YMMV / The Italian Job (1969)

• Awesome Music
  • The opening credits (and what turns out to be Beckerman's last few moments of life, driving his Lamborghini through the Italian mountains) are accompanied by Matt Monroe singing "Days Like These".
  • "Self Preservation Society", which gloriously and jauntily plays during the conclusion of the iconic car chase. The voice of Michael Caine himself can be heard among the singers.
  • While the Blue Danube Deleted Scene is a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment, it does have a pretty good soundtrack.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Averted. There was a surreal scene cut featuring the thieves and the cops chasing them interrupting their frantic car chase to do some choreographed ballet on ice with their cars to The Blue Danube. This is completely out of sorts with the rest of the film and was apparently filmed without the director's knowledge; he promptly cut it when he found out what had been done.
• Ensemble Dark Horse
  • Arthur, the demolitions expert, barely has any focus outside of the scene where he uses too much dynamite during a practice robbery, but the Memetic Mutation status of that scene makes him quite popular.
  • The Upper-Class Twit Badass Driver trio are also fan favorites, despite not being terribly fleshed out.
  • Altabani may be the Big Bad, but his menacing demeanor, his wary respect of the crew, and some hinted Even Evil Has Standards aspects to his personality make him more popular than most villains with as little screen time as him.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Charlie considers taking his scheme to the Americans, believing them to be people who respect young talent. This line becomes ironic when you consider that the film flopped in the States.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In keeping with the gang's cover as travelling football fans, the Dormobile is decorated with the names of various England footballers, particularly that of Bobby Moore who was the England captain at the time. Twelve years later, he would star alongside Michael Caine in Escape to Victory.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Charlie Croker is recruited by Roger Beckermann to rob an Italian gold convoy and is trusted by Beckermann to continue and execute the plan without his partner once Beckermann realizes his life is in danger. Charlie plunges forward without hesitation, and breaks into prison to present his proposal to a mob boss he needs funding from. He is Nice to the Waiter, gets along well with his subordinates. and while he does cheat on his girlfriend, he also trusts her and does what he can to keep her out of harm's way. He remains unflinching when faced with sharing Beckermann's fate and is able to threaten his would-be executioner into sparing his life. Charlie leads his men in overpowering the convoy guards with just some clubs and a fire hose. He and his men then escape with the gold in mini coopers and are quite resourceful at finding ways to outwit individual police officers who pursue them across Beckermann's escape route. When a bus containing Charlie, his accomplices, and the gold ends up dangling over the edge of a cliff, Charlie claims to have an idea to save himself, his crew, and the gold.
  • Mr. Bridger is the incarcerated leader of a vast criminal empire. Guards and prisoners alike cater to Bridger's every whim and let him do as he pleases. He has a strong sense of national pride, idolizing Elizabeth II and showing concern about the effect crime is having on the economy. When Charlie breaks into one of the prison's bathroom to talk to Bridger, he is upset about his privacy being invaded and lectures the timid warden about the prison's security issue. He has Charlie beat up for disrespecting him, but also agrees to finance the eponymous heist (while making some useful suggestions to augment the existing plan). He recognizes that The Mafia are aware of Charlie's plans and warns him about this, while threatening Charlie if the job fails. Upon hearing that Charlie and his gang have gotten away with the gold, Bridger triumphantly marches down a flight of stairs to enjoy a delicious meal as all his fellow prisoners chant his name.
  • Roger Beckermann is a well-regarded European criminal who schemes to steal four million dollars in gold. Beckermann plots to shut down all the traffic in the city of Turin in order to carry out the robbery, and then plans an intricate getaway route for his drivers. When Beckermann realizes that The Mafia are planning to kill him to prevent the robbery, rather than call off the job to save his own life, he makes a film detailing his plan (and various other heists he's never gotten around to) and arranges for his wife to give it to Croker so that the gold heist (the scale of which is unprecedented at that point in history) can go forward and serve as his legacy. He then continues about his business, showing no signs of fear or concern, until he is murdered by the mobsters (who show some Villain Respect toward him). Although he dies in the opening scene, the plot of the movie rests upon Beckermann's plan and his fearless efforts to ensure that it will survive him in the event of his murder.
  • Altabani is a mafia leader who serves as the Big Bad of the movie. He is a criminal equivalent of a Frontline General, personally handling plenty of grunt work and surveillance. He wants to keep any foreign criminals from robbing his government out of territorial pride, and perhaps patriotism. Altabani and his men ambush and kill Beckermann on a mountain road and drop a wreath after the wreckage of his car. When Charlie continues Beckermann's plan, Altabani accosts Charlie and several associates, making pleasant small talk as he has a construction vehicle destroy their cars. He is then poised to kill them to guarantee that the plan will die, and only relents to spare Britain's Italian community from retaliatory violence. He never underestimates his opponents throughout the movie and unsuccessfully tries to prevent the approaching heist through other means. When Charlie pulls off the heist, Altabani doesn't succumb to frustration or despair, but merely continues trying to track down to take the gold from them through force or negotiation. He even succeeds at his goal in the original script and the Novelization.
• Memetic Mutation: "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" as said by Charlie after witnessing Arthur's bomb, which was meant to blow the back of the practice van's doors off, instead destroys it completely. Even funnier is Arthur's sheepish grin towards Charlie.
• Refrain from Assuming: There's a song performed by the cast that plays over the end of the final chase. But while you might think it's titled "Self-Preservation Society" (as some do), it's actually titled "Getta Bloomin' Move On".
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Henry McGee from The Benny Hill Show as Charlie's tailor.
  • Robert Powell as one of the gang members, eight years before he was Jesus.
  • A prison officer is played by Frank Kelly, who would later be best known for playing Father Jack in Father Ted.
  • A computer room official is played by John Louis Mansi, who would later be best known for playing Von Smallhausen in 'Allo 'Allo!.
• Signature Scene:
  • The Literal Cliffhanger ending gets talked about quite a lot.
  • The epic Mini Cooper chase.
  • Mr. Bridger bossing around the governor of the prison he's incarcerated in.
• Values Dissonance: Professor Peach feels less like a Lovable Sex Maniac and more like a sexual harasser to some 21st century viewers.

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