Comparative Analysis of Ocean’s 11 (1960) and Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

The Ocean’s 11 (1960) was a classic, but the Ocean’s Eleven (2001) remake was most successful at intriguing a modern audience with plot twists from the original that turned greed into passion. The latter movie considered a more complex Vegas like modern day than the 1960’s which implicated that it was not a replication of the original but a reinvention to best fit an audience of a different era. Directors of the remake movie acknowledged with new times come new advancements in both mentality and technology.

Both Ocean's 11 (1960) and Ocean's Eleven (2001) are top rated movies based on Las Vegas casino heists both with the same skeletal structure but slight plot differences that make or break them. These changes although minimal come close to the thin lining of an action movie turned unimaginative and boring. In the original, a group of men are motivated solely by greed, where as in the remake Danny Ocean wants revenge against the guy that stole his wife, the casino owner. Though both movies show motive through greed, the remake appears to show a deeper side being that there is a fight for love and marriage involved. Putting a romantic twist in the remake movie was a good way to lure in the audience, especially the alpha female who prefers the typical chick flick over an action movie any day.

In the 1960 classic the group of men was composed of World War II veterans and in difference to that, the follow up version consisted of rather highly trained and specialized individuals who had a history of previous scams and heists. This meant that that particular group of men were experienced thieves, which in return made that version more exhilarating for the fact that the viewers got to put themselves in the perspective of “actual bad guys” while the scenes of the initial robbery played out. The largest and most striking difference is that in the remake the gang gets to keep the money at the end, and none of them die which gives the film a much more positive, relieving ending. In the original when group member Bergdorf dies of a heart attack, the money was placed in his coffin to ship back to San Francisco, but when Bergdorf’s wife opts for cremation it is destroyed when it is left in the coffin. Bergdorf’s character is by far the most viewer sensitive throughout the film and his death was sad making the ending of that version extremely sad as well. Between “The Rat Pack” no one shows much sympathy for Bergdorf’s body or interest in putting him down to rest. Being more concerned about the money, with so much greed, it kind of made me hope they would not get the money. In the remake, you don’t want them to get caught so much. The Vegas of the 60s wasn’t as complex as its modern day. The fact that the supporting cast in the remake used different names will be quite obvious for those who have watched both versions of the movie. It appeared to the directors that new names would bring out a fresher perspective for the fresher version. I don’t know how that worked, but it did, though I might give credit to other elements of the new version with respect to having a fresher feel.

The original “Rat Pack” had a very break and run approach during their heist which looked fairly easy even given the security obstacles at the time. The plan feels far too short and simple for a city as large as Las Vegas. For example it was shown that the safe doors were just left open during a blackout, now we all know that doesn’t really happen in a facility where they are holding millions upon millions of dollars. In the newer movie, the heist takes place at the very well-known Bellagio hotel and casino. Their method involved breaking through the vault, which is portrayed pretty much near impossible to do. While the original movie showed more of scoping out of the casino to orchestrate their robbery, very simple, very expected and boring, the newer movie, hence fresher perspectives, had the technology genius who hacked into the security systems and monitored all the cameras, a completely new character whose job was to sit in the safe while he was wheeled to the vault, and a casino dealer who was added as part of the group as an asset for private casino information and a guy who faked a heart attack to stage a distraction. The complexity in their scheme makes the movie exhilarating because there so much that could go wrong and almost does. Giving the viewers that kind of excitement and inpredictments is a key to a successful action movie.

Ocean’s 11 (1960) is poorly paced and constantly drags as it had noticeably spent too much time focusing on the least interesting parts of the overall story. Instead of focusing on the heist and making it more complex, it subjected to a lot of wasted scenes. For example, there's a scene when one of the men met his son and promised to take him to a ballgame. There was literally no significance in that scene because we never saw the son again and the ballgame was never brought up after that. Many times in the original Frank Sinatra looked bored while acting. Some scenes felt like they were made up along the way. There was also a dragged out sequence after the heist that basically boiled down to Romero making phone calls before revealing to himself who committed the robbery. The amount of time dedicated to showing Romero sit on the phone felt like it was a way to fill out movie time. The pointless scenes or even the ones that could have been significant had they been short and sweet, took over time that should have been spent on the main focus which was the map out of the heist and in result caused viewers to feel like the gangs method to rob was too generalized and unrealistic. The director was either not very broad minded or just lazy. One of Ocean’s Eleven (2001) most popular viewer compliments is that the movie was paced very well and was easily engaging. This version was much more streamlined. The heist was presented in depth and detail. Every little complication that could exist during the heist was brought up and overcome. As mentioned before from the beginning of the movie the motive was Ocean’s intent to seek revenge on the man who stole his wife. That alone dramatizes things and makes that heist even that much more interesting because everyone else who makes up the gang is in it for the greed of money, but the mastermind behind all of it, is fighting for his woman and that calls for a whole different type of passion to succeed in crime.

It wouldn’t be fair if I completely discrediting the 1960 classic while it did give the 2006 the platform to perform by. Granted both versions of the movie had an iconic cast. In Ocean’s 11 (1960) all five of “The Rat Pack” members in this film, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. , Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop were highly iconic during that time. It truly calls for a classic film. The filmmakers recognized this in the remake because it they recruited George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, Andy Garcia just to name a few- also pretty iconic actors of current time. While the actors were “cool” in real life, so were their characters in the movie. Everything down from the dialogue, costumes and overall appearances was cool in both films. The main characters smoked cigars, drank whiskey and hollered at hot chicks, they were definitely not nerds trying to pass time through the nightlife of Las Vegas. They were those dudes.

In a nutshell, the differences in Ocean’s 11 (1960) and Ocean’s Eleven (2001) can be related to the change in era. The high tech gadgets and the evolution of the casino businesses suggested for a change in the plot of the film. Rather than replicating a classic, the most recent version only reinvented it and gave a slight nod to the original to please viewers of a newer time period where we are more demanding and less patient. If you haven’t seen Ocean’s Eleven (2001), it’s worth watching, but go ahead and skip the original.