Thief (Special Director's Edition)

As soon as we see the rain-slicked streets of Chicago and hear the throbbing synths of Tangerine Dream, we’re in Mann-Land. Does anyone do neon reflections better? Chicago makes the Los Angeles of “Blade Runner” look like Podunk on a Thursday night. I’d be happy just to watch big old American cars trundle through the rain and not even bother with a plot.But, a plot there is, and it’s pretty basic. Nothing that hasn’t been done before: a high-end heist-meister has to do one more big job and then he’s out. But no matter how a criminal tries to get out of the game, they always pull him back in, don’t they? And so they do James Caan. As a role, this isn’t comparable to Sonny Corleone in “The Godfather”. As stylish a visual stylist Michael Mann is, “Thief” isn’t epic like that. It’s pretty good, though. He sells the ex-convict with a talent and a hair-trigger temper.Caan looks great; with the black leather jacket, the tight jeans, the Eldorado, he’s living the dream. In fact he’s got his dream down on paper in a portable framing device he can unfold and stare at. Didn’t some new age guru have that idea too, you make up a dream board and stare at it until it becomes actualized? Seems to have worked for James Caan, anyway. He’s got a car lot, a bar, nice if overly flashy clothes, seriously over-flashy cars.If I were a criminal, especially the sort who does high-profile crimes, I wonder if I wouldn’t want to be less conspicuous. Dress schlumpy, drive a dusty Taurus, avoid the limelight? Just saying. But Caan has it all except for a Tuesday Weld, who then conveniently turns up.Weld is pretty stiff here. Maybe she’s expressing her traumatized past, Columbia (the country, not the college), drug dealer BF, hard times, fertility troubles. But her lack of affect, and the speed with which she goes from regarding Caan as a pushy creep to his being her one true love, that’s a bit hard to take seriously. Also, if I were a criminal, I don’t know that I’d discuss my profession loudly in a diner. Or wave a pistol around in a diner or assault patrons on the sidewalk of a diner. But that’s just me.Anyway, Tuesday Weld displays the talent that would take her a very little ways in the movie business. I remember her as being pretty good in “Mr. Goodbar” and she was excellent with the uber-neurotic Anthony Perkins in “Pretty Poison”. Here, she’s OK but kind of oddly stiff. Definitely not overacting.Jim Belushi (apparently this is his first acting job) plays Caan’s tech-savvy partner in crime. It’s a smallish part and he’s completely up to it. No complaints. James Belushi does not get much credit as a journeyman actor. Nor does he deserve much credit. Here, as he would be in future films, Belushi is unobjectionable. All one can ask.If you look fast, you can see Dennis Farina in his first role as a wiseguy, a genre he’d inhabit profitably for years to come. Some guys are just fortunate enough to look like mobsters. Willie Nelson doesn’t necessarily look like a mobster, but he does a fine dying scene.But for most of the picture, I’m just admiring Michael Mann’s first time out as a big time director. Besides the rain-slicked streets dazzling us with neon, his two set-piece heists are riveting. Drilling into a vault never looked so photogenic. Caan radiates a calm intense competence when he’s cracking a safe, which makes him subsequently giving into seething rage kind of hard to buy. His thief is so good at what he does because he’s so careful and focused and prepared. That is, the opposite of what goes down at the end.The second heist is a tour-de-force. The blazing thermal lance melting into the vault is beautiful, sparks flying and metal glowing. It’s these images that make “Thief” a memorable cult classic. Robbery never looked so good. Especially the p.o.v. shots from inside the safe. Lovely.Now if I were picking nits…. I’ve done a little welding over the years. Unless that vault room has industrial ventilation, smoke in this confined space would be so thick that Caan and crew wouldn’t be able to see each other, let alone the