Let it be known that How to rob a bank (now on Netflix) is not an instructional video, but a curious title for a fantastic true crime documentary. Directors Stephen Robert Morse (producer of Amanda Knox) and Seth Porges (Class Action Park) build a moving narrative about the bank robber nicknamed “Hollywood,” who took down Seattle banks between 1992 and 1996 and made off with more than $2 million. That nickname is certainly appropriate, as the thief, Scott Scurlock, was inspired by Patrick Swayze’s character Bodhi in Breaking point to commit the crimes, and ended up at the center of a saga worthy of the big screen.
HOW TO ROB A BANK: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The essence: The animated storyboards shift to reenactments of a man in a cap, wig, sunglasses, mustache and wads of facial putty walking into a bank, brandishing a gun and fleeing with a duffel bag full of cash. He was Hollywood, that’s what the FBI nicknamed him because of that ridiculous disguise, which apparently worked quite well, because he is one of the most prolific bank robbers in American history. We meet Ellen Glasser, head of the FBI task force. assigned to the Hollywood case, and FBI Agent Shawn Johnson and Seattle Police Detective Mike Magan, who led the investigation. Seattle journalists paint a contextual picture of a city suddenly flooded with money from the booming businesses of Microsoft, Amazon and Starbucks, with cash-filled banks on every corner, that not only saw a sharp increase in robberies, but created a Robin Hood narrative surrounding this particular criminal, who never hurt anyone, at least physically; Mentally it was probably another matter, and he took money from big corporations so he could donate a portion to environmental groups and friends in need. “It’s possible that some people supported him,” jokes one journalist.
But, of course, the truth is not so simple. We meet several people in the Hollywood orbit, people who knew him as Scott Scurlock, a free-spirited guy who hand-built an impressive treehouse in a remote forest, and lived there, writing in his diary and, as a videographer domestic. The pictures show it very well, parading around his finely toned body without clothes. Steve Meyers and Mark Biggins are the most notable speakers here, as they were Scurlock’s accomplices in the robberies. They helped him maintain the treehouse and lived there; He is described as having an adventurous spirit, and we see Scurlock sliding down a rope 60 feet above the ground, without a harness. How did Scurlock pay for this incredible place? Cooking meth, of course. He had a promising pre-med education in college until he was caught cooking in the campus lab and kicked out of school milliseconds before graduating.
That effort lasted until Scurlock’s meth contact was murdered. Then he saw Breaking point and was inspired to rob banks; It seemed easy to him. And it was, but not at first, as he and Biggins stumbled into the first one like chumps, but still got a few bills under $20,000. Scurlock was then inspired to don facial prosthetics and began planning robberies in great detail, meticulously investigating banks and striking at opportune times. He and Meyers consulted with an informant who worked as a bank teller, which opened the door to how they could manipulate employees and gain access to the vaults, and their scores increased: robbery no. 4 earned them more than $250 thousand.
When Scurlock began racking up thefts behind him, authorities worked diligently but were always a few steps behind him. The FBI blew up the story in the media, dubbing it Hollywood and offering rewards. Then Scurlock upped his game to be more unpredictable, racking up 14 steals, and the police showed up just in time to catch the air. But Scurlock’s happy, hippie personality began to sink into darkness, and we get a glimpse of this in the diary entries shared here. Scurlock and Meyers went to the movies and saw Heat, and we freak out: Was this deadly robbery and shooting their final fate? So they planned one last big deal before calling it a day.
What movies will it remind you of?: Vjeran Tomic: Spider-Man of Paris is an equally fascinating and fast-paced character study of a skilled criminal, with first-person commentary from those who committed the crimes.
Performance worth seeing: The only voice we don’t hear is Scurlock’s, but his presence is ultimately what draws us into the film.
Memorable dialogue: Meyers, a sculptor who previously worked in the art business: “Doing what Scott and I did was the most creative thing I’ve ever done in my life, much more so than the art world.”
Sex and skin: Well, there’s Scurlock’s penis in some old, blurry footage.
Our opinion: Okay, quick inventory: We’ve got Scurlock’s friends who were in the banks and getaway cars who are either emerging after the statute of limitations passed or are on the other side of a prison sentence. We have his sister and some friends who had no idea who his brother/compadre really was. We have the cops on the case who ended up chasi- well, let’s not spoil it for anyone who isn’t familiar with this saga, so they can stay in suspense for How to rob a bank, nailed to the screen as if it were a tense, skillfully edited and action-packed feature film. But where is Scurlock? What was his fate?
You’ll wait to find out, but in the meantime, Morse and Porges, using talking heads, reenactments and animations cleverly designed to look like movie storyboards and, most importantly, generally avoiding true crime clichés. “It delves deeper into Scurlock’s character, tapping into the charm of his small cult of personality. He is a magnetic figure, a nature lover with wild Mel Gibson-style hair and big eyes. His friends say they were forced “not to let him down,” so they participated in his crimes, the mark of a man with persuasive and possibly manipulative vision, for better or worse. He is presented as a charismatic and complicated antihero as we have seen in many Hollywood films, a character that leaves us conflicted, because we want to root for him despite his terrible misdeeds; The film includes some stuff at the end that attempts to consider the psychological damage he caused, but is ultimately more fascinated with the criminal than the consequences. The fact that his voice is not in the film only amplifies the mystery of who he is and what his motivation was.
But ultimately, this is not a Hollywood story. It taps into the gray areas and uncertainties of human psychology, exploring how a life of crime is not a life of exoneration from the burdens of the average person. Scurlock wrote in his diary about his discomfort, how he wondered if he just “want[s]to want”, that it is an endless path, a life without a goal. That’s the sadness we don’t see in gangster stories and other movies that spray entertaining lacquer on human horrors. How to rob a bankThe ability to explore a series of compelling ideas in an economical and taut way makes it one of the best documentaries in recent memory.
Our call: How to rob a bank It is excellent from top to bottom. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. TRANSMIT IT.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic living in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
