Rick McGinnis looks back at the original ‘The Italian Job’ (1969)

Equally implausible is the jump the Minis take over a long gap between buildings at Fiat’s factory, made up to look like a Turinese street. According to calculations based on the weight of gold and inflation, each Mini would have had to carry nearly twice their weight in gold bars, so nearly everything about the best part of The Italian Job is magnificent, boldface and – literally – gilded bullshit. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, cinematically speaking. (…)

I’d go so far as to say that the film’s enduring popularity as a Mojo magazine icon/Cool Britannia antecedent kept the Mini’s reputation alive as fewer of them survived on the roads, and probably contributed to the marque’s survival and BMW’s decision to revive it in its slightly bigger, much heavier and far more luxurious form in 2001.