The Split (1968)

the audience applauded

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Retired NFL Hall Of Famer Jim Brown, and an all star cast including the likes of Diahann Carroll, Donald Sutherland, Ernest Borgnine, Walter Matthau, Warren Oates, Julie Harris, James Whitmore, and even with eye candy Joyce Jameson could not hold my attention long enough in this rather drab action/crime film. I guess the producers felt with the salaries they were spending on an all star cast the movie couldn't help but be a box office bonanza. Unfortunately a weak and an overdone and predictable script outweighed the star power featured in this slow moving action/crime film.Jim Brown sets out to first test and then recruit his band of four (4) crime specialists which takes up the first 30 minutes of the film's storyline. The next 30 minutes or so is where it gets really boring as this crew of crime specialists sets out to rob the LA Coliseum while the NFL Los Angeles Rams are on the field playing the Green Bay Packers. Sounds interesting doesn't it? Don't hold your breath. This part of the film was a snorefest.Now we get to the latter half of the film where the gang is supposed to split their heist six ways, equal shares including one share for Julie Harris for financing the heist. But wait...someone kills the only innocent party who is holding the money for the mastermind thief Jim Brown, and accidentally the murderer stumbles upon Jim Brown's heist money, a cool $550,0000.00. So the gang turns on each other and are really peeved at Jim Brown because they think he double crossed them all. Sound like a familiar plot? Oh Yeah. Although the crimes intended location is different, an NFL football stadium (to encourage fans of the NFL's Hall Of Famer running back and film star Jim Brown to see this film) compared to the 1960's Ocean's 11 film in which the heist takes place in a Las Vegas Casino. The two films comparison ends right there.The best part of the film was the music score by Quincy Jones. Other than that the film would be a pass for me. Disappointing to say the least.I give it a 4 out of 10 rating.

The Split starts as career criminal Mac McClain (Jim Brown) arrives back in Los Angeles, there he hooks up with his ex-wife Ellie (Diahann Carroll) & his associate Gladys (Julie Harris). Mac says he needs 'a big job' & Gladys tells him about a plan she has to steal half a million dollars in takings from the 80,000 plus seater Colleseum football stadium during the match between the Los Angeles Rams & the Green Bay Packers, the match has no advance ticket sales so every seat has to be paid for in cash on the day at the gate. Mac likes the idea & sets out recruiting a gang to pull it off, the muscle is supplied by Bert Clinger (Ernest Borgnine), the wheel man is Harry Kifka (Jack Klugman), the weapons man & shooter is Dave Negli (Donald Sutherland) & the professional hi-tech thief, lock picker & safe-cracker is Marty Gough (Warren Oates). Everything is prepared & the day of the heist arrives...Directed by Gordon Flemyng this late 60's crime heist action thriller is unfairly rather obscure but is worth the effort to track a copy down, although you can compare The Split to The Italian Job (1969) since they are both 60's heist films The Split was made & released a year before. The script by Robert Sabaroff was based on the novel 'The Seventh' by Donald E. Westlake can be divided into three chunks, the first third of the film revolves around the recruiting of the team with some fun set-pieces to make sure each member is up to the task, the second third of the film is my favourite when they carry out the heist & there's that feeling that you root for them & you want to get away with it & all the close calls they have & watching the plan unfold is pretty fun, then the final third of the film is perhaps the weakest as several random events come together & tear the thieves apart & it becomes a rather dull runaround after the money which goes missing through no fault of their own but does obviously cause problems as they don't know who to trust. That's about it really. I would have been happy if The Split had ended after the gang had stolen the money & got away with it but there's this tacked on ending a lot of which feels very random, like how did Ellie's landlord know she had the money? Why leave the money in such an exposed place? Then there's the ending when everyone gets shot & it just all seems rather pointless. The plot wouldn't work now of course, what with the amount of CCTV's & security, the fact a lot of people pay by credit card & I don't understand why the gang don't try to cover their faces. They rob the place without any mask's or gloves so if the hostages don't identify them their finger prints surely would? For such a well planned robbery that's quite a big oversight, isn't it?Director Flemyng does a good job, he keeps the film moving along & it always feels like something is happening. The character's are also very good with each member of the gang having a distinct personality & getting at least a few minutes screen time to develop it although McClain is hard to like as the lead character since he only seems interested in serving himself. The Split was apparently the first film to be given an 'R' rating by the MPAA thanks to some fun fights, a few shoot-outs, a bit of mild bad language (although the 'N' word is used here in a casual fashion, something unthinkable these days especially when the IMDb flags it as a 'Prohibited Word' as I have just found out...) & a bit of blood. There's also a neat car chase here as well. It's somewhat surprising that The Split is such an obscure film with it's crowd pleasing heist plot & the top drawer cast but it is, last night I saw a full widescreen 2:35:1 Panavision print of this & while the colours were a bit washed out & a bit pastel it looked very nice.Technically the film is very good, it has good production values, good stunt work & nice cinematography. The one aspect of The Split I don't like is the music, it's horrible & dates the film more than anything else in it. Damn, just look at that cast. There aren't many films that boast a cast as good as The Split. Jim Brown, Ernest Borgnine, Julie Harris, Warren Oates, the peerless Jack Klugman, Donald Sutherland & Gene Hackman. The acting is top notch from one of the best cast of character actors your ever likely to see in the same film.The Split is a good heist film that starts out like The Italian Job but goes in a significantly darker direction although not to the films overall benefit in my opinion. I liked it as a one time watch & the cast are great but I am not sure I would want to see it again anytime soon.

