Peter Yates directs Stanley Baker, Joanna Pettet and James Booth in this British heist movie that recreates the Great Train Robbery but changes the names and lives of the crims to protect the guilty.

Starts with a jewel snatch and lengthy car chase that redefined cinema. Bombing around the streets of west London with zero sense of safety. Without this no Bullit. Without that no French Connection. And where would the cop thriller be without those two landmarks. We aren’t on the side of angels here. This is cold, hard machismo. Stanley Baker style. Procedural with a capital P. I wish there was a cinema in Edinburgh showing this kinda testosterone fuelled antique on the big screen. Precious.

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Perfect Double Bill: The First Great Train Robbery (1979)

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