Fun fact: The French cop that arrests Frank in the movie is the real Frank Abagnale. Also, this is such a quality movie. Its so much better than it makes it out to be. Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks are phenomenal and Christopher Walken is always a win. Plus, another gem of music from John Williams.
Also, another fun fact: The opening scenes of Frank Abagnale appearing on "To Tell The Truth" was true. He actually did appear on this gameshow. In fact, the episode is available on TH-cam
Christopher Walken broke my heart in this one. That air of quiet desperation behind a brave front is very 20th century American dude. One of my favorite performances from anyone in anything, I think.
The story is Frank Abagnale lied about a lot of things, but the main points such as pretending to be a pilot riding in the jump seats along with going to jail in France were true. Something's were actually made up for the movie such as him still seeing his father after he ran away.
No, he lied about pretty much everything and he definitely never succesfully pretended to be a pilot. The only thing that has actually been verified of his stories is a few hundred dollars worth of check frauds. So his greatest fraud was actually convincing people that he had ever been a succesful fraudster so that they made a movie about him.
There's a bit of artistic license taken in the film, yes, but it's a relatively faithful adaptation of the book. It's just unfortunate that most of the claims he made in his book were complete fabrications...
@@FrankOdonnell-ej3hd Yes, agreed, but the points of pretending to be a pilot and being arrested in France were likely true, at least by the latest info I read about him. Though, who truly knows but him.
I met Frank Abagnele in roughly 1985 when i was in high school. He generally told a similar story of being a pilot and getting caught blah blah blah. But He literally told us the story of escaping the plane by crawling through the toilet. He also spoke that they were gonna make a movie but I never heard about it. Not until over 15 years later when this movie came out. I remember upon seeing this movie in theaters waiting for one thing, "would they show him escape a plane bathroom crawling through a toilet." I was not disappointed.
Since the movie came out, I've seen airplane experts on TH-cam say that there is no physical path between the lavatory and any wheel well because of the need to pressurize the cabin in flight. 🤔
What I got about the dad the first time I watched it was that Frank Jr. idolized him growing up and that last scene with his dad was when he at last realized his father wasn't just a romantic doing mischievous harmless things with a wink but that he actually had no sense of right and wrong. He idolized everything about his parents and of course his mom wasn't the devoted eternal love of his dad and the seemingly perfect marriage fell apart quickly once the money was gone. They mirror his schemes that can turn sour at any second. All throughout his journey he was telling himself that he was a romantic hero, just like his dad. The moment he realized his dad wasn't that, he fell apart. No more will to continue doing what he was doing, which by then just felt like meaningless acts of crime to him.
“Love flies out the window when poverty comes through the door.” “Then were they in love in the first place?” So beautifully summed up. This movie oozes charisma and charm. To think Spielberg only took on directing this film after considering others first. Thank god he did.
You can see from the lightness of the performance that Spielberg and the actors had a lot of fun doing this movie. Elizabeth Banks is frikkin' hilarious in her mini part.
This movie talks more about Spielberg's life. A boy with separated parents who never got over this separation and it affects all of his work and his life. All he learns about artifice is from watching movies (like Spielberg). The Fabelmans tells the same story without Frank Abagnale.
Spielberg made Catch Me if You Can and Minority Report within a short time of each other. Two very different films and both excellent. Tremendous acting performances in both films and top notch directing. Great insights on the father and son dynamics.
The post Schindler's period of Spielberg's career is one of my favourites. Munich, War of the Worlds, Minority, Catch Me, just such variation and even when he missed, I enjoyed the fact that he wanted to play in different genres. I generally think of Spielberg's as a career of two halves: pre Schindler's and post and I appreciate both for different reasons
Spielberg did not intend to direct this one, he was just going to produce. But then he couldn't find a director and he really liked the project so he said "eh, I'll do it myself."
The situation is murky for the counterfeit checks. Yes, Secret Service does investigate counterfeit currency but FBI is in charge of financial institution fraud, when they feel a bank or lender has a problem that may affect the national economy. Because all Frank’s checks were from the same bank it may have thought the bank itself had been breached and was in danger of being a country wide problem.
Secret service does handle all type of financial crimes, counterfeiting of US currency, US Government obligations; US Treasury checks, bonds or other securities a.s.o Frank was doing petty crimes, trying to cash fake or stolen checks, stealing cars, pretending to be police officer, FBI arrested him for grand theft auto, he stole car in NY and drove that to California, financed that trip with stolen checks, taken from small business, He stole car from Sweden before jailed in France then send to Sweden, if movie was about the crimes he really did , he would just look like a scumbag.
This is one movie I never get sick of watching. Love everything about it, the acting, the actors, the story, the cinematography, the tone of the music throughout, this movie is perfect in every way. Love that you guys watched it
Fun fact: that "French" town where Frank was arrested was actually Quebec City! They also did some filming in Montreal, where the movie wrapped on May 12, 2002 and they had a big wrap party!
Oh my god! I love that movie... but I had literally forgotten all about it! How does that happen? If it had been mediocre or just not that good, then yes, easy to forget, but now, even as I'm typing this, I can literally see it playing, the boy on his bicycle with a pipe... playing dice with the "boss". Damn, that's so weird. Thanks for reminding me of that. I shall stream it this weekend 👍
I think a big aspect of the father's eventual behaviour was jealousy. He loves his son, he loves that his son is sticking it to the man and his son's success is sorta vicariously his own, but under all that is the fact that he kept failing in life while his son was moving up. His son can just offer a quality car just like that, while he is such a failure he cannot even accept the gift.