The cast list of this film reads like a who's who of 60's and 70's Hollywood character actors. While they don't all get a chance to really shine here, their familiar faces and inherent skills help move this heist flick along nicely. Brown is a ne'er do well thief who returns to Los Angeles just in time to help Harris mastermind the robbery of the L.A. Coliseum during a Rams play-off game. He enlists the aid of four disparate men (Borgnine, Klugman, Oates and Sutherland) who form a tenuous alliance, working as a unit just long enough to get the job done and split the $500,000 take. The heist itself is suspensefully handled and skillfully done, but the primary thrust of the story kicks in when it's time to divvy out the loot, hence the title of the film (brought home even more in the title of the source novel.) Brown, though stiff at times, is such a physical presence (and an amiable one) that he anchors the story well, faltering only when it's called upon him to enact scenes of grief. Harris is tough-as-nails as a hard, (big!) red-haired schemer. All of the men in the gang give their customary polished and distinct performances. Borgnine is, of course, the most blustery. Klugman (who would return to this venue in "Two Minute Warning") plays the nervous one. Oates gives the most texture to his role as a wary safe-cracker. Sutherland is a class-act hit man with the necessary cool and effortlessness. Carroll is very attractive in a thankless role of decoration/plot device. Hackman turns up late as the police detective assigned to a murder related to the heist and gives a decent performance. Trivia buffs will note that one of the clerks (Joseph) provided the voice of Melody in the 70's cartoon series "Josie and the Pussycats". Nearly all of the roles in the film are filled with people who worked extensively as guest stars in major television series. The film is creatively directed, contains bouncy Quincy Jones music and clips along at a very tight pace except for a mouthwash commercial-esquire romantic montage between Brown and Carroll. Some of the plot elements are pretty preposterous (such as Brown's initial sequences of "auditioning" the heist participants), but it makes for interesting viewing. The movie serves as a fun time capsule of the era's fashions and procedures (check out the hair on Borgnine's secretary!) The story is never completely predictable and is at home with other similar (if more polished and better known) films from that time such as "Bullit" and "The Thomas Crown Affair".

Though I think Leonard was a little harsh, "The Split" still isn't a very good movie. The characters are paper-thin, scenes seem to be missing, and the movie is generally predictable. And there are some unbelievable scenes, like when Jim Brown's character "tests" the potential recruits. The lame climax you've seen in countless other movies.On the positive side, there is quite a bit of A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E here, which only something from this time period could pull off. There's a great scene when Borgnine and Brown slug it out. And the Quincy Jones soundtrack is great. I suspect the music is behind the reason why this has never been released on video.