The Score
Dir: Frank Oz
2001
***
2001’s The Score is a great little heist that has, unfortunately, become more famous for its off-screen problems, rather than its crime-thriller credentials. The original script was written by Daniel E. Taylor and Kario Salem and was later developed by Frank Oz – who had just left The Muppets and was looking to move forward with his directional career. It stared Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Angela Bassett and Marlon Brando in what would be his final film role. Everything was in place; a great script, a great cast and a great director – the only problem was that Oz and Brando didn’t like each other. Oz has since blamed himself for the tension and cited his tendency to be confrontational rather than nurturing in response to Brando's acting style but I don’t really buy that. Oz is a gentleman, a professional who would have a bad word said about anyone, while Brando had a reputation of being troublesome and something of a prima donna. Brando was a great actor, at his best when he was a younger man I would argue, but overrated considering his reputation. He got away with murder on set and I’m not sure he was ever really entitled the luxury of never being challenged. He had been challenged over the years but he would always come out on top, the challenger’s career often left damaged. You can’t tell there was anything wrong when watching the film though, it remains an overlooked crime thriller in my opinion. After nearly being caught on a routine burglary, master safe-cracker Nick Wells (Robert De Niro) decides the time has finally come to retire from his criminal activities. He is enticed into taking one final score by his fence (a  middleman between thieves) Max (Marlon Brando). The job, worth a $4 million payoff to Nick, is to steal a sceptre, a French national treasure stored in the ultra-secure basement of the Montréal Customs House. The sceptre was discovered by Customs agents being smuggled into the US through Canada. Max introduces Nick to Jack Teller (Edward Norton), an ambitious thief who has infiltrated the Customs House and gained information regarding security by pretending to be an intellectually disabled janitor. Nick's trusted associate Steven hacks into the Custom House's security system to obtain the bypass codes, allowing them to temporarily manipulate the alert protocols of the system during the heist. However, Steven is caught by a corrupt systems administrator who extorts Nick for $50,000 for the information. More complications arise when they are forced to move up their timetable after the Customs House becomes aware of the sceptre's value and adds extra closed-circuit television cameras and infrared detectors to monitor the basement room while preparing to return it to its rightful owners. Nick uses a sewer tunnel to enter the Customs House basement as Jack rigs the cameras to shut off when Nick enters the storage room. A fellow janitor stumbles upon Jack, who locks him in a closet. Nick fills the enormous in-floor safe containing the sceptre with water before inserting and detonating a depth charge to blow off the door. He quickly packs up the sceptre in a carrying case to depart, but Jack double crosses him and at gunpoint demands he hand it over. Nick reluctantly gives up the carrying case and seconds later the alarm, rigged by Jack, alerts the entire security staff to the heist. Nick darts for the sewer entrance he came in through as Jack heads back upstairs, tucking the carrying case inside his janitor jumpsuit and slipping past the incoming police units responding to the burglary. Nick escapes the security guards chasing him through the sewer tunnels. After making it to a bus station to flee the city, Jack calls Nick to gloat but is shocked to discover that Nick has anticipated Jack's actions. Jack opens the carrying case Nick gave him and finds it contains a steel rod weighed down with various bushings. Brushing off Jack's threats of vengeance, Nick advises Jack to flee as "every cop in the city" will now be looking for him. Nick hangs up and boards a boat with the real sceptre as a shocked Jack broods over his situation. Later, Max smiles as he watches a news broadcast reporting a massive manhunt being organized to find Jack, the prime suspect, and an unidentified accomplice. Nick then meets girlfriend Diane (Angela Bassett) at the airport as she returns from work, and they embrace. It’s a neat little caper, and it’s thanks to De Niro that it happened. Brando and Oz couldn’t even be in the same room together, so De Niro directed all of Brando’s scenes and kept the peace between the two men. Norton reportedly kept out of it, he wasn’t really interested in the film either, he just couldn’t turn down the chance to work alongside De Niro and Brando. A heavy and rather disgusting Brando would walk around the set naked and call Oz Miss Piggy. I would have kicked him out personally but watching him and De Niro work together was – and still is – a real treat. It’s no masterpiece but its good quality entertainment worthy of repeat viewing and personally I think Ben Affleck is an idiot for turning down the role of Jack. The only questionable bit is where, right at the end, you can clearly see Brando’s mouth has been CGIed to make him look as if he was smiling after he had refused to on the day of filming. Problematic and unpleasant for some but I’m glad it happened all the same.