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I can see a post-modern bank robber film:

Attacker in black rain coat (when it is not raining and most people are just wearing short sleeves) jumps on top of the counter and flashes his machine gun:

“THIS IS A ROBBERY! If you follow our orders no one will be hurt! We want YOUR money!! We are not interested in the bank’s money. We are not interested in causing more harm to the banking system....”

13 above:

Whadda bout da stanzas:

If we lived in world of outlaws, there'd be no banks to lend to families to buy no homes - we'd all be homeless, poor & prey to outlaws with the biggest guns!

No place to put yer savins', no reason to save - all is lawless jungle - where the strong rob from ALL! Yay 4 equal rights to be plundered ;)

Mark Harris was not completely accurate when he called "Riffifi" a European film. It was made by Jules Dassin in France, after he fled the Hollywood blacklist, so it's at least one-half American. Although Riffifi's bad guy isn't bucking the system, he's only a sort-of bad guy, and his sidekick a good family man, who are bucking the really bad guy.

Yes, it's the romanticism that intriques us.

As through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men,
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.

And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.

-- Woody Guthrie, Pretty Boy Floyd

Talk about The Lavendar Hill Mob!

"Wild Bunch" has to be one of favorite outlaw films. The train robbery sequence is amazing.

In American movies, gangsters are little guys bucking the system, and that's why the masses identify with them.

In Italian movies (like the recent GOMORRA), gangsters ARE the system--they control almost everything in Naples--and they actually prey on the poor.

Much different dynamic.

The irony is that, early on, J. Edgar Hoover focused his (and therefore the public's) attention on bank robbers. There are two reasons: (1) A bank robbery is a spectacular crime that can affect ordinary people (guaranteeing press coverage), and (2) most bank robbers are dim-witted, making them easy to catch. The latter is important, because it helped build the FBI's reputation.

There is a Michael Mann new film scheduled to come out in July, called "Public Enemies." Johnny Depp staring as John Dillinger, and Bale as Melvin Purvis. This seems to fall into the Robin Hood characterization.
On another note, Jules Dassin's Rififi, is amazing. Contains a 10 min. scene complete silence maintained, while opening the safe.

I suspect that 'we' root for the bank robbers because the filmmakers root for the bankrobbers because filmmakers get money out of making films at about the same rate as bank robbers get money out of banks.

Of course, the class issues of who it is that makes films and who it is that ends up as a police officer are at also issue.

I suspect that impulse to take a picture of the cop follows the logic of picture-making that reduces the authority figure down to the level of the criminal. Image as equaliser.

In Bonnie and Clyde specifically: Young and beautiful, exciting even, of course, trumps older and working for a living?

A more recent example of a bank-robbery film where viewers sympathize with the bank robber is "Out of Sight," starring George Clooney (as Jack Foley) and J Lo. (Directed by Steven Soderbergh, based on a novel written by Elmore Leonard.)

One way the writer gets us to root for Foley is by setting him up against a much more ruthless criminal: Maurice (Don Cheadle).

We root for the "bad" guys, because the movie makers always show the "good" guys in such a bad light. Totally predictable and lazy "creativity."

What about Woody Allen's "Small Time Crooks."

Woody Allen's take on a robbery is wonderful in Small Time Crooks, where the robbers end up becoming successful via their shadow cookie business.

Bernie Madoff as folk hero? Can't wait for the movie. Ain't gonna happpen tho, is it?

Often times the bad guy is played by such an attractive actor that it is impossible to root against the character.

Along with Buster Keaton's "Cops," "The Bank Dick" has to be the funniest movie ever made, but it's not a heist flick. Always nice to see Mr. Dukenfield's masterpiece mentioned, though.

"Heist," "The Anderson Tapes" and "The Hot Rock" are quite underrated.