James Brunson

Perez Tejada

English 1102

12 March 2009

Comparing the Lives of Thieves

In today’s cinema, movies are becoming are becoming more diverse than ever. The plots and story lines are their own and are different from other movies. But even though they have different plots, they can still have many of the same themes and trends in the films. They still have messages that can represent their culture or things going on in the world today. The films use tons of local content to express this like big flashing lights, big name casinos or dingy streets filled with hundreds of people doing anything to get by. They have an enormous amount of thought and feelings poured into these films that really make them unique. Also, films can have similar plots but this does not mean that they have to have the same underlying meanings and themes throughout the movie. They can have very different meanings.

I chose the two movies Ocean’s Eleven and Nine Queens. I chose them because when I watched nine queens it reminded me of Ocean’s Eleven. These two movies are similar in story along the lines of crime. In them, they both are trying to get money. In Ocean’s Eleven they are robbing a casino in Las Vegas and in Nine Queens they are trying to rip off a stamp collector with fake stamps that one of their friends made. Also, these movies have a twist in the way they steal the money. In Ocean’s Eleven, they first show what is going on from someone’s view that is on the outside of the group stealing the money. It’s only after they go back and show what everyone in the group is doing, does it make sense of how they got the money and still somehow managed to get away with it. Furthermore, in Nine Queens, the plot leads you to think that these two guys are about to hit it big with the fake stamps but you don’t see is that the woman is trying to get back the money that her brother took from their inheritance. It is only until the very end of the movie do you see that everyone that had been involved in the scheme was somehow working with the woman and the brother’s accomplice who are actually dating.

The way that these movies portray stealing in these films makes it so it doesn’t seem like doing it is a bad thing to do. In Nine Queens they make it feel like it is the right thing to do. It is justifiable to get back at her brother who stole all of her inheritance. She has to get her revenge. In Ocean’s Eleven, we are rooting for the bad guys. The director tries to direct our attention away from our morals and tries to make the villains like us as much as possible. “They are robbers with rules, those rules are #1 No blood. #2 Rob only who deserves it. #3 Do it as if you have nothing to lose” (Nehring). This makes it so the viewers start thinking that since they aren’t hurting anyone and they are only stealing from bad people makes it so they are actually good people, kind of like a Robin Hood figure. Also, Ocean’s Eleven has some revenge involved in it. One of the members in the group robbing the casino is upset because everyone liked the other casino so now his is being demolished.

These two movies show the different types of crime that goes on in the world today. Like most people in the world today, they do it without much planning and they usually don’t get a lot of money out of it. It is just on the spur of the moment. They are just waiting for the right moment to strike. This is like Nine Queens. They are given information about a famous stamp collector who is staying at the hotel. The man telling them this also happens to have exact replicas of the stamps, or at least to the human eye. They try tricking the man into buying the stamps in a matter of hours with barely any plan of how they are going to get away with it (Holden). This is very much different from the way they do it in Ocean’s Eleven. The first thing that happens is they assemble a team filled with members with different skills necessary for the job. Then they spend weeks planning out what is going to happen at what time, who is going to be playing what roll, and how they are going to make it so everyone comes out safe. They even build a replica of the vault that stores the money in the basement of the casino which turns out to be more helpful than just practicing on it. Also they are going for a lot more money than the average robbery. They are going for about one hundred and sixty million dollars (Mitchell). This is extremely larger than the sum of money they were going to for the stamps which was about five hundred thousand.

As you can see, these films are similar in plot. They have a group of people working together to try and steal someone’s money. But even though they are similar they do not necessarily have the same themes. They have different messages that go along with each country’s culture.

Work Cited

Holden, Stephen. "Well, Who's the Joker Now?." New York Times 31 Mar 2001 11 Mar 2009 < res="9504EFDD123FF932A05750C0A9679C8B63">.

Mitchell, Elvis. "For the New Rat Pack, It's a Ring-a-Ding Thing." New York Times 07 Dec 2001 11 Mar 2009 < http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9F03E5D8123CF934A35751C1A9679C8B63 >.

Nehring, Scott. "Ocean's 11." Good News Film Reviews 24 Nov 2008 11 Mar 2009 < http://www.goodnewsfilmreviews.com/2008/09/oceans-11-2001.html >.