Bandit: A Bloated Tale of Canada’s Flying Bank Robber
By Liam Lacey
Rating: C
Canada has produced two bank robbers known as “The Flying Bandit,” which seems to show a dispiriting lack of imagination when it comes to nicknaming our criminals.
The first was Kenny Leishman, a guy with a pilot’s license, whose robbery career spanned from 1957 to 1966. He was the subject of a book by Heather Robertson.
The second was Gilbert Galvan Jr., an American who escaped from a Michigan jail into Canada in 1985, In the next three years, he robbed a record string of 59 banks and jewelry stores across the country, often flying into town for the afternoon to commit his crime.
Bandit’s Mel Gibson and Josh Duhamel. Here’s to still working.
Galvan’s crime spree is recounted in the bland crime-comedy, Bandit, directed by Canadian director, Allan Ungar (Gridlocked), starring Josh Duhamel (Tranformers), with Mel Gibson as his criminal backer, Elisha Cuthbert as his wife and Nestor Carbonell as the head of the police task force who brought him to justice.
The film simply takes it as a given that a lightweight slab of handsome like Duhamel, with cocked eyebrows and a fast patter, is heroic enough material. There are token attempts at the character’s backstory (a rough home life, Reagan in the White House, a depressing job market). But mostly, he’s a fun guy who uses a gun to steal people’s money.
Midst montages of silly costumes and discussions of air mile points while robbing, Bandit jauntily breaks the fourth wall with a “This really happened” screen title card. For example, Galvan bought a homeless man’s I.D. card with the name Paul Whiteman, for $22. (The inserts, of course, raise the questions of what parts of the film that aren’t true. Google will help you there.)
As the script tells it, the jobless, homeless Galvan manages to charm a good Samaritan, Andrea (Cuthburt) who is running a church at the homeless shelter where he ends up. Soon they’re married, having a family and settling in Pembroke, Ontario.
Andrea’s social conscience does a quick flip: When she discovers he’s a bank robber and not just a boring business consultant, she finds it a big turn on.
Gibson adds some some questionable faded star power to the cast, as a grizzled Ottawa crime boss, who operates out of a strip bar, and backs Galvan’s ventures. (But because he’s reactionary Mel, he also who punches people in the face and hates Boy George music.) The fact that Galvan keeps popping in and out of his bar triggers the attention of a police detective (Nestor Caronbell), who plays the role as the incensed Elmer Fudd to Galvan’s Bugs Bunny.
At two hours of repetitive heists and costume changes, Bandit grows bloated and progressively tiresome. Galvan’s specialty, we are told, was his ability to get in and out of a bank job in minutes. It’s a shame the filmmakers didn’t follow his example.
Bandit. Directed by Allan Ungar. Written by Kraig Wenman, based on the true crime book, The Flying Bandit by Robert Knuckle and Ed Arnold. Starring: Josh Duhamel, Mel Gibson, Elisha Cuthbert and Nestor Carbonell. Bandit opens in Canadian theatres and on demand on Sept. 23.