by Andy Garcia, and a great one at that, he, like Danny, is charming and charismatic but, unlike Danny, in all the wrong ways, he’s not menacing, he’s not really intimidating, but he’s nasty, and that’s one of the worst (or best) qualities to have in a villain, Terry is purely spiteful towards Danny, he’s full of himself and only ever in things for himself, if something won’t make him money or can’t boost his ego he’s not interested. But he’s not stupid, he’s clever, very clever, he always knows what’s going on in his casino, among this he’s suspicious of everything and everyone, but not paranoid, he knows exactly what or who to be suspicious of, playing into his intelligence.

One of Ocean’s Eleven’s best features is the plan montage, it explains the plan with a mix of visuals from the process itself and Danny’s narration from the night the team first meet. This montage isn’t quick with a constant music track playing in the background, it’s drawn out and takes time and care in explaining the plan in detail, again playing into the story’s simplicity, not overcomplicating the crucial plan that holds the whole plot together.

But, by far the best part of Ocean’s Eleven is the fantastic and completely unpredictable twist, the thing that Ocean’s Eleven is remembered for, honestly, it took me a few watches to fully understand the twist, and now I do, I love and appreciate this film a whole lot more, so much so it’s number 10 in my top 10 favourite films. The twist didn’t come out of nowhere, it was cleverly built up over the whole film, single shots of random objects that always left the viewer confused, but all are brought together in one of the most memorable and iconic film endings of all time.