How to Rob a Bank (2024) Movie Review – One of Netflix’s better true crime documentaries

One of Netflix’s better true crime documentaries

Robbing a bank is easy, right? You simply stroll into a bank and ask the teller to hand over the money. A quick getaway later and you have the beginning of your earthly riches. Job done!

Of course, we aren’t condoning bank robbery as a way to make a living. But this was the path taken by Scott Scurlock and his band of (two) merry men who hit 19 banks in Seattle in the 1990s. After realizing they were able to get away with robbery after their first victory, they continued their criminal activity, sometimes hitting the same bank multiple times.

The new Netflix documentary, How to Rob a Bank (which isn’t an A to B of bank robbing), retells the exploits of Scurlock and his partners in crime, Mark Biggins and Steve Meyers. We don’t hear from Scurlock himself, for a very good reason. But we do hear from his associates who talk about the intricacy of their bank heists and how they were led into a life of crime by Scurlock, who was allegedly the mastermind behind their criminal activities. 

We also hear from some of the FBI officials who investigated Scurlock’s crimes, and who failed to catch their man until a tip-off from one Seattle resident led them to his location. Also interviewed are some of those who had close ties to Scurlock, including his sister and an old school friend. They clue us into Scurlock’s childhood when he used to break into people’s homes for fun. There was one occasion when he also stole a car. These were early warning signs that he might one day lead a life of crime, with tendencies that seemed to be compulsive rather than malicious. 

Scott Scurlock was nicknamed ‘Hollywood’ because he was apparently inspired by the movie Point Break, specifically Patrick Swayze’s character Bodie, whose fictional freewheeling lifestyle was not dissimilar to Scurlock’s own. He was considered a bit of a Robin Hood figure to some, though we don’t remember that green-tighted antihero wearing a Ronald Reagan mask and doling out his stolen money to his friends. 

The bank heists are dramatized for the documentary to give us insight into what it was like for the tellers and customers of the banks Scurlock robbed. Most crime documentaries use this storytelling technique, so as interesting as the faux footage is, it’s really nothing new.

More innovative, however, is how the doc’s directors, Stephen Robert Morse and Seth Porges, illustrate Scurlock’s crimes using animated storyboards that could have come straight out of a comic book. These sequences are generally exciting, featuring shootouts and police chases, so are fun to watch, despite the dark reality of the crimes being committed. 

As alluded to earlier, Scurlock and his crew made robbing a bank look easy. However, the documentary doesn’t glorify their crimes. It’s more of a cautionary tale, letting viewers know that bank robbery isn’t a victimless crime via the story of one teller who was mentally scarred by her experience with Scurlock. It’s clear from the doc that it’s no bed of roses for the criminals either, as no matter how many times Scurlock and co got away with their crimes, there was always the fear that the law would one day catch up with them.

How to Rob a Bank is an entertaining and insightful film that is a worthy addition to Netflix’s growing library of crime documentaries. It’s worth a watch but not if you see the doc’s title on your Netflix homepage and assume it’s a lesson in how to commit the perfect bank robbery.

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