This is a fantastic movie. Tragic as hell, too. If you haven't seen it already, I recommend another Spielberg/Hanks film called The Terminal. It gets me every time.
I need to catch up with that one. All the critics threw things at Spielberg and Hanks when it came out and it got by me but “Terminal” does have its fans.
@karlmortoniv2951 The Terminal got hate for no reason when it came out, during this time Spielberg tried directing different styles of films and because they weren't the exact same as his blockbusters and even dramas from years past, some critics just said they weren't that good just by association and that was so stupid for them to do, The Terminal is wonderful and so is Catch me if you can (Thankfully that one was critically acclaimed) Minority Report, Munich and hell even A.I too, theyre not perfect and vary in quality but I still think theyre all very good to fantastic overall, I think those films got dismissed for stupid reasons and thankfully critics finally came around to them as they deserved
OCR is the font used on checks. You can download it yourself and look up the special characters used. Also, in the states, a check can be written on ANYTHING.
There is a behind the scenes clip of the leo and walken at the restaurant scene. When walken is so heartbreaking and he tears up. There is video of leo off camera and walken is so tremendous you see leo start to cry for real.
That's how you studied for the law from the 19th century back. You apprenticed for years and then took the bar exam. Didn't need a law degree. That's how Abraham Lincoln became a lawyer. Only the extremely wealthy would have studied law in a college. Thomas Jefferson was the same, becoming a clerk for George Wythe. This practice of apprenticeship gradually died out during the early 20th century. Some states still do not require a law degree, but most spend the money to get the education.
No states allow you to just take the bar. Those few states which don't absolutely require law school as a prerequisite for sitting the bar exam offer the possibility of substituting a legal apprenticeship (3-4 years, depending on the state) as the prerequisite.
More Tom Hanks? I saw Philadelphia in a recent poll for Denzel Washington, it is one of those movies that is still relevant today and also a time capsule. In the mid to late 90s my mother was a nurse that worked at a specific type of hospice, I am deliberately avoiding what type of hospice she worked at to avoid spoilers. She also shared another trait with the main character this movie. This was a very important movie to me growing up.
Amy adams, elizabeth banks, Jennifer Garner and Ellen Pompeo? Damn thats some A class leading ladies right there 💃 Love this movie and one of my all time favs! Never fails to make me cry ❤
People will tell you if you wear a uniform and look like you belong, you can get anywhere. But you really need lots of confidence to do it. Or no fear.
It’s actually a lot harder to forge cash than you think. The US treasury uses a specific paper that only comes from one supplier. The paper itself is protected more than the money that gets printed on it.
@14:44 I'm a retired DEA agent and have a little experience with the responsibilities of other federal agencies. When interacting with the Secret Service I always found they were more focused on credit card fraud and counterfeiting of government created securities like bonds and treasury notes (and obviously currency) but not so much check fraud that didn't involve government issued checks. The FBI also has overlap with a lot of other federal agencies (they can investigate drugs if they want to although largely pulled out of that after 09/11) and could always involve itself in a pattern of crime which involves crossing over state lines (which checks would do while clearing) and obviously with Abignale jumping from state to state.
Both Hanks and DiCaprio were laid back and having fun on set. Spielberg was also easygoing and the scenes I worked on were done with very few takes. They all were efficient and enjoying what they were doing which made it a great experience.@@bidishah
The check printing scene where he gets arrested(interior) was filmed a block from my childhood home. I remember my mom picking me up from a HS match and was like "hurry up, Steven Spielberg, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks are filing a movie behind our house." Spielberg had come out during a break and sat on the curb with my mom and some other ladies from the block and they just sat and shot the shit for a bit. He signed some autographs, let them run home and grab whatever they wanted. My mom said she was incredibly nice, kind spoken and just a happy guy. He then said to help themselves to craft services after everyone was done. When I got there, people were eating and both actors came out and just went to their trailers. Tom Hanks waved, Leo ignored everyone. After everyone went in they waved us over and we grubbed down on cold craft service food lol It was a mundane small business warehouse in a business center of cookie cutter buildings that we used to ride bikes through on the daily. The Denver airport was filmed at the only airport in Ontario, CA that my mom and I used to pick up my dad at whenever he flew in from business trips, before they built ONT Int.
A good one to check out after this is CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND: George Clooney's first film as a director. It's about the late Chuck Barris, who was a game show host and creator of shows like THE DATING GAME and THE GONG SHOW from the 70s. It's based off his memoir where he claimed to also be a CIA assassin.
I’m pretty sure when frank was posing as a doctor he studied medical books so he was atleast aware of the papers he was signing he was basically an admin dr and probably personally asked the other residents to give their opinion on stuff.
Having watched all of House MD, at least three times, I believe that I could be a fake doctor... a really shitty one that nobody wants treating them, but still a doctor. It's never Lupus. 😅
Regarding what you suggested about printing money instead of checks: Money isn't paper, it's FABRIC. I didn't know that until a few years ago. Counterfeit experts often refer to fake bills simply as "paper" because that's exactly what it is, whereas real money is not. And so people who make counterfeit bills can't possibly make money that will stand up to scrutiny, because they simply don't have access to the equipment that weaves the bills. I tend to draw a line between "Jurassic Park" and "Schindler's List" in Spielberg's career. Everything that came before the line was escapist fare, with a few exceptions. Everything after the line (with exceptions) are serious dramas with more mature stories and themes that wouldn't appeal to kids. Of the films he's made since "Schindler's", this is definitely one of my favorites, and a role that DiCaprio was very well-suited to. I feel that he'd been miscast in a number of pictures (like some of the ones Scorsese directed), but he's exceptional in this. The rest of the cast ain't bad either.
