Catch Me If You Can - Inspired by a true story
Hi friends in this article let us discuss about the film called "Catch Me if You can" which was inspired by a true story of Frank Abagnale, and directed by Steven Spielberg.The theme of the movie is that, how a young man involves in fraud check and the story revolves around how he get caught and what happens after that.
As this is based on a real story you can't expect any kind of thriller or great excitement in every scene, but still it will entertain you because the way Frank Abagnale he make the cheques and they way he tackles the problem are really excellent and he also inspired the great attitude and confidence from his father as he used to say this story.
The most important thing in this film is that Leonardo DiCaprio acted as a 15 year old boy and I guess he had lost lots of weight to become so young because it is very difficult for a 34 year old man to become that Young.Iam not sure any graphics work were used, but truly amazing.
Real"Frank William Abagnale Jr."
In the real life, even before the age of 21 he is said to have cheated more than 4 Million USD but later when he was released and after starting a company he could earn more than this and also able to pay the money to those whom he had cheated in his young age.The image below is the original image of Frank.
His inspiration was his father and his father usually says a short story which motivates him and that is
"Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream and the first mouse gave up quickly and it drowned but the second moused didn' give up, and it struggled so hard to clim and eventually it churned that cream into butter and it escapes out"
and his father also says that he was the second mouse and at any point of time we shouldn't give up and be positive and confident.I guess these are really good point and if possible we should also keep this as a motivation.
Apart from this Frank Abagnale, Jr also started the Abagnale & Associates,which is a security consultants that works to find the fraud cheques and this association also works with FBI for 35 years in finding fraud cheques and also more than 14,000 institutions have adopted Abagnale's fraud prevention programs.
At present he lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma with his wife and the couple has three sons with one of the son working as FBI agent.He is at present the CEO of CEO Abagnale & Associates, security consultants
Technical crew and info. about the film
i)This film was produced and directed by Steven Spielberg.
ii)Apart from Steven Spielberg other producers of the film includes Michel Shane, Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald.
iii)This film is adapted from the novel written by Frank Abagnale and Stan Redding.
iv)The music director for this film is John Williams.
v)The adapted screenplay is done by Jeff Nathanson.
vi)Janusz Kaminski has done the cinematography for this film.
vii)Officially this film was released on 2002 Christmas.
viii)Michael Kahn done the editing work for this film.
ix)This film was distributed worldwide by DreamWorks.
x)This film was commercially a success as it tasted the box office success with gross revenue of about 1621 crores with the budget of about 260 crores.
xi)the most interesting point is that Frank Abagnale, Jr himself acted as the French police officer who arrests Leonardo DiCaprio during the last scenes in France.
Artists and cast
The main 4 characters of the film includes
i)Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Abagnale, Jr. and he is the hero of this film even though he was notorious.I guess many would have watched the Tamil film called "Ayan" acted by Surya, where he was a brilliant smuggler and at last he decides to help the Government,and becomes the Custom officer, as he was talented and knew how the smugglers usually proceed, and similarly the same thing happens to Frank William Abagnale, J where he becomes the agent of FBI Financial Crimes unit.
ii)Tom Hanks as Carl Hanratty,who is the FBI agent who took care of the Cheque Fraud issues.Reports says that the actual FBI agent was Joe Shaye, but they used different name in the film and as a matter of fact Joe Shaye and Frank Abagnale, Jr still remained as good friends and he is a great inspiration to Frank Abagnale, Jr.Carl Hanratty had a daughter,Grace, in Chicago with his divorced wife.
iii)Christopher Walken as Frank Abagnale Sr, Frank's father and he is an inspiring factor for his son.He divorce his wife after he also lost most of his wealth because he has committed IRS tax evasion.Later in the film he was said to be dead in an accident when he fell from a staircase in the railway station.
iv)Nathalie Baye as Paula Abagnale/Barnes and she is the mother of Frank Abagnale, Jr and his father married her during the world war 2.She got separated from his husband when Frank Abagnale, Jr was 15 years old and later he married another person called Jack Barnes(James Brolin played this character in this film) and in the film during the climax when Frank Abagnale, Jr escapes from the FBI when he was taken to USA, he visits his mother's house where he finds that his mother had a daughter.
Apart from them other characters includes
#)Amy Adams as Brenda Strong, and she was shown in the film as a newly appointed nurse in a hospital and there she sees Frank Abagnale, Jr. At this time Frank Abagnale, Jr says that he was a doctor and says his name was Frank Conners and at the later part of the movie they were about to get married, but the marriage was cancelled when the FBI agent comes in search of Frank Abagnale, Jr. for his fraud activities.
