A man McClain is tasked with planning the robbery of a sports coliseum after a big game. He recruits four men. They pull the job without a hitch. When they ponder on where to keep the money McClain suggests they leave it with Ellie, his girlfriend. When she is killed and the money is gone. Everyone wonders what happened. And they assume that McClain knows where the money is but he doesn't. They rough him up but McClain escapes and tries to find out what happened. He thinks the cop investigating the robbery and Ellie's death knows more than he is letting on. Thieves fall out when over a half million dollars goes missing after the daring and carefully planned robbery of the Los Angeles Coliseum during a football game, each one accusing the other of having the money. Great little heist number starring some of the finest actors ever to grace the silver screen. Jim Brown made only few films between his most famous outing, The Dirty Dozen, and his biggest claim to fame, the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s. The Split may well be the best of those, though …tick…tick…tick… with George Kennedy would be a close second. Here, Brown turns in one of his best performances as McClain, a down on his luck career criminal looking to make a big score.<br/><br/>Jim Brown teams with two of his Dirty Dozen cohorts, Ernest Borgnine and Donald Sutherland, as well as Jack Klugman, Warren Oates and Gene Hackman. All give fine performances as do the film's leading ladies, Julie Harris and Diahann Carroll. Warren Oates is terrific here in one of his early roles. When compared to his later work, this shows just how versatile and actor he was. Gene Hackman is also excellent as Brille, a role which foreshadows the work he would do later in The French Connection. Keep an eye out for veteran character actor James Whitmore in a small but pivotal role as Diahann Carroll's creepy landlord.<br/><br/>Tight direction by Gordon Flemyng, interesting cinematography by Burnett Guffey, wonderful music by Quincy Jones, an effectively clever story and script by Richard Stark and Robert Sabaroff. The Split has a lot going for it. If you liked Peckinpah's The Getaway and Don Siegel's Charley Varrick, chances are you'll like The Split.<br/><br/>Highly recommended. The cast list of this film reads like a who's who of 60's and 70's Hollywood character actors. While they don't all get a chance to really shine here, their familiar faces and inherent skills help move this heist flick along nicely. Brown is a ne'er do well thief who returns to Los Angeles just in time to help Harris mastermind the robbery of the L.A. Coliseum during a Rams play-off game. He enlists the aid of four disparate men (Borgnine, Klugman, Oates and Sutherland) who form a tenuous alliance, working as a unit just long enough to get the job done and split the $500,000 take. The heist itself is suspensefully handled and skillfully done, but the primary thrust of the story kicks in when it's time to divvy out the loot, hence the title of the film (brought home even more in the title of the source novel.) Brown, though stiff at times, is such a physical presence (and an amiable one) that he anchors the story well, faltering only when it's called upon him to enact scenes of grief. Harris is tough-as-nails as a hard, (big!) red-haired schemer. All of the men in the gang give their customary polished and distinct performances. Borgnine is, of course, the most blustery. Klugman (who would return to this venue in "Two Minute Warning") plays the nervous one. Oates gives the most texture to his role as a wary safe-cracker. Sutherland is a class-act hit man with the necessary cool and effortlessness. Carroll is very attractive in a thankless role of decoration/plot device. Hackman turns up late as the police detective assigned to a murder related to the heist and gives a decent performance. Trivia buffs will note that one of the clerks (Joseph) provided the voice of Melody in the 70's cartoon series "Josie and the Pussycats". Nearly all of the roles in the film are filled with people who worked extensively as guest stars in major television series. The film is creatively directed, contains bouncy Quincy Jones music and clips along at a very tight pace except for a mouthwash commercial-esquire romantic montage between Brown and Carroll. Some of the plot elements are pretty preposterous (such as Brown's initial sequences of "auditioning" the heist participants), but it makes for interesting viewing. The movie serves as a fun time capsule of the era's fashions and procedures (check out the hair on Borgnine's secretary!) The story is never completely predictable and is at home with other similar (if more polished and better known) films from that time such as "Bullit" and "The Thomas Crown Affair".
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