I think the scene with Frank and his father (The "Where you going tonight? Hawaii?" part) is not so much about screwing over the man or getting one up on the government. It's about Frank Sr living vicariously through him. Frank is doing what Frank Sr always did, he's just doing it better. He wishes he was in his son's position.. but is also proud. I think the question touches at a hint of bitterness just because of the curtness of it all, but really he is just proud that his son is a better conman than him and wants details so he can live vicariously. That's the way I read the scene, but I'm sure I could be missing some things.
I watched this movie at school. Not as part of a class but in dorm as a boarder. After seeing the movie we listened to an audio recording of Frank telling his story. It was very interesting and entertaining.
I felt like his father was living vicariously through his son's escapades because he could no longer do it himself. He was addicted to it even though it was his son doing it.
What's amazing about this movie is you're basically watching a movie about one of the earliest forms of hackers; The Social Engineer and that's what Frank Abignale Jr. was, a social engineer.
Love humbles people, that is why him telling the truth to the father of his fiancé, was so smart, because he literally just told the truth as he saw it, and while it was true, the father bought it too, because Love humbles people.
You need to listen to Frank himself telling the story. Think there are some versions on TH-cam. But the $400 back from Jennifer Garner was the best part of the movie 😂
If you look on TH-cam you can find a long interview with Abagnale on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. He pretty much stuns the audience with the story there.
29:00 I don't know how fetch police worked in the 60s either, but to the best of my knowledge, they were and still are a branch of the French military, not a civilian organization, so take that into consideration.
This movie is essentially a coming-of-age movie. The relationship between Frank and his dad is so poignant. Easily Christopher Walken's best performance.
One thing that's really interesting is that watching The Fabelmans(The last movie Steven Spielberg put out) makes Catch Me If You Can even better of a movie because they share so many of the same themes. Like Frank Abagnale, Sammy Fabelman has a fucked up dysfunctional home situation, and he escapes his family drama through a hobby, except his hobby is filmmaking instead of con artistry. Notably, Frank also seems to be a movie/pop culture buff like Sammy given that he watches a lot of TV, loves the movie Goldfinger, and that Barry Allen/The Flash is one of his aliases. Both Frank and Sammy have a certain amount of resentment for their mom for cheating on their father and in their imo wrecking their family life, the same way that allegedly Spielberg has issues with his mom. Both movies feature a lot of 1960s nostalgia, probably because that's when Steven Spielberg grew up, but also because he's trying to emulate both caper movies and melodramas(Like those from Douglas Dirk) of that era.
One of those gently perfect movies that I can watch over and over or put in any company and everyone will enjoy it. I have a short list of movies that never miss (no matter the home audience) and this is amongst them. Back to the Future The Prestige Groundhog Day Catch Me If You Can Intouchables The scene when he sees his little sister always breaks my heart. How he doesn't want them knowing he's there or upsetting their Christmas. 😢
having a uniform and being convincing in what one is faking works really well. One famous german example was in 1906 "the Captain of Köpenick" (der Hauptmann von Köpenick", Wilhelm Voigt, a shoemaker and long-time convict. He bought uniform parts in different shops and used them to commandeer soldiers from the local barracks and a shooting range, went with them by train to Köpenick, wehre he took over the city hall, had the police suspend all telephone lines for half an hour, and arrested the treasurer for susipcion of draudulent bokk-keeping. He then confiscated all the money (some 4000 Mark, for comparison: that's more or less what the Reich Chancellor had as monthly salary). He then commandeered some carriages, ordered the soldiers to transfer the arrested persons to Berlin, changed into civilian clothes and vanished. He was later arrested and convicted to four years in prison, but pardoned in 1908.
Thanks for this Guys. Actually, he was sentenced to 12 years IN ISOLATION. He never returned until 10.20 am when it should have been 9am hence Hanratty's anxiety and he made millions from his later Bank work:)
I remember reading an article about large security vulnerabilities. The one that stands out in my memory years later was about a company that purchased another because they wanted their warehouse space. The company that was bought made credit card readers and the warehouses were full. Normally the readers would be restricted by selling with a very high price. Really that's not a good safeguard, but that's what they apparently did. The new company apparently just wanted the warehouses so they were unloaded very cheaply. The article reported that the reason these credit card readers were important is that they were easy to rewire into credit card writers. At that point many ATMs only checked the cards to make sure the personal identification numbers entered only matched what was recorded on the cards. Especially locations that were satellites far from.main branches that wouldn't, or couldn't, communicate with primary branches very often. So a warehouse emptying company accidentally may have opened a door to make many accounts vulnerable to illegitimate cardholders. Just trivia from an old article, but interesting.
I love this movie! If you like the music, you should take a listen to the piece Escapades. John Williams took his score for this and turned it into a full piece for sax and orchestra.
He talked about the check thing in an interview. He knew where the checks were routed and how long it would take to bounce based on what part of the country he was in.
MICR encoders are not hard to acquire. I used to use one when I had to do a special draw against someone's account to catch up on their insurance premiums. This was before e-transfers etc.
I love this film. There is of course a Broadway show based on this story. The Story of Frank Abignale Jr doesn't end with the film, Frank served his time in prison, and after getting out ended up starting a company that works with banks, financial institution and law enforcement on different types of security for transactions (Security measures for cheques, etc.). Frank does seminars (He reportedly does them for free for law enforcement) some of his talks are on you tube, and he wrote (or co-wrote) a book called "The art of the Steal", which was facinating (He talks about how to keep yourself safe from scams, and talks about certain scams that were done).
