Photographs were taken while the late Princess Margaret was sleeping with someone at a Caribbean island resort in 1971. They were conveniently stored in the safety deposit box of Michael X (played by Peter De Jersey), a gangster kingpin, in order to trump any efforts to prosecute him. However, when Martine Love (played by Saffron Burroughs) is caught with drugs at airport customs on her return from a Moroccan vacation, a plot is cleverly devised by a member of the government, MI5 agent Tim Everett (played by Richard Lintern). She will not be prosecuted if she can round up a gang to rob the bank of safety deposit boxes and turn over the purloined pictures. Moreover, the gangsters will be allowed to keep their booty. However, safety deposit boxes contain not only cash and jewelry but also other blackmail pictures, including two members of the government being flogged by dominatrixes at the brothel of Sonia Bern (played by Sharon Maughan). The bank indeed is robbed by a gang headed by her onetime boyfriend Terry Leather (played by Jason Statham), a used car dealer in debt to loansharks, but the aftermath is the most exciting part of the film, as a porn king’s payoffs to government officials, particularly the police, are among the records obtained serendipitously. Thus, the scandal involves the royal family, high-ranking members of the government, police, and major and petty criminals in the largest robbery in history. The events depicted are true at least as far as the government would allow disclosed. Directed by Political Film Society awardwinner Roger Donaldson (for best film on peace of 2000, Thirteen Days), The Bank Job clearly exceeds last year’s awardwinning American Gangster in every respect. The Political Film Society has nominated The Bank Job as best film exposé of 2008. MH
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