Bank Robbers

Someone tried robbing the bank today with a toy gun.

He was shot twice.

With a real one.

Did you know that bank robberies make great movies?

A little bit of film history. The first film to tell a fictional story was "The Great Train Robbery." (Previously, films document events, mainly involving french people, factories and train platforms)

Ok, maybe it isn't technically a bank robbery. But it involved money and robbers right?

Throughout film history, there have been many great films involving robberies. Here's a non-exhaustive list: Bonnie and Clyde, Bob Le Flambeur, Dillinger, Dog Day Afternoon, Killing Zoe, Heat, Honor Among Thieves, Out of Sight, Reservoir Dogs, Riffi, The Thomas Crown Affair and The Wild Bunch.

Even our very own Liang Po Po had a bank robbery scene.

But we were talking about great films.

Somehow, bank robbers make very fascinating characters, whether in reel life or real life. (If you have an opportunity, watch Dog Day Afternoon)

For me, it's their desperation that I identify with. I mean, you must be really up to your neck to want to rob a bank right? It's usually a gut-wrenching struggle with debts, family well-being, poverty, hunger or even a sex-change operation for your partner (just to clarify, this is not gut-wrenching for me but I always think about you, Faithful Reader).

And nobody usually gets hurt in a bank robbery if everybody co-operates. It isn't like other criminal activities such as rape or murder which set out to hurt and kill.

And of course, the most important reason - they rob banks.

Banks are evil things.

While I wish our Toy-Gun-Bank-Robber a speedy recovery, aspiring film-makers will do well to start digging in his background for a good story.

An idea for the quintessential Singapore film.

A honest story about a desperate man robbing a bank in a not so rosy land.