A Man of Action

Greed takes as many shapes as Satan supposedly does, and looking at political ideologies through the dollar lens reduces everything to a simple devilish financial scam! When a Spanish entrepreneur is recruited into an anarchist 'organisation', combined with his hatred of banks, he concocts a plan to destabilise the American dollar. Even Che Guevarra said that that was too hard!

As it's all based on a true story type film, the ridiculousness of the escapades feel more real than they should! Clumsy, near-sighted, or just plain incompetent, the government forces trying to catch the criminals are constantly outwitted and ridiculed at every turn. The French setting aside, the comparison to Pink Panther's bumbling detective is undeniable.

The anti-imperial-Americana that Spain's Francoist education imparted on these Spaniards living in France imbues the story with a sense of David vs. Goliath. The one-eyed giant, in this case, is a multinational bank trying to make Traveller's Cheques popular at all costs. By clever cooperation and Robin Hood-ish intentions, the small group of people (whom do not like being told what to do) follow the bricklaying Spaniard's every plan, until the bank in question gets wind of the operation.

The battle of wits is minimal as both parties are treading uncharted waters. One is creating a system to benefit the peak of the pyramid while the other does not want to be a brick in its slanted walls, although both think more about themselves than 'the masses'!

Are we just beasts of burden for those that demand everybody do what they did as men (or women or whatever) of action? It seemed the banks needed to be robbed by the poor, foreign bricklayer to support the poorer workers, and the curious French detective had to succumb to the Bank's influence, as if they all had a part to play to unburden the masses of any heavy lifting, in the thinking department! Anarchy, as depicted in this film, never looked so organised and effective in creating wealth for its leaders! If I wasn't aware of the history, it would seem the criminals in this film had more capitalist ideals than trying to put a wrench in the big cog of American progress.

This is my first time ever to come across a very interesting figure--Lucio Urtubia--and his exploits. His story is fascinating and the movie brings to the screen what is known about the man to a large extent. It's acknowledged however, that what it shown is not true one hundred percent. Still, by and large, it's out of the ordinary.

Someone has remarked that the movie lacks depth considering the rich material that is at the disposal of the makers. Yet, it's good enough considering it's running time.

The central point of Urtubia's story is how he succeeds in challenging the biggest American bank and in outwitting it in an extremely creative way. He didn't give up when an earlier plan fails to take off. What's also significant is his association albeit brief with a legendary anarchist--Quico Sabate. Their association brings out their contrasting anarchist approaches to dealing with the banking establishment. But both agree that what they're doing is not robbing banks but expropriating on behalf of poor people.

All told it's a satisfying viewing experience. Juan Jose Ballesta does a good job portraying Urtubia. Luis Callejo, Miki Esparbe and Liah O'Prey provide able support.

Lucio Urtubia Jiménez was born in 1931 in Cascante, a small town in Navarra in the north of Spain. He lived most of his life in Paris. He was a legendary bank robber, not interested in personal enrichment; the proceedings of his heists were used in attempting to bring down Francisco Franco's fascist regime and thereby free Spain.

He was an admirer of the Cuban revolution and other liberation movements and he tried (unsuccessfully) to interest Che Guevara in a scheme to bring down the US economy by circulating counterfeit dollars. He was instrumental in the capture of Klaus Barbie in Bolivia and in helping Black Panthers to flee the USA, which put him on the CIA's crosshairs.

Opinions about Urtubia vary, He rated high among his fellow anti-Franco fighters. One of them, Albert Boadella, whom Urtubia helped escape Spain defined him as "a Quixote tilting not at windmills but at real enemies." Unsurprisingly, the French police took a dim view of him as "a criminal mastermind pulling the strings of an international criminal organization." However, he had many admirers and friends on France such as Albert Camus and André Breton.

His most celebrated exploit was in 1977. With the help of master engravers he forged and circulated 20 million worth of Citibank travellers checks. Initially, Citibank tried to force the French police to make an example of Urtubia. However, the plan was too sophisticated for either the police or Citibank and they were forced to capitulate. Urtubia escaped with a short sentence and a substantial take which he distributed among guerrilla groups. Superficially one could compare Urtubia with Robin Hood, However, the latter only led a showy but ineffectual revolt against a few corrupt lords, while Urtubia dealt a lot more successfully with the real villains.

I liked this movie. It takes some liberties with the facts and the point of view is somewhat naive and hero worshipping; the psychology of the characters is not really touched or developed. But the final result is positive. Excellent acting, direction and cinematography.

Its a film full of entertainment, its full of funny action, and its full of stuff and gadgets that belongs to the era of time. I notice that the police used a peugout just like the one i was born into and thats cool...

its environment of autentic caracters makes me smile over and again, its rude and witty ways to slide out of the polices strongholds are just amazing, the plotspeed is up to your thyroid gland, and the actors casted for this french/spanish/navarranian/basque/catalonian anarchistic freestyler of a biographical drama is just brilliant.

So if you want to lay back to the 1960's paris environment, be my guest, the grumpy old man recommends, and catch me if you can.

The first word to come to mind after finishing the movie is decent. That might not be the desirable outcome of anybody's moviemaking, but we've all seen much worse. The story is loosely based on a real person, anarchist and rebel Lucio Urtubia. We follow back and forth his path for 40 years. Nobody seems to like banks anymore, so in my book if anyone can make fools of bankers, more power to them. Unfortunately, the ultimate price is always paid by people like us, nickeled and dimed to death by them. And when all the dishonesty and greed catches up with them, we save them with generous bailouts. Decent movie, workmanlike, predictable, but not much more.