diamonds. You’re burning the steel lance pipe with pure oxygen. Besides which, Caan is vaporizing steel, concrete, copper, titanium and whatever else the elderly expert said. And the carpet. You’d definitely want breathing gear. I’d worry about the diamonds inside, too, unless they’re in insulated boxes. We’re talking 4,000 degrees plus here. Diamond burns at under a thousand, and the boxes in the safe are gonna ignite at much lower temperatures.If I were still picking nits, I’d notice that this building has no smoke detectors, despite the elaborate alarms. Or sprinklers. But wow, does this sequence look great!By now, everybody who’s going to watch “Thief” is already familiar with the ending, so I’m not spoiling when I say that it’s the clichéd way to get to the end of the plot. Suddenly, everybody shoots everybody else. It’s been done many times before and since. Caan steps it up a notch by also blowing up his house, his bar and his car dealership. Doesn’t make much sense; if he’s proving that he doesn’t care nothing about nothing no more, who’s he proving that to? I mean, he intends to shoot all the bad guys and probably get killed in the process. So, maybe his wife and kid could’ve profited more by having a non-blown-up house and bar and car dealership? I don’t think the insurance is going to pay off after a bombing.Nice explosions, though. It blowed up real good! Again, if I were a nit-picker, I’d wonder what sort of guy has his bar apparently pre-wired to self-destruct, since he’s in and out in a minute. And how about all the people who had jobs there? And the buildings next door? Kind of a dickish move, I’d say.I will also say that the jail-speak thing, in which hardened cons and ex-cons deliver meaningful speeches during which they speak using no contractions, I do not think that actual tough guys speak that way unless those tough guys should be taking their cues from “Guys and Dolls”. I am just saying. The Borg are big on the talking with no contractions. Gang guys? I must say that I doubt this is factual. But, there isn’t all that much Runyon talking, and most of the dialog is terse, professional thieves making plans, gangsters making threats. Other than Caan’s monologs with Tuesday Weld, there’s not much talking and a lot of long wordless takes. A movie to look at more than listen to.That said, the listening to benefits greatly from the soundtrack. Tangerine Dream and Michael Mann were totally in synch. It’d be hard to imagine “Thief” working with a conventional score. Tones waft and wane and propulsive synthesizers move the safe cracking from a mere heist into the realms of art. Visually and aurally outstanding. Lifts the picture from a routine dirty cops and existentialist robbers to another level. The gist is, it’s a pretty decent sound design. Check out “Manhunter” for a more evolved version of the audio/visual fusion. Shriekback, doesn’t get much better than that for mood music.Count me as a Michael Mann fan. “Thief” is way better as a movie than “Heat”, a picture both Pacino and De Niro do their best to wreck. “Thief” is up there with “Collateral” for stylishness. For sheer gorgeousness, few movies, this one included, can stand with “The Last of the Mohicans”, but for the first time out of the gate, “Thief” shows plenty of promise for good things to come. In my opinion (and it’s the right opinion) “Manhunter” is unjustly overlooked in comparison to the much more conventional “Red Dragon”. I’d watch “Manhunter” twice rather than plod along with Edward Norton and Anthony Hopkins in “Silence”.“Manhunter” also has Brian Cox as an excellent, ferocious Hannibal Lecter; “Silence” and “Red Dragon” and the regrettable “Hannibal” have doughy, seventy-ish Anthony Hopkins. Remember that scene in “Hannibal” where Lecter has to pick up Julianne Moore and carry her across the pigs? Must have used a lot of wire work for that bit of business. Hopkins would have to talk his victims to death, because he sure isn’t going to overpower them. But I digress. I like movies that look better than mere real life ever could, and that’s Michael Mann’s forte.

