In defense of the original "Ocean's 11"

The remake is a marketing-driven bore. I'd rather be at Chasen's with Frank, Dino and the gang.

By Karen Croft

Dec 11, 2001 | The original "Ocean's 11," from 1960, and the new one just released are so different that I had to wonder why the producers of "Ocean's" 2001 even used the same name. If it was to attract the fans of the first one, it will backfire. No fan of the old one will like the new. (And maybe, since the old fans are dying out, Warner's has the right strategy.)

The original "Ocean's" is fun, fun, fun. It was a heist caper that was just an excuse for a bunch of friends (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., et al) to get together and make whoopee. They met in the capital of decadence, Las Vegas, during that precious pre-p.c. era when a man in an orange angora sweater stirring a martini could call a woman in a tight skirt and pumps a "great broad" and she'd take it as a compliment.

The new version is dumb, dumb, dumb. It's a heist caper that was an excuse for a bunch of highly paid actors (George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, et al.) to get together and make big box office. It was made in the post-p.c. era when a man in a badly fitting suit can't say anything witty or clever in a movie because 12 people on some team have to OK the script based on its appeal to 13-year-old boys and whether it will offend some special-interest group.

The original was a classic gather-the-posse buddy movie. The guys had bonded as paratroopers in World War II and then come together for another mission. Each has a personal reason to pull the heist: One wants to get his wife out of stripping, one is dying of cancer and needs to pay his kid's way through college, another wants to play baseball but is forced to drive a garbage truck because he's black -- he wants to buy his way out of his life.

The new film gives us no background on the relationships among the men and no motivations except greed. There's a moment in the Sinatra film when his character says, quite offhandedly, to Dean Martin: "You know, sometimes I think the only reason I got into this caper was to see you again." I don't think there is one line showing friendship in the new film. Sure, the Clooney character says he's doing it to get Julia back, but the way he does it is so mean it chills the spine.

The old movie has a clever plot with a caper so low-tech it's almost believable that it could have been pulled off. The five casinos are along the strip. The men will douse the lights during a New Year's celebration, hit the casinos and split with the cash in a garbage truck. The new version has the men steal a huge electronic device from a lab; it's supposed to send out radiation to out the lights. Their getaway vehicle would be impossible to steal. It's so outrageous it's a cartoon.

The cast in 1960, led by Frank Sinatra, is so overloaded with talent that just watching them shoot their French cuffs is compelling. By this time Sinatra was the top singer in the universe and had won an Academy Award for his role as Maggio in "From Here to Eternity." He was also a great lounge singer and all-round cultural icon. Dean Martin had his own insouciant style as a singer and actor and was one of the few men Sinatra idolized. And Sammy Davis Jr. had been singing and dancing in vaudeville since he was born. (People say he was the "mascot" and criticize the group for making racist jokes. But it was Sinatra who told the casino and club owners across the country: If Sammy isn't allowed in the front door with us, I walk.)

And that's just the top three. Shirley MacLaine makes a great, nonbilled appearance as a drunk gal who almost blows the gig, and the other Rat Pack members present -- "the Quiet Ones," like Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop -- each had a talent of their own (Bishop wrote most of the lounge act and Lawford worked with the studio on the film's editing and business ends).

Next Page: Sinatra and company had style

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