I was lucky enough to meet Frank Abignale Jr. in Miami in 2005, and he's very open with the truth of his exploits. While it's true that the story of this film is a con, his life wasn't without some hair raising twists and turns, which happily he shared with me. In 1984 for example he travelled to LA while posing as a cybernetic organism conisting of a hyperalloy combat chassis/endoskeleton surrounded by living tissue, and walked right through a police station without anyong realising he was actually Frank Abagnale Jr. It was only when he bumped into an actual Cyberdyne Systems model 101 (T800) that he was rumbled. According to Frank audiences preferres an everyman adversary so Tom Hanks in this movie replaces the real T800 character
Pan Am only flew overseas. From the US to overseas. Meaning there were no Pan Am flights between US cities. Deadheading was the practice of shuttling pilots from one airport to another. Airlines would do this for other airlines. Because Pan Am didn't fly between US cities, other airlines were used to carrying Pan Am pilots.
This movie I'm sure is inspired by the 1961 movie, "The Imposter" starring Tony Curtis. The movie recreates the life of Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr., who over the year posed as a civil engineer, a sheriff's deputy, an assistant prison warden, a doctor of applied psychology, a hospital orderly, a lawyer, a child-care expert, a Benedictine monk, a Trappist monk, a naval surgeon, an editor, a cancer researcher, and a teacher. The movie, "The Imposter" is a comedy-drama.
I attended a seminar in the mid 90's when I worked for a title insurance company. He was talking about bank fraud and tricks people used to defraud companies. He was mesmerizing. He held everyones full attention the entire 3 hours. That is amazing because no one ever pays attention at those things.
Fun fact: The French cop that arrests Frank in the movie is the real Frank Abagnale.
Also, this is such a quality movie. Its so much better than it makes it out to be. Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks are phenomenal and Christopher Walken is always a win. Plus, another gem of music from John Williams.
Also, another fun fact:
The opening scenes of Frank Abagnale appearing on "To Tell The Truth" was true. He actually did appear on this gameshow. In fact, the episode is available on TH-cam
Another fun fact: the French town is actually in Quebec City.
@@MrFoolD somehow, that doesn't surprise me that they'd filmed that scene in Quebec
I wish there was still movies made like this.
Christopher Walken broke my heart in this one. That air of quiet desperation behind a brave front is very 20th century American dude. One of my favorite performances from anyone in anything, I think.
Agreed. I think it's his finest performance ever (better even than Deer Hunter) and he was robbed of the Oscar.
The story is Frank Abagnale lied about a lot of things, but the main points such as pretending to be a pilot riding in the jump seats along with going to jail in France were true. Something's were actually made up for the movie such as him still seeing his father after he ran away.
No, he lied about pretty much everything and he definitely never succesfully pretended to be a pilot. The only thing that has actually been verified of his stories is a few hundred dollars worth of check frauds. So his greatest fraud was actually convincing people that he had ever been a succesful fraudster so that they made a movie about him.
actually my info is abagnale lied about most of his story which some people have called the ultimate con job a con within a con⚛😀
There's a bit of artistic license taken in the film, yes, but it's a relatively faithful adaptation of the book. It's just unfortunate that most of the claims he made in his book were complete fabrications...
He got his name right, that is about the limit of what is true.
@@FrankOdonnell-ej3hd Yes, agreed, but the points of pretending to be a pilot and being arrested in France were likely true, at least by the latest info I read about him. Though, who truly knows but him.
I met Frank Abagnele in roughly 1985 when i was in high school. He generally told a similar story of being a pilot and getting caught blah blah blah. But He literally told us the story of escaping the plane by crawling through the toilet. He also spoke that they were gonna make a movie but I never heard about it. Not until over 15 years later when this movie came out. I remember upon seeing this movie in theaters waiting for one thing, "would they show him escape a plane bathroom crawling through a toilet." I was not disappointed.
Since the movie came out, I've seen airplane experts on TH-cam say that there is no physical path between the lavatory and any wheel well because of the need to pressurize the cabin in flight. 🤔
What I got about the dad the first time I watched it was that Frank Jr. idolized him growing up and that last scene with his dad was when he at last realized his father wasn't just a romantic doing mischievous harmless things with a wink but that he actually had no sense of right and wrong. He idolized everything about his parents and of course his mom wasn't the devoted eternal love of his dad and the seemingly perfect marriage fell apart quickly once the money was gone. They mirror his schemes that can turn sour at any second.
All throughout his journey he was telling himself that he was a romantic hero, just like his dad. The moment he realized his dad wasn't that, he fell apart. No more will to continue doing what he was doing, which by then just felt like meaningless acts of crime to him.
"I love watching competent people do things competently"
The dynamic of DiCaprio & Hanks in this film is golden, cool reaction as always Simone & George, you both take care and have a nice day
“Love flies out the window when poverty comes through the door.”
“Then were they in love in the first place?”
So beautifully summed up. This movie oozes charisma and charm. To think Spielberg only took on directing this film after considering others first. Thank god he did.
You can see from the lightness of the performance that Spielberg and the actors had a lot of fun doing this movie.
Elizabeth Banks is frikkin' hilarious in her mini part.
I don’t care as much that the “true” story isn’t really all that true, I still love this movie.
Same. If anything, this all being a con on the audience makes me like it even more.
Yes, it’s a movie not a documentary. Same with Braveheart or Fargo. True events inspiring a fictional story.