I used to own the VHS director's cut and loved it. This bluray is perfect.

Classic crime thriller Director Michael mann started off Directing TV show episodes & TV moviesbefore actually Directing feature length filmsand THIEF is Michael's first film as Director & writer based on real actual events of Frank HohimerFilmed in 1980 released in Theaters 1981Thief's about safe cracker Frank Hohimer played brilliantly by Actor James caanwho plans to leave the criminal world behind him after one final Diamond Heistbut Discovering escape is not as simple as he hopedBrilliant performance by James caan he nails the role perfectlyJames Belushi, his first film plays Barry, Franks partnerTuesday weld plays Frank's love interest JessieMichael mann also wrote the screenplay aswell as Directing the filmfirst released on DVD back in 1998 with only Audio commentary as an extrathe staff at Criterion collection Decided to release the film again on Blu-ray this time, it's been a long time comingbut this classic thriller is finally on blu-ray with an all new 4k High Definition transfer in 1:85:1 widescreenapproved by Michael mann himself & it's Michael's Directors cut version in a new HD transferwith added footage inserted back in the film NOT RATED 124minsand i tell you the picture quality does look amazing very clear & sharp picture nice bright colours, no Grain or Dirtincredible picture quality for sure, better than the old DVD release of courseplus the sound quality has been boosted to a new 5.1 Master audio mix, sounds Great through my surround sound systemit does not stop thereCriterion have also added new special features along with the old DVD commentary by Michael mann & James caannew extras is a New interview with Michael mann added for this blu-ray releaseMichael talks in Great Detail about how he started getting into filmshe talks about the screenplay and how it's based on real life events of safe Cracker Frank HohimerMichael talks about Jerry Bruckheimer who was the producer for THIEFhe also talks about getting the right cast for the film, talks about James caan, Tuesday weld, Robert proskyand other things about THIEF aswellvery interesting interview goes for 24minsnew interview with Actor James caan, James talks mainly about his character Frankhe talks about working with Tuesday weld, and meeting/working with Michael mannanother Great interview only goes for 10mins thouand another new interview with Music composer Johannes schmoelling from the band Tangerine DreamJohannes did the music score for THIEFthe interview is in German language i think which has English subtitlesbut Johanne talks about how he got involved with Michael mann for the film, he talks about the music score etctragically no new interview with Actress Tuesday weld it would've been Great to hear her comments about THIEFTuesday is 70 yo now still alive and wellthere's also a thick booklet that comes with this blu-raythe 4k transfer is talked about in this booklet, it says the black bars at the top & bottom of the screen are normalfor the 1:85:1 widescreen format of THIEF, well i can tell you there are no black bars on the screen when i play the blu-raynot on my widescreen TV anyway so i think that's misleading infothere's a 2nd Disc in this case, it's the DVD version of the film which i didn't bother withBlu-ray is the technology to watch now, DVD is out the windowso time to upgrade for sure get this new blu-ray version by Criterion collection incredible picture quality & new extras to5 stars i gave it

The quality of the resolution on this blu ray is absolutely fantastic. The colors of the neon streets and all the teal/blue lighting is absolutely stunning to look at! Fantastic soundtrack by Tangerine Dream, and that final track is beautiful. James Caan has an amazing performance in this film, and the story told throughout is tragic but amazingly told. One of my favorite films from Mann

WHAT ELSE CAN I SAY.. GRITTY AND VERY GOOD 2K VIDEO QUALITY

The authenticity of the heist dynamics and the relationships between the characters was palpable. I first saw this when it was first released and then now. This film aged well and I enjoyed it even more this time around. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to see an intelligent and engaging story that doesn't dwell on graphic violence and really explores the mind of the main character, the thief, as played by a young James Caan.

If you've never seen this movie then you have missed out.James Caan is great.

Utmärkt säljare.

This is one of the greatest movies of all time. Criterion Collection makes a great edition... they even include an essay analysis of the movie in the dvd/bluray booklet.Michael Mann is outstanding... an awesome work from a cinema virtuoso.

Grandissimo film primi 'ottanta, realizzato da un ormai maturo Michael Mann,un casting tutto rispetto (James Caan, James Belushi, Tuesday Weld, Dennis Farina)... Ti trasporterà nella Chicago di quei anni in un thriller-poliziesco dalle sfumature "noir".La storia di un scassinatore delle più complicate cassette di sicurezza, cercherà di farsi strada tra la malavita di quartiere ed i polizziotti corrotti della zona.Alla ricerca di un futuro, di una famiglia e della felicità! Ma con pesanti strascichi dal passato con la quale confrontarsi e fare ammenda, giorno dopo giorno.Un film che vi rapirà fino all'ultimo giro di lancette.