Director: David Lowery
Writer: David Lowery (Screenplay) David Grann (Article)
Starring: Robert Redford, Casey Affleck, Sissy Spacek, Danny Glover, Tom Waits, Tika Sumpter, Ari Elizabeth Johnson
Plot: Based on the true story of Forrest Tucker and his audacious escape from San Quentin at the age of 70 to an unprecedented string of heists that confounded authorities and enchanted the public.
Tagline – This Story is Mostly True.
Runtime: 1 Hour 33 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Fun Crime Comedy
Story: The Old Man & The Gun starts as we see how Forrest Tucker (Redford) would do his bank robberies, casually walk in and politely ask for the money before calmly walking out and escaping, only on this latest job he meets Jewel (Spacek) a widow who he wants to charm.
After another robbery that happened to have cop John Hunt (Affleck) who didn’t even see it happen, John decides to investigate Forrest robberies where he learns about the lifetime of crimes and the myth behind the man who escaped multiple prisons and returned to a life of crime, can he finally be caught for good?
Thoughts on The Old Man & The Gun
Characters – Forrest Tucker is a career criminal that has been committing robberies his hole life, he never hurts anyone and is always a gentleman about how he goes around his robberies. Even in his later years he still loves the crime, he does want a relationship with Jewel and sees her in the same lonely situation she is at times. John Hunt is a detective that starts to investigate the robberies after being in the bank when one of the heists goes down, he seems to enjoy the chase over the capture, giving his life new meaning. Jewel is a widow that has seen her children grow up and is living in a remote farm, she sees Forrest as a charmer who could bring her new zest for life and lets him into her life. Teddy and Waller are the partners in the crimes called in for the bigger jobs.
Performances – Robert Redford is wonderful in the leading role which is meant to be his last and he goes out on top showing that his skills are permanently. Casey Affleck gives us a good performance that is shows how withdrawn his character has become with his life. Sissy Spacek is great too showing us just how lonely she has become with her life. The supporting cast are good too all fitting the story very well.
Story – The story follows the later robberies of Forrest Tucker one of the most notorious criminals in America, he escaped prison multiply times and continued to rob banks just to keep him entertained while never resorting to violence. We follow one cop that decides to investigate other robberies connecting the dots to learn who the man behind them really is. If you liked ‘Catch me if you Can’ the story is told in the same style which helps us find comedy in moments which could have been calm. The time jumps showing the pure number of robberies happening can be blink and you miss them and if you don’t know your American states you won’t be able to connect them quickly.
Comedy/Crime – The film is told in a way that makes everything become light-hearted which helps make the crimes seem like they weren’t as bad as they were.
Settings – The settings are the weakest part of the film if you don’t know where or how close cities and states are because we see so many robberies that just show us the place not saying how far away they are.
Scene of the Movie – What Forrest did next.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It does feel too similar to Catch Me If you Can.
Final Thoughts – This is a good crime comedy that gets the fun comedy moments while telling a true story about how one man was addicted to robbing banks.
Overall: Fun true crime story.
Rating
