Danny Ocean gets out of prison and, instead of seeking a quiet life, immediately sets up the most ambitious heist possible: simultaneously emptying the vaults of three Las Vegas casinos. He assembles a team of specialists, orchestrates a clockwork plan and executes the job with an elegance that’s a pleasure to watch. He isn’t driven by need —not even, entirely, by the money—: he’s driven by the art of the perfect heist. For the theory of subterranean values, Danny is disdain for honest work turned into glamour… and into an object of our admiration.
// The theoryThe value we applaud from our seats
The theory of subterranean values by Matza and Sykes points out that the criminal shares the hidden values of all of society, among them the disdain for routine and the dream of the big score that frees us from the gray life. Danny embodies it in its most seductive form, and the movie confirms it: we don’t feel rejection toward him, we feel envy. We want the plan to succeed, we enjoy his cunning, we celebrate his contempt for the casino (rich, arrogant, even more of a thief than he is). That reaction from the audience is the best proof of the theory: we recognize in Danny a value we carry within —the urge to tell conventional life to get lost and gamble everything— and that we repress in our daily lives.
The heist as catharsis of the subterranean value
The entire heist genre is a cultural apparatus for letting us live out, safely and vicariously, our subterranean values. Danny Ocean doesn’t repel us because he doesn’t steal from people we identify with, but from rich, faceless institutions, and he does it with style, without violence, with loyalty to his team. The theory explains it: cinema manages the audience’s subterranean value, channeling the desire for transgression toward a fantasy without victims or consequences. We applaud Danny for the same reasons Matza and Sykes said society both hides and celebrates those values: we need them, we enjoy them… but only within their permitted limits. The movie theater is one of those limits.
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// The subjectThe professional who despises the conventional
Danny is charming, loyal, brilliant —everything we associate with a hero— except for the detail that he’s a thief. The theory of subterranean values illuminates that ambiguity: he isn’t a monster with inverted values, he’s a man with values we share, applied outside the law. His disdain for conventional work isn’t nihilism; it’s the same dream that any «be your own boss» ad sells, taken into the underworld. That’s why he comes across as so likable: he isn’t far from us, he’s one step away —the step most of us don’t take because opportunity, context or fear stops us—.
Danny Ocean
// The crackNeither "it’s just entertainment" nor "stealing with style isn’t stealing"
The crack with Danny is the one the movie itself sets for us: the fantasy that «stealing with style, from the rich and without violence» is almost a legitimate act. The theory of subterranean values warns of the trap: the fact that cinema manages our desire for transgression doesn’t mean that real transgression is harmless. Real heists have victims, fear and consequences that the genre erases. The opposite crack is to dismiss the phenomenon as «just entertainment» and nothing more: it isn’t —it’s the way culture administers, feeds and at the same time contains the subterranean values of millions of people—. Understanding why we admire Danny doesn’t make us accomplices; it teaches us something about ourselves worth facing head-on.
That the entire saga is built on our desire for the thieves to win is Matza and Sykes’s thesis in blockbuster form: the elegant criminal isn’t alien to us, he’s the messenger of a value we hide —and that’s why, in the darkness of the theater, we’re on his side—.
Recognizing the value so as not to idealize it
Danny matters because he teaches us to look clearly at the cultural fascination with crime. If we recognize that we idealize the elegant outlaw because he embodies our subterranean values, we can enjoy the fantasy without confusing it with reality —and understand why public discourse about crime is so contradictory: we condemn crime and at the same time turn it into our favorite entertainment—. The theory doesn’t ask us to stop watching heist movies; it asks us to be aware of which desire we’re satisfying when we do, and not to transfer our admiration for the fictional Danny into contempt for the victims of the real heist. The value is ours; the harm belongs to whoever acts it out off-screen.
Three key takeaways
- Danny Ocean embodies the disdain for honest work of subterranean values: he steals for the art of the heist, not out of need. And the movie makes us admire him —that envy is the proof of the theory—.
- The heist genre manages the audience’s subterranean value: it channels the desire for transgression toward a fantasy without victims (he steals from faceless institutions, with style). Cinema is one of the permitted limits.
- Neither "it’s just entertainment" (this is how culture administers the values of millions) nor "stealing with style isn’t stealing" (the real heist has victims the genre erases). Recognizing the value serves to enjoy it without idealizing the harm.
Sources · further reading
- Matza, D. (1964). Delinquency and Drift. Wiley.
- Matza, D. & Sykes, G. M. (1961). «Juvenile Delinquency and Subterranean Values». American Sociological Review, 26(5).
- Rafter, N. (2006). Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society. Oxford University Press.
Case-file questionsFrequently asked questions
¿Quién es Danny Ocean?
Danny Ocean («Danny») es un villano de Ocean’s Eleven, analizado en KRIMINIS con la lente de la criminología. He doesn’t need the money.
¿Por qué Danny Ocean se convierte en villano?
Danny Ocean and subterranean values: an elegant disdain for honest work. A thief who steals not out of need but for the art of the heist —and whom the movies invite us to admire—.
¿Qué teoría criminológica explica a Danny Ocean?
El caso de Danny Ocean se analiza desde la Teoría de los Valores Subterráneos. The theory of subterranean values (Matza and Sykes) says we admire the criminal because he embodies desires we repress. Danny Ocean, of Ocean’s Eleven, is the perfect example: an elegant thief who steals not out of need but for the pleasure of the heist, and whom the movie invites us to applaud. His charm reveals our own subterranean value: disdain for the gray life and love of audacity.
