Product Details

• Actors: Bernard Hill, Derek Newark, Richard Hope, Ken Bones, Frances Tomelty
• Directors: Richard Loncraine
• Writers: Richard Loncraine, Desmond Lowden, Michael Wearing
• Producers: Basil Rayburn, Christopher Neame, Denis O'Brien, George Harrison
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Anchor Bay
• VHS Release Date: October 21, 1997
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: 6304653433
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #305,199 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Richard Loncraine's 1987 heist drama puts the accent on character-driven drama and not on the mechanics of a crime. Bernard Hill plays a computer whiz whose wife abandons him and his son, a devastating change that results in Hill's character getting drunk, losing his job, and selling a computer tape containing a map of a bank's security system to a particularly brutal crime boss (Richard Hope). The nerdy hero's troubles are only beginning, though: the gangster kidnaps his son and forces Hill to collaborate on defeating the bank's security during a theft. While there is no mistaking the real villains in this piece, the story has its share of twists inspired by moral grayness and issues in which forced culpability merges with outright temptation. This is a human drama, and Loncraine shoots it accordingly, more fascinated with the characters' internal experiences than anything else. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth Watching To See Gort Get What He Deserves, November 8, 2001

By 

J. Reynolds (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bellman & True [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a somewhat different presentation of a bank-robbery story involving an alcoholic computer expert blackmailed into service by some really sickening dudes who have kidnapped his son. The head robber, code name Bellman, is a ghastly individual, as is his particularly unpleasant henchman, Gort.

Gort gets killed during the robbery in a horrific accident, an extremely disturbing scene that merely underscores the Bellman's coldness. The accident portrayed is so unexpected, so heretofore out-of-place in this film, that its impact upon the viewer is stunning. And at the same time, it could not have happened to a nicer guy.

This is a good movie to see once. It's probably not one you'll want to view again, but you will want to lend it to friends.