This movie talks more about Spielberg's life. A boy with separated parents who never got over this separation and it affects all of his work and his life. All he learns about artifice is from watching movies (like Spielberg). The Fabelmans tells the same story without Frank Abagnale.
Spielberg made Catch Me if You Can and Minority Report within a short time of each other. Two very different films and both excellent. Tremendous acting performances in both films and top notch directing. Great insights on the father and son dynamics.
The post Schindler's period of Spielberg's career is one of my favourites. Munich, War of the Worlds, Minority, Catch Me, just such variation and even when he missed, I enjoyed the fact that he wanted to play in different genres.
I generally think of Spielberg's as a career of two halves: pre Schindler's and post and I appreciate both for different reasons
@@Shiny7054 AKA before Janusz Kaminski and after.
@@Shiny7054don't forget Jews & Jurrasic Park
Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List came out in the same year.
@@Kaddywompous Yes! I didn't realize that, even though I saw the films when they premiered. Thanks for this.
Spielberg did not intend to direct this one, he was just going to produce. But then he couldn't find a director and he really liked the project so he said "eh, I'll do it myself."
I’d love a video that consists of nothing but a compilation of Simone’s “welcome everybody!” intros and George’s perplexed expressions.
I'd also like a compilation of every "JESUS, GEORGE!" after George's dirty jokes
She used to say "welcome to cinebinge..." which devolved into complete nonsense and giggles.
Which I'm am here for 😂
Or a compilation video of everytime Simone says "Jeepers!".
It's actually crazy how friendly you two seem, you give off such comforting vibes. You two really vibe great off each-other
The situation is murky for the counterfeit checks. Yes, Secret Service does investigate counterfeit currency but FBI is in charge of financial institution fraud, when they feel a bank or lender has a problem that may affect the national economy. Because all Frank’s checks were from the same bank it may have thought the bank itself had been breached and was in danger of being a country wide problem.
Secret service does handle all type of financial crimes, counterfeiting of US currency, US Government obligations; US Treasury checks, bonds or other securities a.s.o
Frank was doing petty crimes, trying to cash fake or stolen checks, stealing cars, pretending to be police officer, FBI arrested him for grand theft auto, he stole car in NY and drove that to California, financed that trip with stolen checks, taken from small business, He stole car from Sweden before jailed in France then send to Sweden, if movie was about the crimes he really did , he would just look like a scumbag.
This is one movie I never get sick of watching. Love everything about it, the acting, the actors, the story, the cinematography, the tone of the music throughout, this movie is perfect in every way. Love that you guys watched it
"God I wish I were an Airplane" and Simone's reaction made my week.
Simone says: "it's the true story of a real fake-O!"
Me: (spits out coffee) DAMMIT, Simone! 😜😂
"Love flies out the window 🪟 when poverty walks through the door." Great call George. And great reaction to this classic Spielberg film! 👍🏿
One of my favorite John Williams Scores.
Christopher Walken was nominated for Oscar for his performance. Very well deserved. Also, George, love your Mr. Sparkle t-shirt.
I might not always laugh at some quips and comments, but George's "I wish I was an airplane" got me so good 😭
Fun fact: that "French" town where Frank was arrested was actually Quebec City! They also did some filming in Montreal, where the movie wrapped on May 12, 2002 and they had a big wrap party!
Credit Spielberg for another masterpiece. The pacing, the Score, the dialogue. It’s a classic and fun film every time.
Trivia: The French Policeman who arrests DiCaprio is the real Abagnale.
In a career containing so much awesomeness, this is one of my favorite John Williams scores. So playful but in a dark way..
'Road to Perdition' for an S tier Tom Hanks film.
Top 3 hanks movie for me.
Thank you. This is my favorite movie and not many people even know about it.
Yesssssss@@dariusthegr8one81
Oh my god! I love that movie... but I had literally forgotten all about it! How does that happen? If it had been mediocre or just not that good, then yes, easy to forget, but now, even as I'm typing this, I can literally see it playing, the boy on his bicycle with a pipe... playing dice with the "boss". Damn, that's so weird.
Thanks for reminding me of that. I shall stream it this weekend 👍
The "long shots" in that movie are a master class in visual filmmaking... and Tom Hanks is better than that in it.
I think a big aspect of the father's eventual behaviour was jealousy. He loves his son, he loves that his son is sticking it to the man and his son's success is sorta vicariously his own, but under all that is the fact that he kept failing in life while his son was moving up. His son can just offer a quality car just like that, while he is such a failure he cannot even accept the gift.
This is a fantastic movie. Tragic as hell, too.
If you haven't seen it already, I recommend another Spielberg/Hanks film called The Terminal. It gets me every time.
Love that movie!
terminal is sooooo goood
Absolutely a must!
One can only hope this is one step closer to The Terminal ending up on their list
Yes! Absolutely! I love that movie.
100%. Must watch!!
I need to catch up with that one. All the critics threw things at Spielberg and Hanks when it came out and it got by me but “Terminal” does have its fans.
@karlmortoniv2951 The Terminal got hate for no reason when it came out, during this time Spielberg tried directing different styles of films and because they weren't the exact same as his blockbusters and even dramas from years past, some critics just said they weren't that good just by association and that was so stupid for them to do, The Terminal is wonderful and so is Catch me if you can (Thankfully that one was critically acclaimed) Minority Report, Munich and hell even A.I too, theyre not perfect and vary in quality but I still think theyre all very good to fantastic overall, I think those films got dismissed for stupid reasons and thankfully critics finally came around to them as they deserved
Performances like this are why I'm pumped for Walken to play the emperor in Dune pt2.
