Thief (1981)

Directed by: Michael Mann | 122 minutes | drama, crime, thriller | Actors: James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Willie Nelson, James Belushi, Robert Prosky, Tom Signorelli, Dennis Farina, Nick Nickeas, WR 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, Joan Lazzerini, Beverly Somerman, Enrico R. Cannataro, Mary Louise Wade, Donna J. Fenton, Thomas Giblin , Willie Hayes, Conrad Mocarski, Benny Turner, William Petersen, Nathan Davis, Thomas O. Erhart Jr., Fredric Stone, Robert J. Kuper, Joene Hanhardt, Marge Kotlisky, J. Jay Saunders, Susan McCormick, Karen Bercovici, Michael Paul Chan, Tom Howard, Richard Karie, Oscar DiLorenzo, Patti Ross, Margot Charlior

‘Thief’ is the portrait of a man who is really good at one thing: robbing banks. Director Michael Mann portrays the whole well-considered and in great detail, as always. Beautiful pictures of the filmmaker who elevates visualization to art. One of Mann’s better films and also one of the highlights of actor James Caan’s oeuvre.

‘Thief’ follows professional criminal Frank (Caan), who knows better than anyone else how to penetrate the most secure vaults in the United States. As always, the director was prepared to perfection. Mann was extensively informed and advised by real criminals and police officers to make the scenes as truthful as possible. The opening of the film, in which Frank patiently drills his way into a bank safe, is an example of that realistic approach. Caan works with a real hydraulic drill and actually tries to get through the steel (no trick!). The camera registers every detail, making it seem as if you are cracking a safe yourself.

Caan (‘The Godfather’) plays an excellent role as a bank robber who has been working in the criminal circuit for a long time. It all has to be his way, otherwise it doesn’t have to be for him. Anyone who interferes with his profession will have to endure it. Even top criminal Leo (Robert Prosky) finds out that Caan is tough. Also at the police station, where Caan is badly beaten up by a couple of cops, he turns out not to be impressed by the guardians of the law, who all want to take a piece of his illegal income. He even challenges them and manages to get Detective Santucci (a former criminal in real life) the blood under their nails. However, you get sympathy for Frank, who spent many years in prison and depicted his further life there on a piece of paper. Caan is so straightforward and fixated on his future dream that he wants everything right away. He’s non-negotiable, so it’s only natural that he drags blonde waitress Kathy (Tuesday Weld) out of a cafeteria and forces her to become his girlfriend. Caan’s maladjustment, clumsiness, is contagious. He has only a few friends (including James Belushi in his first role), whom he trusts blindly and at one point even entrusts his family.

It is all the more striking that over time Caan starts working for top criminal Prosky; he farmed quite well as a ‘small self-employed person’ up to that point. The film does not provide an unequivocal answer to this unexpected career change. After he decides to work with Prosky’s men, trouble begins, especially since Caan hates the concept of sharing. Because of his unyielding nature, Caan puts the lives of his loved ones in danger, because you are never completely safe in the underworld. Country singer Willie Nelson plays a nice role as the terminally ill old Okla, but why Caan wants to get him out of prison at all costs remains unclear.

Nevertheless, ‘Thief’ is a very good film by visualist Mann. Here and there you see the panorama shots, the blue colors and the shadowy villain world, which you see in later films by Mann. The lone criminal from ‘Thief’ also looks a lot like the cool killer from 2004’s ‘Collateral’ with Tom Cruise. Beautiful shots, good acting by Caan, Prosky and Belushi and the typical synthesizer sounds of the early eighties. Recommended.