The exact moment Michael Caine realised ‘The Italian Job’ was doomed: “I knew immediately”
Unfortunately, the people who work in movie marketing have far too much power over the success of a film, something that has been proven time and time again after completely undeserving projects win Oscars as a result of their insufferably inescapable marketing campaigns.
It could be the unexpected success of Shakespeare in Love, for which Gwyneth Paltrow won her first Academy Award after a guerrilla marketing campaign from Harvey Weinstein, or it could be the excessive hype around A Complete Unknown, only for it to be the most average film of the year.
But while this can work in favour of some projects, there are others that can be sorely damaged by a nonexistent marketing campaign or a misguided one that paints the project in an unfavourable light.
Whether it be the light-hearted trailer for Babylon, which sold it as a Wolf of Wall Street-esque film about Hollywood excess, or the non-existent campaign for beautiful indie gems like Janet Planet, there are many great films that aren’t given a fair chance as a result of the people who sell them, with Michael Caine discussing a similar issue with one of his films after it wasn’t met very well by American audiences.
Caine has an expansive filmography in which everyone has seen something that he is in, whether it be his regular collaborations with Christopher Nolan or his earlier work in 1970s British cinema, with a host of heist and spy movies like Get Carter, Sleuth and The Icpress File. But for some, they know him from the 1969 film The Italian Job, a story that truly put him on the map and paved the road to his Academy Award-winning roles in the ’70s.
It’s a classic heist movie that never gets old, from the opening sequence to the infamous final chase with a car dangling over the edge of a cliff. But while it might have been loved by British audiences and other parts of the world, the Americans struggled to get on board with it, with Caine describing how the marketing campaign in the States severely butchered its chances of success.
When discussing this, Caine said, “The Italian Job was a fun picture aimed at kids of all ages. It was very well made and become popular in Britain and Europe when it was released, but it flopped in America… I think the advertising campaign they dreamed up over there was really to blame. When I arrived in Los Angeles to promote the picture I was stunned to open a newspaper and see an image of a naked woman sitting on the lap of a gangster who was holding a machine gun”.
He added: “The genius who thought that up was sending such a wrong signal about this U-certificate caper that I knew immediately that The Italian Job was doomed, so I got on the next plane and came home to England. After months of hard work, sweat and tears, it can sometimes only take one small mistake like that to screw the whole thing up”.
It might have been a disappointment for Caine to not see the film do equally as well in all parts of the world, but the success it had everywhere proves its universal appeal and timelessness as one of the silliest and most British heist movies of all time.
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