The Limey

Steven Soderbergh uses atypical flashback sequences, and includes several scenes (largely without dialogue) from a much older Terence Stamp movie, Ken Loach's 1967 directorial debut Poor Cow. Soderbergh uses the scenes to create a hazy back story to show Stamp's character as a young man, his criminal past, his relationship with Jenny's mother and child Jenny's disapproving attitudes towards his crooked lifestyle.[3] Wilson often speaks in a Cockney rhyming slang. The title refers to the American slang "limey", which refers to Britons.[4][5]

The Limey

Soderbergh makes full use of the screen history of both Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda. We get flashbacks of Wilson as a young man--actually Stamp in the movie "Poor Cow" (1967). The first time we see Fonda, a song tells us "he's 'Easy Rider' with a curse." We learn the Valentine character "took the whole '60s Southern California zeitgeist and ran with it." What is "The Limey" about? Drugs, girls, guns and revenge? Not at all. It's about retirement. It's about tough guys who talk big but are past their sell-by dates. They're not fast enough for the ageless limey, who was cured in prison like beef jerky, and comes in low and fast. Soderbergh's visuals place them in the eternal world of California wealth and sun, heaven's waiting room, where the old look young until they look dead. When Wilson gets off the plane from London, they might as well take their zeitgeist and stick it where the zeit don't geist. 041b061a72