The heist is a well-worn plot structure for a reason – everybody loves a heist. The high stakes, the dizzying scores, the meticulous planning, the almost inevitable moment when the wheels come off – it’s enthralling stuff. Stanley Kubrick knew it when he made The Killing, Peter Collinson knew when he made The Italian Job (skip the remake), and Steven Soderbergh knew it when he made Ocean’s Eleven (in this case, skip the original).
Pierce Brosnan is no stranger to the heist, the Irish actor having starred in John McTiernan’s remake of The Thomas Crowne Affair (in this case, watch both) back in 1999. That makes him eminently qualified to host History’s Greatest Heists, a new eight-part documentary series that, as the title indicates, dives deep into some of the biggest robberies in the history of theft.
Pierce Brosnan hosts History's Greatest Heists. Credit: A&E Television Networks
Each episode takes in one, single robbery from conception to execution – and sometimes even prosecution. Fast-paced and deftly structured, the series moves like a good crime movie - which is apt, considering the real-world villains we meet here would be right at home in any high-tension thriller you care to mention.
Take the subject of the first episode, the 2003 robbery of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, the beating heart of the world diamond trade. The vault was said to be impregnable and the building itself was one of the most secure locations on the planet. This presented a challenge for robbery mastermind Leonardo Notarbartolo, an Italian career criminal who, by his own admission, was “born to be a thief”.
History's Greatest Heists recreates the moves of a a group of elite thieves who target the Antwerp World Diamond Centre. Credit: A&E Television Networks
Notarbartolo approached the problem with admirable chutzpah – he rented an office and a safe deposit box in the building, which afforded him plenty of time to analyse both the building’s security features and, crucially, the vault itself. From there, we get a dizzying account of the burglary, a story populated by characters with nicknames like “Speedy”, “The Monster”, and “The King of Keys” – and we learn how a salami sandwich was instrumental in blowing the whole scheme wide open.
Of course, not every heist crew has that much finesse, and the second episode takes us to the mean streets of dirty ‘ol 1970s New York City, where mob-affiliated mooks Sammy Nalo and Bobby Comfort pulled off what was, at the same, the most successful hotel robbery in history - the January 2, 1972 looting of the Pierre hotel.
Where Notarbartolo was meticulous, Nalo and Comfort were more shoot-from-the-hip, and their plan essentially amounted to taking the hotel staff and any guests who happened along hostage while they popped the safe deposit boxes and pilfered cash, jewels, and other valuables.
Some of the crew adopted wigs as part of their disguises during the robbery of the Pierre Hotel. Credit: A&E Television Networks / Maggie Shannon
To be fair to the pair, it was a plan that had always worked before – they’d previously netted a million from Sophia Loren’s hotel suite and had at least four other lucrative hotel raids under their belts by the time they targeted the Pierre.
No, as any student of mafia movies knows, things always come unstuck after the job, when greed, duplicity, and mob bookies with a dim view of unpaid gambling debts rear their ugly heads. It’s a plot that would slot neatly into a Scorsese picture - and speaking of which, Goodfellas fans will want to catch episode four, which details the 1978 Lufthansa heist depicted in the film.
The hook here is, of course, that these robberies all actually took place, and the randomness of real life allows for contrivances and coincidences that no screenwriter worth their salt would make up lest they break their audience’s suspension of disbelief. You’ll be amazed how sometimes the tiniest slip-up can bring a criminal mastermind low in their moment of greatest triumph – and odds are good at least part of you will be hoping they still get away with it. That’s the seductive charm of the heist – it lets us cheer for the bad guys.
History's Greatest Heists With Pierce Brosnan airs on SBS VICELAND from 8.30pm Thursday 4 July, with double episodes each week. All eight episodes are also now available to stream at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
History's Greatest Heists With Pierce Brosnan
