The heist film or caper film is a subgenre of crime films and the caper story, focused on the planning, execution, and aftermath of a significant robbery.
One of the early defining heist films was The Asphalt Jungle (1950), which Film Genre 2000 wrote "almost single-handedly popularized the genre for mainstream cinema". It featured robbers whose personal failings ultimately led to the failure of their robbery. Similar films using this formula were Armored Car Robbery (1950), The Killing (1956), and The Getaway (1972). By the 1990s, heist films began to "experiment and play with these conventions," incorporating elements such as comedy into their stories.
Characteristics of the genre
While there is no unanimous agreement on what constitutes a heist film, there are some common characteristics that most films in the genre share.
The most basic is that films in the genre tend to follow the planning, execution and aftermath of one large robbery. While there can be smaller crimes leading up to the major crime, this major crime is the centerpiece of the film and is the event which informs much of the film's plot. As a result of this, heist films tend to focus on the process of the crime, often planned in great detail. Followed by extended exposition of the heist itself.
The genre is also distinct for almost exclusively following those committing the crime rather than whoever is trying to stop them. This often leads to the viewer building some form of sympathy or respect for the criminals. Another common characteristic is the assembling of a team to complete the heist, with each member contributing a unique skill or trait needed to complete the job.
Over time filmmakers have taken these characteristics and changed them to create interesting plays on the genre. For example, Reservoir Dogs (1992) skips the planning and execution of the heist, choosing instead to focus exclusively on the aftermath. Another example of this is The Italian Job (1969), which shows the planning and execution of the heist but doesn't fully show the aftermath.
Other tropes of the genre include the failure of the heist due to some trait or fate of the criminals involved. Among them is one of the participants getting injured during the heist, or betraying the others during or after it. This trend started as a result of the initial films in the genre being made in Hollywood during the Motion Picture Production Code, which prohibited criminals from getting away with their crime. While this has changed since the disappearance of the code, the trope of failed heists still remains. One of the most dynamic examples is Reservoir Dogs, which focuses solely on trying to figure out which of their group members betrayed them after a failed heist. Another popular trope is "one last job", whereby a criminal looking to quit the life enlists the team to do one last heist so they will have money for the rest of their days. This can be seen in early films such as The Asphalt Jungle (1950) as well as more recent like Heat (1995).
History
While elements of the heist film can be seen in movies as early as The Great Train Robbery (1903), the genre didn't become fully fledged until the late 1940s and the early 1950s. The film widely agreed upon as the first to do so is John Huston's 1950 The Asphalt Jungle, starring Sterling Hayden and Sam Jaffee (with Marilyn Monroe in a supporting role). It contains many of the heist hallmarks, focusing from the criminal's perspective on the elaborate planning, flawed execution, and calamitous aftermath of a single heist. It also devotes a large amount of time to the recruiting of variously skilled criminals to form a team.
Two earlier films that some consider prior examples of the genre, and others just key to its development, are Criss Cross (1949) and The Killers (1946). While these do follow the planning, execution, and aftermath of a single heist from the criminals' perspective, some critics argue that they devote too much time to the planning and aftermath of the crime and too little to the actual job. All of these films are also notable for having elements which are indebted to film noir, including their moody, expressionistic black and white cinematography and dark fatalistic tone. As a result, scholars such as Daryl Lee refer to such examples as “noir heists”. Anne Billson of the BBC cites Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) as an influence on the "assembling the team" trope that later became a common characteristic of heist films.