1981 Directed by Michael Mann
Frank is an expert professional safecracker, specialized in high-profile diamond heists. He plans to use his ill-gotten income to retire from crime and build a nice life for himself complete with a home, wife and kids. To accelerate the process, he signs on with a top gangster for a big score.
James Caan Tuesday Weld Willie Nelson Jim Belushi Robert Prosky Tom Signorelli Dennis Farina Nick Nickeas W.R. Brown Norm Tobin John Santucci Gavin MacFadyen Chuck Adamson Sam Cirone Spero Anast Walter Scott Sam T. Louis William LaValley Lora Staley Hal Frank Del Close Bruce A. Young John Kapelos Mike Genovese William Petersen Karen Berger Joan Lazzerini Beverly Somerman Enrico R. Cannataro Show All…
Samuel C. Crutcher Scott Hecker David B. Cohn Don MacDougall Robert Knudson Robert Glass Chris Jenkins Jerry Stanford Larry Carow
Violent Streets, Mi profesión: Ladrón, Suurkaupungin lait, 大盗独行
Just fucking hot and grimy. Can feel the caked-in cigarette smoke damage on every wall and every carpet. In disbelief that this is Mann’s first feature. Also in disbelief how good Robert Prosky is here as a huge slimeball!
Thief reminds me of Drive.
I love Drive. And I love Thief too.
I love the quiet Ryan Gosling; and I love the aggressive James Caan.
I love the driver who has a specific set of rules; and I love Frank who lives by his own principles.
I love the silence and serenity between Gosling and Mulligan; and I love Caan's avalanche of conversation with Weld.
I love the driver's trucker jacket; and I love Frank's leather jacket.
I love Cliff Martinez's synth soundtrack, and I love Tangerine Dream's 80's score.
I love the neon-lit night sky in Los Angeles; and I love the neon-lit night sky in Chicago.
I love Nicholas Winding Refn, and most naturally, I love the great Michael Mann.
Two equally amazing films, 30 years apart.
"I am the last guy in the world that you wanna fuck with."
Noir-vember film #6
“You are making big profits from my work, my risk, my sweat. But that is okay, because I elected to make that deal. But now, the deal is over. I want my end, and I am out.“ — Frank to Leo.
“I want you to work, until you are burned-out, you are busted, or you're dead... you get it? You got responsibilities, tighten up and do it.” — Leo to Frank
“Labor is only another name for a human activity which goes with life itself, which in its turn is not produced for sale but for entirely different reasons, nor can that activity be detached from the rest of life, be stored, or mobilized.” — Karl Polanyi
Somehow, the first…
james caan rockin white cuffed jeans, no shirt, and aviator shades is an all-time beach fit. absolutely recreating this look next time i’m frolicking on the san diego shore to celebrate pulling off one last big heist
99
Two people. A diner. Conversation. It is Michael Mann's solace; a place for connection, empathy, understanding. Coffee boils while the night burns with sinister, aching glory through the windows. While shootouts and modern cowboys have become a Mann staple, it is the moments where they sit down with a lover or an opponent and discuss their processes, their structure, their confinement which echo across his narratives. Thief, as Mann puts it, is a 3 dimensional maze and nighttime is the roof, but under the artificial shine of a local breakfast place, there's a yearning for commonality. The diner scene in Heat ends with tension diffused but not removed. The diner scene in Thief ends with hands clasping, joining together in solidarity and love. Maybe not Mann's most romantic (Miami Vice), but it sizzles like no other. Quick shout-out to the 'morning after' lakefront scene: oh so human and compassionate.
".......You want a danish?"
"I can see my money is still in your pocket, which is from the yield of my labour."
Renoir's quote “A director makes only one movie in his life. Then he breaks it into pieces and makes it again,” is more applicable to Mann than probably any other filmmaker. So whats interesting here, is what Mann doesn't do again over time. Firstly, James Caan has more freedom than any other Mann lead would ever have, and it's a testament to his and Tuesday Weld's ability that they're able to make Mann's eliptical dialogue sound totally natural (not that the opposite is a bad thing!) The script itself is more direct and dialogue driven than any Mann film in the future…
The cost of the American dream is your soul. So now you know the plot.
The break-in sequences are the highlight, slow-burning, detailed, quiet. Meditations on the act, tight focus on tools, on doors, on methods, meditations on craft. Frank is, despite (because of?) the nature of his craft, a true craftsman, a man who works with his hands. He is in a strange way non-capitalist--he's a worker who takes his pay directly, without a boss, without management controlling the capital--until he takes work from the mob. After that, fittingly, he's another drone fighting for the American dream, trapped in the system. Mann ensures we know this.
