Pretty Good

best movie i've ever seen.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

... I have decided to write one myself (my first!) The first time I saw this movie was on RCA LaserDisk back in 1985. The experience was overwhelming as the screenplay hit home on so many intriguing ideas. What's more, true art is measured by the emotions it can create and this movie stirred my own far more than any other! As a youth Frank committed a petty crime and was as a result subjected to a penal system that attempted to 'turn him out' and forced him to commit homicide in self defense, which in turn brought on a much longer prison sentence. Upon release we see Frank as a middle-aged victim of society and a righteous thief who is attempting to catch up on his life with his 'magic act'. He doesn't particularly want to involve his efforts with the underworld yet time and risk factors pressure him to agree to one big final score working with "Uncle Leo" who readily agrees to go along with Frank's terms. As we watch this big score develop we come to understand how valuable Frank is to the success of this undertaking and when Leo goes back on their agreement by denying him the fruits of his labor and revealing his determination to work Frank until he's 'busted, burned out or dead' our hero realizes he is once again being 'turned out'. I was enamored by the fact this movie in no way condescends to the viewer. In fact we're regularly offered up deep metaphors and questions demanding answers (particularly in a society that considers prison rape an acceptable part of prison punishment). There's no warts on this gem and I consider it the greatest film of all time!

I believe Mann is a good director. From acclaimed works like "Collateral" and "Heat" to underrated gems like "Blackhat". He has always been known for creating gritty realistic crime thrillers. This all started back in 1981 with this uncommonly different piece of cinema. Having the desire to rid his past life of crime, a thief is hired for one final heist. However, we all know greed gets the better of us as soon he is trapped in a contract that requires him to perform more heists. If you're good at something, you will always be in demand. Much like our eponymous thief. This is a good solid thriller that is fuelled by dialogue. I mean, if a fifteen minute scene is just two characters talking in a diner, you know you'll need to focus on every word spoken. It's sharp, and I mean very sharp. The problem with this is that the need for dialogue feels far too forced. It's just fluff, and really doesn't develop these characters. The thief perhaps more than others, the supporting characters were redundant. I was completely disinterested during the first hour, I didn't connect with any of the characters and did not care for what was happening. James Caan was effortlessly in control though. Then the final heist begins and somehow my eyes are glued to the screen. Mann's slick urban directing style, the synthesised musical score, the flashing neon lights and city backdrop. It all worked. Then silencing the background music during scenes of tension, like breaking into the vault, was genius. I was intrigued by the thief's methods and thought it was intricately executed. Then the final twenty minutes arrive. I was in suspense heaven! I just wished the thrills were maintained throughout. Think of this as a precursor to "Heat". This is technically accomplished, whereas the latter is that and full of investing characters. A great debut though, just too much focus on dialogue that I didn't care about.

With Thief, Michael Mann distilled his crime film style into an archetypal, haunting aura that would go on to influence not only his excellent later work, but other filmmakers as well, everything from Refn's Drive to the police procedural we see on television today. A style that consists of kaleidoscope neon reflections in rain slicked streets, Chrome cars bulleting through restless urban nocturnes and a lyrical, pulsating score, here provided by underrated German electronic maestros Tangerine Dream, who would go on to provide their dulcet tones for Mann's phenomenal 1983 The Keep. Thief weaves the age old tale of a master safe cracker(James Caan in a beautifully understated performance) the high stakes at risk of him performing one last job to escape, with said stakes represented as his angelic wife (Tuesday Weld) and newborn son. Robert Prosky in his film debut is a serpentine wonder as Leo, Caan's boss, whose chilling metamorphosis from paternal employer to domineering monster is a joy to watch. The jewel heist scenes are shot with a researched, assured and authentic feel, spurred on by Tangerine Dreams cosmic rhythms and are especially dynamic points of the film. Thief, for me, belongs that special subcategory of Mann's career along with Heat, Miami Vice and Collateral, (Public Enemies doesn't get to come in this elite cinematic treehouse club, it didn't do anything for me) that are very special crime films. They possess an intangible, ethereal quality of colour, metal, music, and shady people moving about a thrumming urban dreamscape, professionals at what they do, cogs in the ticking clock of crime that inexorably drives toward the narrative outcome, be it bitter confrontation and violence (of which Thief has an absolute gorgeous, poetic revenge sequence) or cathartic resolution (like the conventionally satisfying way Collateral ends). Mann has captured neon lightning in a bottle with Thief, and against the odds of people saying you can't catch lightning twice, he has spark plugged a good portion of his career with that same lightning, creating an artistic aesthetic all his own. To me that is the ultimate outcome of filmmaking, and art as a medium.

Michael Mann's debut feature film. Wow. This film certainly establishes the great style that Mann's films have. It's also a film that Nicolas Winding Refn must have watched before making Drive, because there's a lot of similarities between the two. Both are the tales of men who are involved in heists and criminal activity and fall in love with a woman, until their criminal ties lead to bad things. The only difference being that this film has a LOT more dialogue than Drive. Drive attempts to silently convey the emotions found in Thief. James Caan gives a really great performance in this. He stands out especially in a scene in a diner where he explains his thinking in regards to life, and it's really great. All the other people play their roles perfectly, and it was really cool to see the first role that William Petersen got, even if it's like 5 seconds of screen time.The visual style of this film is what stands out. I watched the Criterion Bluray and it looks amazing. The cinematography is great, especially during night time scenes in the streets, and other colorful scenes like the beach scene. It looks great, and the bluray is stunning.The film kept me on edge, especially towards the end. The tension is there, and it's quite thrilling. I'd really recommend it to fans of crime drama, and also people who loved Drive. It's really good, and it's cool to see where Michael Mann started off.