RARA-AVIS: capers and/or cons

From: Mark Sullivan ( DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net)
Date: 25 Apr 2003


There are a lot of recent caper and/or con films. In the last two weeks alone, I've seen Confidence, Better Luck Tomorrow (not really a caper film, but follows a group of young guys beginning criminal careers) and The Good Thief -- I didn't make a screening of Jean-Pierre Melville's original, Bob Le Flambeur (which I did see years ago), but I did catch his Le Cercle Rouge. And I've seen previews of The Hard Word and The Italian Job (which does not seem comic like the original, nor set in Italy, for that matter).

In the last few years, there have been The Heist, The Score, Snatch and Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, to name but a few.

Not a single one of these is based on a book, though. As a matter of fact, I can think of very few written equivalents during the same period. There is the revived Parker series, of course, but I can't think of many others besides Russell James. Even a novel like Narrowback dispenses with the caper at the beginning of the book to focus on the actions they set in motion.

Am I right in this, that there are not many caper or con novels coming out these days? Or am I just unaware of the contemporary Dan J Marlowes and Ross Thomases?

If so, can someone please tell me what I'm missing? I'd really like to know.

Mark

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