#)Martin Sheen and Nancy Lenehan as Roger Strong and Carol Strong respectively and they were the father and mother of Brenda Strong
About the movie
The film starts with a TV show with three person that includes Frank Abagnale, Jr, were asked question so that they could find the correct Frank Abagnale, Jr and when the chance came to ask the real Frank Abagnale, Jr regarding who arrested him, the actual film starts.
In the first scene Carl pronounces his name correctly so that he could enter the French Prison to meet Frank whom he arrested the previous day due to fraud cheque case.Then he goes inside the prison and meets Frank and asked the French officers that he needs medical attention and when they were about to give medical treatment Frank tries to escape and after that the story goes six years back to 1963 when Frank was 15 years old.
The flash back starts when Frank's father was given the life time membership in the Rotary club and after this in the next scene Frank's father looses his property due to a series of IRS tax frauds and as a result of this they have to sell their large house and move to a smaller apartment.
Frank was admitted in another school where he was warned bu the Principal of the school as Frank was taking French class as a substitute to his French teacher.Frank also finds her mother was in affair with Jack who was the friend of Frank's father.
And after few days his father and mother decides to separate and the lawyer asks Frank to write either his father's name of his mother's name in the legal document so that he could stay with the name he writes in that document.Frank was frustrated and he runs from that place to the railway station.
He slowly starts to cheat with the Cheque which was given to him by his father and at one point of time near the airport he sees a pilot with several stewardess around him and this also motivated him to became a pilot and that too the pilot of the prestigious Pan American Airways and he also uses fraud cheques and at one stage it crossed more than 2 million USD.
He also produced duplicate ID cards and he started to interview the airport officer and pilots regarding the job of a pilot by saying that he was representing a school and just want to interview them and ge made this as a regular session and finally he manages to work as a co pilot and he travelled more that 2 million kilometers in air and also earned 1400 USD per month.
Later when he was in a hotel Carl finds that he would be there and comes to his room.At that time Frank comes from the toilet and says that Carl was late as the culprit escaped and he was from Secret Service and his name was Barry Allen and Frank leaves that place and he fooled Carl.
This confusion happened because Carl don't have any picture of Frank and if he would have caught him in that place itself.After that Frank used to call Carl on Christmas and Carl found that the reason why Frank calls him that he had no one else to speak.
This made Carl's higher officers angry. But however he was able to find that Frank was a young boy as the name Barry Allen which Frank said in the hotel was a comic character's name in the comic book "FLASH".Then Carl decides to put an hold to his pilot dream and now he wants to become a doctor and he also produced duplicate documents to become a doctor under the name Frank Conners and this is a place where he meets nurse Brenda and he falls in love with her.
Later Brenda takes him to his parents and there Frank says that he already passed the bar exam of Louisiana and want to become a lawyer.In the mean time Brenda's parents make marriage arrangements.But the marriage was cancelled when the FBI agent comes in search of Frank Abagnale, Jr. for his fraud activities.
Watching the arrival of Carl Frank escapes from that place and he also says the real name to Brenda for the first time and asks here to come to the Miami International Airport at exactly 10 am, 2 days from that day, and asks her not to say anyone about this plan.
After 2 days when he goes to the airport he finds that the FBI agents were informed about his arrival and he tries for another plan to escape from USA.He calls a nearby girls college and said that he represented Pan - Am airways and he will come for the recruitment for tyhe post of "stewardesses-in-training".
He goes there and selects 8 of them and said that they will go for a Europe tour.With their respective uniform they arrived at the airport and the FBI against couldn't recognise him.This was distracted by a phone call to Carl which says tha a driver was wearing the pilot dress and this plan was worked by Frank.
After seven months Carl finds that Frank was forging cheques all over the world and so that he goes to the professional printers, who says that they might have been printed in France.So Carl believe that Frank will be in France and his prediction comes true and he finds Frank there and arrests him, but the French police takes him in their custody.
Carl assures that Fank will be taken to USA.And now the flashback ends.So Carl was given permission to take Frank to USA and while they were about to reach USA Frank was informed that his father died.Frank couldn't tolerate this and he also escapes form the flight which was about to land , when he was in the toilet.
After this he directly goes to his mother's house and finds that his mother had a daughter with her second husband Jack.Then he was arrested by the police and was given 12 years imprisonment.But Carl says his higher officials that Frank is very talented and he will be helpful for the FBI Financial Crimes unit and his boss after testing Frank accepts that he would help Frank.
Frank who had no option chose to do this job till he finishes his punishment and after some days again he tried to become a pilot with fake ID but Carl finds this and says that he took lot of risk to get this job for Frank and also believed that Frank will come to FBI again.As expected Frank comes and joins the team.Thus how the film ends and they remain as friends forever.
The IMDB rating for this movie is 7.7 out of 10.
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