Friday Night Film: Buster

Friday film pick is back! With the recent news of Ronnie Biggs being released from prison on compassionate grounds, we decided to pick the movie Buster.
Today the Ministry of Justice signed off on his licence conditions, granting his formal release from hospital in Norwich.

Ronnie Biggs, Lambeth, South London, England, was a member of a 15 man gang which attacked the Glasgow to London mail train at Ledburn, Buckinghamshire, in August 1963, and made off with estimated £2.6m in used banknotes.

The train's driver, Jack Mills, suffered head injuries during the robbery. Ronnie Biggs was given a 30-year sentence, but after 15 months he escaped from Wandsworth prison, in south-west London, by climbing a 30ft wall and escaping in a furniture van.

Biggs was on the run for more than 30 years, living in Australia and Brazil, before returning to the UK voluntarily in 2001 for medical treatment.

The Sun newspaper reported him as saying: "My last wish is to walk into a Margate pub as an Englishman and buy a pint of bitter."

He was sent to Belmarsh prison on his return, and eventually moved to a specialist medical unit at Norwich Prison.

The famous story of this bank robbery was made into a film called Buster, released in 1988. Famous British stars such as Julie Walters and musician Phil Collins(Main Character) star in the film.

Ronnie Biggs on Wikipedia
Gang Members profiles from BBC

Film Plot (Spoiler)
Buster Edwards (Phil Collins) is a petty criminal from the East End of 1960s London. His long-suffering wife June (Julie Walters) thinks of him as a loveable rogue and cannot believe it when she learns of his involvement in the Great Train Robbery (1963).

For several months after the robbery, Buster and June are in hiding with their young daughter Nicky (Ellie Beaven) until they are turned in to the police by a suspicious neighbour. Buster flees to Acapulco where he is met by fellow Great Train Robber Bruce Reynolds (Larry Lamb) and his girlfriend Franny Reynolds (Stephanie Lawrence) who are also on the run and living it up in the sun with the profits of their crime.

June and Nicky arrive despite the disapproval of her mother (Sheila Hancock) and although Nicky seems to love her new life in the sun, June is immediately not keen on their new way of life, resolving to return to England, despite knowing that if Buster is to return with them, then this will mean imprisonment for him.
Buster remains in Acapulco for some time after June leaves, until realising (while celebrating England's 1966 World Cup triumph) that despite him having money and the sun, it means nothing if he doesn't have his family and returns to England to accept his punishment.

The film closes, twelve years after Buster's release from jail, seemingly content and running a flower stall near Lambeth Bridge on the Thames. Sadly, Buster had a less happy ending in real life, as he committed suicide in 1994.

Available to buy online at Amazon.com or to rent.

Part 1 found on YouTube.com:



Plot Source: Wikipedia