Plot
Frank is a jewel thief and ex-convict who has a set structure to his life. With a pair of successful Chicago businesses (a bar and a car dealership) as fronts for his criminal enterprise, Frank sets out to fulfill the missing part of his life vision: a family with Jessie, a cashier he has begun dating. After taking down a major diamond score, Frank gives the diamonds to his fence, Joe Gags. However, before Frank can collect his share, Gags is murdered for skimming from the mob's collection money. Barry, Frank's friend and associate making the pick-up, discovers that a plating company executive Gags was working for, Attaglia, is responsible for Gags' murder and stealing Frank's payoff. In a confrontation at Attaglia's plating company, Frank demands his money back. This leads to a meeting with Attaglia's employer Leo, a high-level fence and Chicago Outfit boss. Unknown to Frank, Leo has been receiving Frank's goods from Gags for some time. Leo admires Frank's eye for quality stolen goods and professionalism, and wants him working directly for him, offering Frank large profits. Their meeting is monitored from a distance byCast
* James Caan as Frank * Tuesday Weld as Jessie * Willie Nelson as David 'Okla' Bertinneau * Jim Belushi as Barry * Robert Prosky as Leo * Tom Signorelli as Attaglia * Dennis Farina as Carl * Nick Nickeas as Nick * W.R. Bill Brown as Mitch * Norm Tobin as Guido * William Petersen as Katz & Jammer Bartender * John Santucci as Sergeant Urizzi * Gavin MacFadyen as Detective Boreksco * Chuck Adamson as Detective Ancell * Sam Cirone as Detective Martello * Spero Anast as Detective Bukowski * Hal Frank as Joe 'Gags' * Patti Ross as Marie * Del Close as Mechanic #1Production
''Thief'' marked the feature film debut of Michael Mann as director, screenwriter and executive producer, after five years in television drama. Mann made his directorial debut with the TV film ''The Jericho Mile''. This was partly shot in Folsom Prison. Mann says that influenced the writing of ''Thief'':It probably informed my ability to imagine what Frank's life was like, where he was from, and what those 12 or 13 years in prison were like for him.. The idea of creating his character, was to have somebody who has been outside of society. An outsider who has been removed from the evolution of everything from technology to the music that people listen to, to how you talk to a girl, to what do you want with your life and how do you go about getting it. Everything that's normal development, that we experience, he was excluded from, by design. In the design of the character and the engineering of the character, that was the idea.Mann made James Caan do research as a thief for his role, and said:
I always find it interesting, people who are aware, alert, conscious of what they do and are pretty good at it… People who want to put in 50-60 hours a week and go home and are not really conscious of life moving by, don’t really interest me very much... As part of the curriculum designed for an actor getting into character, I try to imagine what's going to really help bring this actor more fully into character. And so I try to imagine what experiences are going to make more dimensional his intake of Frank, so that he is Frank spontaneously when I’m shooting. So one of the most obvious things is it’d be pretty good if [James Caan] was as good at doing what Frank does as is Frank.Jerry Bruckheimer and Ronnie Caan served as the film's producers. James Caan's emotional several-minute monologue with Weld in a café, coffee shop is often cited as the film's high point, and Caan has long considered the scene his favorite of his career. The actor liked the movie although he found the part challenging to play. "I like to be emotionally available but this guy is available to nothing." Being Michael Mann's feature film List of directorial debuts, directorial debut, ''Thief'' showcases many of the cinematic techniques that would later become his trademarks. Chief among these is the cinematography, utilizing light and shadow to give the proceedings, especially those taking place in the darkness of night, a sense of danger. The film also earns plaudits for its meticulous attention to detail: the tools and techniques of the trade, right down to the thermal lance, oxy lance used to penetrate a safe, are authentic, the result of Mann's decision to hire real-life thieves to serve as technical advisers. ''Thief'' marks the first film appearance of actors Dennis Farina, William Petersen, James Belushi and Robert Prosky. At the time a Chicago police officer, Farina appears as a henchman. Conversely, John Santucci, who plays the role of corrupt cop Urizzi, was a recently paroled thief and acted as a technical adviser on the film. In 1986, Farina and Santucci both were cast in Mann's TV series ''Crime Story (U.S. TV series), Crime Story'', Farina as a Chicago police lieutenant and Santucci as a jewel thief. Petersen, who later would star (along with Farina) in the Mann film ''Manhunter (film), Manhunter'', appears briefly as a barman at a club. The influential Chicago improvisational theater, improv teacher Del Close has a brief appearance as a mechanic, in a scene that was improvised with the other mechanic actors. Mann originally intended to score the music with Chicago blues music. He said, "However, I felt that what the film was saying, thematically, and the facility with which the film might be able to have resonance with audience. I felt that to be so regionally specific in the music choice would make Frank's experience specific only to Frank. So I wanted the kind of transparency, if you like, the formality of electronic music, and hence Tangerine Dream." Originally titled ''Violent Streets'', the film debuted at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, 34th Cannes Film Festival. It went on to open in theaters in the United States on March 27, 1981, earning a modest $4.3 million. While not a financial success in its initial release, the film has become a reference point in Mann's career, especially with the release of his crime epic, ''Heat (1995 film), Heat'', with which this movie has many similarities. The still of Frank holding a gun on Attaglia as he attempts to recover his money in an early scene was used for one of the movie's posters. Near the end of the film, Frank destroys his house. The film company built a false front onto a real house and attempted to destroy it with explosives. The explosions severely damaged the real house, however, leading to its demolition.
Music
Mann has gained a reputation as a director who uses cutting-edge music for his films. ''Thief''s moody soundscapes were composed and performed by Tangerine Dream, and was their second of many notable film scores composed by the group throughout the 1980s. The film was nominated for a Razzie Awards, Razzie Award for Worst Musical Score., but that didn't defer Mann from chosing them a second time to compose the music for his next feature film, the ill-fated 1983 WW II fantasy horror The Keep_(film), The Keep. Mann stated that he was always a jazz and blues fan and wanted to use that style of music for the film. He made a director's decision to use Tangerine Dream to showcase the style and themes of the film better than blues might have. He utilizes jazz/blues in one scene when Frank races to meet Jessie after the offer from Leo, transitioning from the meetup, all the way to the jazz club.Reception
The movie received widespread critical acclaim. It holds a 79% rating on review site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 80 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The consensus states: "''Thief''s enigmatic conclusion will rob some audiences of satisfaction, but it's an authentic and sleekly rendered neo-noir, powered by a swaggering James Caan at the peak of his charisma." Roger Ebert described ''Thief'' as "one of the most intelligent thrillers I've seen" and gave the film 3½ out of 4 stars, writing that the film's only major flaw was a failure to develop the subplot featuring Willie Nelson's character more fully: "Willie has played the character so well that we wanted more."Ebert, Roger (1981)See also
*Heist filmReferences
External links
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