Exactly what I was thinking!
lol simone getting all bashful in the intro where she stopped herself is *chefskiss
I think you guys will LOVE this..cant wait
OCR is the font used on checks. You can download it yourself and look up the special characters used. Also, in the states, a check can be written on ANYTHING.
There is a behind the scenes clip of the leo and walken at the restaurant scene. When walken is so heartbreaking and he tears up. There is video of leo off camera and walken is so tremendous you see leo start to cry for real.
omg the first time i actually understood what simone intros meant, such a random meme lmfao
In some places, even in the US, you can just take the bar exam and if you pass, you pass. There's no requirement for specific classes or anything.
That's how you studied for the law from the 19th century back. You apprenticed for years and then took the bar exam. Didn't need a law degree. That's how Abraham Lincoln became a lawyer. Only the extremely wealthy would have studied law in a college. Thomas Jefferson was the same, becoming a clerk for George Wythe.
This practice of apprenticeship gradually died out during the early 20th century. Some states still do not require a law degree, but most spend the money to get the education.
As it should be, imo.
Very surprising the vested interests (law schools) haven't managed to shut that option down.
@@GK-yi4xvBut don’t you still need a degree to practice law?
No states allow you to just take the bar. Those few states which don't absolutely require law school as a prerequisite for sitting the bar exam offer the possibility of substituting a legal apprenticeship (3-4 years, depending on the state) as the prerequisite.
More Tom Hanks? I saw Philadelphia in a recent poll for Denzel Washington, it is one of those movies that is still relevant today and also a time capsule. In the mid to late 90s my mother was a nurse that worked at a specific type of hospice, I am deliberately avoiding what type of hospice she worked at to avoid spoilers. She also shared another trait with the main character this movie. This was a very important movie to me growing up.
Amy adams, elizabeth banks, Jennifer Garner and Ellen Pompeo? Damn thats some A class leading ladies right there 💃
Love this movie and one of my all time favs! Never fails to make me cry ❤
People will tell you if you wear a uniform and look like you belong, you can get anywhere. But you really need lots of confidence to do it. Or no fear.
Carry around a clipboard and look like you're an inspector taking notes. Everyone will try to dodge your gaze.
It’s actually a lot harder to forge cash than you think. The US treasury uses a specific paper that only comes from one supplier. The paper itself is protected more than the money that gets printed on it.
@14:44 I'm a retired DEA agent and have a little experience with the responsibilities of other federal agencies. When interacting with the Secret Service I always found they were more focused on credit card fraud and counterfeiting of government created securities like bonds and treasury notes (and obviously currency) but not so much check fraud that didn't involve government issued checks. The FBI also has overlap with a lot of other federal agencies (they can investigate drugs if they want to although largely pulled out of that after 09/11) and could always involve itself in a pattern of crime which involves crossing over state lines (which checks would do while clearing) and obviously with Abignale jumping from state to state.
Great film to work on. I was a prison guard who puts Leonardo's character into his cell during the "The Christmas Song" scene.
That's incredible! Tell us more, what was he like to work with? 😮
Both Hanks and DiCaprio were laid back and having fun on set. Spielberg was also easygoing and the scenes I worked on were done with very few takes. They all were efficient and enjoying what they were doing which made it a great experience.@@bidishah
@@richardyett3985 Thanks, Richard.I assume the "French" scenes were filmed in Hollywood
“You can’t fake being a doctor.”
Dr. Malachi Love-Robinson has entered the chat
d gary young (donald, not doctor) too
he even did surgeries and ended up killing his own infant
The check printing scene where he gets arrested(interior) was filmed a block from my childhood home. I remember my mom picking me up from a HS match and was like "hurry up, Steven Spielberg, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks are filing a movie behind our house." Spielberg had come out during a break and sat on the curb with my mom and some other ladies from the block and they just sat and shot the shit for a bit. He signed some autographs, let them run home and grab whatever they wanted. My mom said she was incredibly nice, kind spoken and just a happy guy. He then said to help themselves to craft services after everyone was done. When I got there, people were eating and both actors came out and just went to their trailers. Tom Hanks waved, Leo ignored everyone. After everyone went in they waved us over and we grubbed down on cold craft service food lol It was a mundane small business warehouse in a business center of cookie cutter buildings that we used to ride bikes through on the daily.
The Denver airport was filmed at the only airport in Ontario, CA that my mom and I used to pick up my dad at whenever he flew in from business trips, before they built ONT Int.
I think this is the best Leo performance. He has to do that strange balance between comedy and drama while being a charming anti hero.
A good one to check out after this is CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND: George Clooney's first film as a director. It's about the late Chuck Barris, who was a game show host and creator of shows like THE DATING GAME and THE GONG SHOW from the 70s. It's based off his memoir where he claimed to also be a CIA assassin.
The secret service investigates counterfeiting. Check fraud is another matter entirely.
I’m pretty sure when frank was posing as a doctor he studied medical books so he was atleast aware of the papers he was signing he was basically an admin dr and probably personally asked the other residents to give their opinion on stuff.
Having watched all of House MD, at least three times, I believe that I could be a fake doctor... a really shitty one that nobody wants treating them, but still a doctor. It's never Lupus. 😅
If Simone gets an OMG counter, it's only fair that George get a mmhm counter. Just sayin ;)
That was Elizabeth Banks as the laughing girl at the bank explaining check routing, writer/director of Pitch Perfect, Charles Angels reboot.
George, the counter was funny, but you missed one at 30:10 when he is on the wheels of the plane. Then counted 32 again right after that.
