The Split

Near the beginning of this film, there is a fistfight, but it's not exciting because we don't know why the two men are fighting. A little later, there is a car chase, but it's not exciting either, because we don't know who's chasing whom or why. Later still, we find out the answers to those questions, but two potentially good action scenes have been wasted. And then the movie turns into a standard heist flick....thankfully only for a while. The focus here is not on the actual heist, but more on the aftermath. And it's there that the movie finally goes in unexpected directions.

There is, for example, the bizarre scene in which a man gets off on shooting someone with a machine-gun. There is the memorable image of a white sheet that gradually "absorbs" the blood of the body that's underneath it, and red spots start appearing on it. And there some neat plot twists along the way, mostly involving a character (I won't say which) that enters the picture when you least expect him to.

If the whole movie was as good as its final 30 minutes, I'd give it one more star, but for now this gets a ** rating.

Star and a half Maltin review is a bit discouraging for watching THE SPLIT. And yet it`s great to say that Maltin is horribly wrong in his case, sibce THE SPLIT delivers loads of cool soft-noir.

Gordon Flemyng, the British film and TV veteran shapes a posh and groovy heist flick about a post robbery split gone bad. The cast is masterful, Jim Brown does a great Wastlake/Stark character up there with Lee Marvin in POINT BLANK and Mel Gibson in THE PAYBACK. The rest of the cast includes such hard-asses like Gene Hackman, Donald Sutherland, Warren Oates and Ernest Borgnine. So the movie emanates great energy on screen and Flemyng cuts it with typical British elegance, smart and sharp decisions.

Maybe THE SPLIT felt too calculated to Maltin, but to me, it represents the era when Hollywood entertainment still managed to assuredly deliver the authentic exploitation of a formula.

Richard Stark's novel "The Seventh" becomes a great-looking all-star heist flick with a football backdrop which, unfortunately, completely falls apart in the final quarter. Drifting thief, apparently a genius at concocting schemes and rounding up partners, comes up with a brilliant plan to rob the cash-office at the Los Angeles Coliseum during a football game. Selecting his ex-con cohorts by means of making them display their muscles (not especially their skills) is rather perplexing, though it works for the movie. What doesn't work is a sharp left turn in the narrative about an hour into the proceedings, with an absolutely unbelievable (and unforgivable) turn of events pitting the robbers against each other. This ridiculous third act smacks of desperation, and leaves Gene Hackman (as a somewhat dirty detective) with nothing but absurdity to play opposite. The rest of the cast does well until the screenplay drops the ball, and Burnett Guffey's cinematography is first-rate. *1/2 from ****

After football great Jim Brown died recently, I decided to watch two of his films he made after retiring from the sport that made him famous. I've long been interested in watching this one because I found out it was the first one to be rated R after the Motion PIcture Association of America (now simply reduced to Motion Picture Association) started doing the letter ratings system. R at the time meant that "no one under 16 admitted without parent or adult guardian" only raising the age limit to 17 two years later. Anyway, Brown ends up planning a heist of the box office earnings from a football game with Donald Sutherland, Ernest Borgnine (two of Brown's previous co-stars from The Dirty Dozen), Warren Oates, Jack Klugman, and Julie Harris in on the action. Diahann Carroll is his leading lady and Gene Hackman is a police detective on the trail. I liked most of the goings-on most of the time though I admit some scenes confused me. But The Split was really intriguing to me especially when Quincy Jones' score was used. So I recommend The Split for anyone looking for one of Jim Brown's early films. Next, I'll review him in El Condor.

The cast list of this film reads like a who's who of 60's and 70's Hollywood character actors. While they don't all get a chance to really shine here, their familiar faces and inherent skills help move this heist flick along nicely. Brown is a ne'er do well thief who returns to Los Angeles just in time to help Harris mastermind the robbery of the L.A. Coliseum during a Rams play-off game. He enlists the aid of four disparate men (Borgnine, Klugman, Oates and Sutherland) who form a tenuous alliance, working as a unit just long enough to get the job done and split the $500,000 take. The heist itself is suspensefully handled and skillfully done, but the primary thrust of the story kicks in when it's time to divvy out the loot, hence the title of the film (brought home even more in the title of the source novel.) Brown, though stiff at times, is such a physical presence (and an amiable one) that he anchors the story well, faltering only when it's called upon him to enact scenes of grief. Harris is tough-as-nails as a hard, (big!) red-haired schemer. All of the men in the gang give their customary polished and distinct performances. Borgnine is, of course, the most blustery. Klugman (who would return to this venue in "Two Minute Warning") plays the nervous one. Oates gives the most texture to his role as a wary safe-cracker. Sutherland is a class-act hit man with the necessary cool and effortlessness. Carroll is very attractive in a thankless role of decoration/plot device. Hackman turns up late as the police detective assigned to a murder related to the heist and gives a decent performance. Trivia buffs will note that one of the clerks (Joseph) provided the voice of Melody in the 70's cartoon series "Josie and the Pussycats". Nearly all of the roles in the film are filled with people who worked extensively as guest stars in major television series. The film is creatively directed, contains bouncy Quincy Jones music and clips along at a very tight pace except for a mouthwash commercial-esque romantic montage between Brown and Carroll. Some of the plot elements are pretty preposterous (such as Brown's initial sequences of "auditioning" the heist participants), but it makes for interesting viewing. The movie serves as a fun time capsule of the era's fashions and procedures (check out the hair on Borgnine's secretary!) The story is never completely predictable and is at home with other similar (if more polished and better known) films from that time such as "Bullit" and "The Thomas Crown Affair".