Thief

Thief (1981)
Director: Michael Mann
Cast: James Caan, Tuesday Weld, James Belushi, Robert Prosky, Willie Nelson
Memorable Line(s): "I wear $150 slacks, I wear silk shirts, I wear $800 suits, I wear a gold watch, I wear a perfect, D-flawless three carat ring. I change cars like other guys change their shoes. I'm a thief."



* Underrated and Overlooked *
Thief is one of the movies that is comfortable in its own skin. Albeit, its skin is scaly, rough, and irritated to the point of combustion.

Frank (Caan) is a high end diamond thief who has decided that he will only take the world on his own terms to an almost nihilistic extent. He's at a point in his life in which he wants to join the world of the living and selects Jessie (Weld) to be his point of re-entry. But having a real life means making a lot of money if you want to make it in style. Against his loner code, he hooks up with a shadowy crime boss (Prosky). Frank and his partner, Barry (Belushi), decide to take on a last set of jobs and that's when Frank's real troubles begin.

This is Mann's feature film debut and he acquits himself well. The style of the film is cool and remote. Shots take their time to deliver. We get a real sense of Frank's world and his desires.

Caan is completely convincing as Frank. He's course, driven, uncompromising, and exact in almost every way. Weld's Jessie is frazzled and leery of Frank's advances and offer of a new and wonderful life. Weld makes us believe her character in every way. Belushi is cast against type as Frank's partner in crime and his part isn't one of using a comedian for comic relief. He come across a real and believable. Probably one of the oddest bits of casting is Willie Nelson as Frank's mentor.

From the perspective of today's crime thriller's this film may be seen as a little slow, but the film is as much character study as crime movie. Yes, we get to see him pull of his complex heists, but through his actions, we see a man who wants to make a radical change in his life. We also see the impossibility of that change. Frank is an island that's been on its own too long.

Forgotten by many, Thief is a film worth re-examining.