Regarding what you suggested about printing money instead of checks: Money isn't paper, it's FABRIC. I didn't know that until a few years ago. Counterfeit experts often refer to fake bills simply as "paper" because that's exactly what it is, whereas real money is not. And so people who make counterfeit bills can't possibly make money that will stand up to scrutiny, because they simply don't have access to the equipment that weaves the bills.
I tend to draw a line between "Jurassic Park" and "Schindler's List" in Spielberg's career. Everything that came before the line was escapist fare, with a few exceptions. Everything after the line (with exceptions) are serious dramas with more mature stories and themes that wouldn't appeal to kids. Of the films he's made since "Schindler's", this is definitely one of my favorites, and a role that DiCaprio was very well-suited to. I feel that he'd been miscast in a number of pictures (like some of the ones Scorsese directed), but he's exceptional in this. The rest of the cast ain't bad either.
I think the scene with Frank and his father (The "Where you going tonight? Hawaii?" part) is not so much about screwing over the man or getting one up on the government. It's about Frank Sr living vicariously through him. Frank is doing what Frank Sr always did, he's just doing it better. He wishes he was in his son's position.. but is also proud. I think the question touches at a hint of bitterness just because of the curtness of it all, but really he is just proud that his son is a better conman than him and wants details so he can live vicariously. That's the way I read the scene, but I'm sure I could be missing some things.
Brenda's story is so heartbreaking. The line "I had an abortion and I wasn't their daughter anymore" guts me every time.
@@Stevie8654 maybe you should have been aborted.
Don’t worry about it just like everything in this movie & his life is a complete lie & it didnt happen
I'm aware of that, but I'm still emotionally affected by fiction, and situations like Brenda's happen irl all the time.@@guyincognito1707
@@guyincognito1707 maybe it didn't happen to specific people but it does happen to a lot of people, still heartbreaking
More heartbreaking is millions of abortions happening around the World. Plenty of people that could have been in this life and are not now. @@SkwithOv
I feel like you'd really like The Fabelmans. A Speilberg movie that is loosely but pretty closely based off his life and how he got into filmmaking.
Fun fact: Spielbergs first choice for Frank Abagnale Jr was Johnny Depp.
By 2002 I feel like Depp would have been too old, but I see him as a good choice. But Leo even now looks younger than he really is.
I never gave much thought to Leo's performance in this one tbh, but I think this film would have been much worse with Depp as the lead.
This is such a satisfying movie in every way.
That $799 car was from the mid 50's, so it was at least 8 years old. In 1963 the avg cost of a new car was $3,250, about $31k today.
I watched this movie at school. Not as part of a class but in dorm as a boarder. After seeing the movie we listened to an audio recording of Frank telling his story. It was very interesting and entertaining.
I felt like his father was living vicariously through his son's escapades because he could no longer do it himself. He was addicted to it even though it was his son doing it.
The marriage was the worst idea. Brenda was never going to be that ride or die woman. But Frank was an impulsive kid.
Key part there is he was a KID.
What's amazing about this movie is you're basically watching a movie about one of the earliest forms of hackers; The Social Engineer and that's what Frank Abignale Jr. was, a social engineer.
Hey Canadians, the church outside the printers in France is actually old Quebec City just below Chateau Frontenac.
Love humbles people, that is why him telling the truth to the father of his fiancé, was so smart, because he literally just told the truth as he saw it, and while it was true, the father bought it too, because Love humbles people.
You need to listen to Frank himself telling the story. Think there are some versions on TH-cam. But the $400 back from Jennifer Garner was the best part of the movie 😂
This movie has always been in my top 20 movies of all time.
1:54 Simone: “Is he faking, being all the things?” Roll credits! 🤣🙌
If you look on TH-cam you can find a long interview with Abagnale on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. He pretty much stuns the audience with the story there.
And that story is all fake.
One of my favorite questions ever asked by teachers... "How'd you cheat?"
I didn't... Love that line.
29:00 I don't know how fetch police worked in the 60s either, but to the best of my knowledge, they were and still are a branch of the French military, not a civilian organization, so take that into consideration.
28:37 THIS GUY, Frank John Hughes, worked with Spielberg and Hanks before, as Ol’ Gonorrhea himself, Wild Bill Guarnere.
28:40 this "French location" in front of the church was actually filmed in "Place Royale" in Quebec City...Canada
This movie is essentially a coming-of-age movie. The relationship between Frank and his dad is so poignant. Easily Christopher Walken's best performance.
One thing that's really interesting is that watching The Fabelmans(The last movie Steven Spielberg put out) makes Catch Me If You Can even better of a movie because they share so many of the same themes.
Like Frank Abagnale, Sammy Fabelman has a fucked up dysfunctional home situation, and he escapes his family drama through a hobby, except his hobby is filmmaking instead of con artistry. Notably, Frank also seems to be a movie/pop culture buff like Sammy given that he watches a lot of TV, loves the movie Goldfinger, and that Barry Allen/The Flash is one of his aliases.
Both Frank and Sammy have a certain amount of resentment for their mom for cheating on their father and in their imo wrecking their family life, the same way that allegedly Spielberg has issues with his mom.
Both movies feature a lot of 1960s nostalgia, probably because that's when Steven Spielberg grew up, but also because he's trying to emulate both caper movies and melodramas(Like those from Douglas Dirk) of that era.
One of those gently perfect movies that I can watch over and over or put in any company and everyone will enjoy it. I have a short list of movies that never miss (no matter the home audience) and this is amongst them.
Back to the Future
The Prestige
Groundhog Day
Catch Me If You Can
Intouchables
The scene when he sees his little sister always breaks my heart. How he doesn't want them knowing he's there or upsetting their Christmas. 😢
having a uniform and being convincing in what one is faking works really well. One famous german example was in 1906 "the Captain of Köpenick" (der Hauptmann von Köpenick", Wilhelm Voigt, a shoemaker and long-time convict. He bought uniform parts in different shops and used them to commandeer soldiers from the local barracks and a shooting range, went with them by train to Köpenick, wehre he took over the city hall, had the police suspend all telephone lines for half an hour, and arrested the treasurer for susipcion of draudulent bokk-keeping. He then confiscated all the money (some 4000 Mark, for comparison: that's more or less what the Reich Chancellor had as monthly salary). He then commandeered some carriages, ordered the soldiers to transfer the arrested persons to Berlin, changed into civilian clothes and vanished. He was later arrested and convicted to four years in prison, but pardoned in 1908.
Thanks for this Guys. Actually, he was sentenced to 12 years IN ISOLATION.
He never returned until 10.20 am when it should have been 9am hence Hanratty's anxiety and he made millions from his later Bank work:)
You know it's a good day when George wears the Mr. Sparkle shirt.
At 28:38, the old church in Mont Richard is filmed in Vieux-Quebec in Quebec City.
Thanks
I remember reading an article about large security vulnerabilities. The one that stands out in my memory years later was about a company that purchased another because they wanted their warehouse space. The company that was bought made credit card readers and the warehouses were full. Normally the readers would be restricted by selling with a very high price. Really that's not a good safeguard, but that's what they apparently did. The new company apparently just wanted the warehouses so they were unloaded very cheaply. The article reported that the reason these credit card readers were important is that they were easy to rewire into credit card writers. At that point many ATMs only checked the cards to make sure the personal identification numbers entered only matched what was recorded on the cards. Especially locations that were satellites far from.main branches that wouldn't, or couldn't, communicate with primary branches very often. So a warehouse emptying company accidentally may have opened a door to make many accounts vulnerable to illegitimate cardholders. Just trivia from an old article, but interesting.
Amy Adams just makes you feel SO BAD for her character. She makes that character just painfully adorable.
I love this movie! If you like the music, you should take a listen to the piece Escapades. John Williams took his score for this and turned it into a full piece for sax and orchestra.
This is why the first couple of seasons of the show White Collar were just so fun to watch. imagine if they reacted to the first episode.
The REAL Frank Jr was the french cop arresting Leo.
Whoever did the OMG counter did a hilarious job.
He talked about the check thing in an interview. He knew where the checks were routed and how long it would take to bounce based on what part of the country he was in.
MICR encoders are not hard to acquire. I used to use one when I had to do a special draw against someone's account to catch up on their insurance premiums. This was before e-transfers etc.
I love this film. There is of course a Broadway show based on this story.
The Story of Frank Abignale Jr doesn't end with the film, Frank served his time in prison, and after getting out ended up starting a company that works with banks, financial institution and law enforcement on different types of security for transactions (Security measures for cheques, etc.). Frank does seminars (He reportedly does them for free for law enforcement) some of his talks are on you tube, and he wrote (or co-wrote) a book called "The art of the Steal", which was facinating (He talks about how to keep yourself safe from scams, and talks about certain scams that were done).
I was lucky enough to meet Frank Abignale Jr. in Miami in 2005, and he's very open with the truth of his exploits. While it's true that the story of this film is a con, his life wasn't without some hair raising twists and turns, which happily he shared with me. In 1984 for example he travelled to LA while posing as a cybernetic organism conisting of a hyperalloy combat chassis/endoskeleton surrounded by living tissue, and walked right through a police station without anyong realising he was actually Frank Abagnale Jr. It was only when he bumped into an actual Cyberdyne Systems model 101 (T800) that he was rumbled. According to Frank audiences preferres an everyman adversary so Tom Hanks in this movie replaces the real T800 character
Pan Am only flew overseas. From the US to overseas. Meaning there were no Pan Am flights between US cities. Deadheading was the practice of shuttling pilots from one airport to another. Airlines would do this for other airlines. Because Pan Am didn't fly between US cities, other airlines were used to carrying Pan Am pilots.
17:15 that FBI boss and Tom Hanks were also in Apollo 13 movie together.
This movie I'm sure is inspired by the 1961 movie, "The Imposter" starring Tony Curtis. The movie recreates the life of Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr., who over the year posed as a civil engineer, a sheriff's deputy, an assistant prison warden, a doctor of applied psychology, a hospital orderly, a lawyer, a child-care expert, a Benedictine monk, a Trappist monk, a naval surgeon, an editor, a cancer researcher, and a teacher.
The movie, "The Imposter" is a comedy-drama.
18:15 - "Do you think I could get an autograph?" "Do you have a pen in your room?" Best line ever!
The gist I got from Frank's dad was the he was living vicariously through his son's exploits.
Yep, I got that vibe too.
I think Walken should have won the Oscar for this role that year instead of Chris Cooper in Adaptation, personally.
George: provides insightful comments and tries to guess where the plot goes next.
Simone: breaks the 2nd 34 times.
Every time I see this now, when he says "I'm the second mouse" my brain flashes to Leo in The Departed yelling "I'm not the fucking rat"
I attended a seminar in the mid 90's when I worked for a title insurance company. He was talking about bank fraud and tricks people used to defraud companies. He was mesmerizing. He held everyones full attention the entire 3 hours. That is amazing because no one ever pays attention at those things.
I always recommend, to anyone that enjoys this movie, the tv show White Collar; it's a great show that takes heavy inspiration from this^.^
White Collar was such a good show.