#The thief 1981 movie
#The thief 1981 code
#The thief 1981 windows

#The thief 1981 windows

Mann frames characters through windows or uses the reflections of the water in alleyways to spill light into the scene. The Los Angeles setting is rain-soaked and atmospheric-all blue and red neon lights and endless skies. ThereвЂ™s a grittiness to the dramatic scenes that resemble films from the previous decade, but the way Mann shoots the geography of his landscape is markedly new. ThiefвЂ™s filmmaking both resembles the New Hollywood movement and looks forward to the stylish and often empty 1980s. This isnвЂ™t empty style for the sake of style-although, I would argue, Michael Mann has never been about empty style. Thief has enough of this grittiness, enough leftovers from the New Hollywood era, to distinguish it from what came after.

#The thief 1981 code

But Thief is the first time Mann explored such a character, and Caan, with his New Hollywood method acting style, makes you understand FrankвЂ™s code as something born out of experience, not just an abstract philosophy he adopted because he was cool. Mann always explores such individuals, usually criminals or cops, who have a code and a system of ethics, but want more out of life, and find their desire for happiness conflicting with their lone wolf nature and their personal welfare. This reminds us of Robert De NiroвЂ™s words in MannвЂ™s 1995 crime epic, Heat: вЂњDonвЂ™t keep anything in your life youвЂ™re not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.вЂќ Even in MannвЂ™s recent film, Blackhat, Chris HemsworthвЂ™s Hathaway relays similar information, speaking about keeping your mind and your body strong in prison and doing your own time, not the systemвЂ™s. He tells her how he spent a decade in the joint and that the only way he got through those years was by proving to everyone else in prison that he had nothing to lose and that no one had power over him. Near the end of the first act, after making arrangements for a last heist with a crime lord (Robert Prosky) thatвЂ™ll clock him almost one million dollars, Frank sits down with the girl he fancies (Tuesday Welds) and lays out his philosophy about life. Of course, starting fresh isnвЂ™t so easy, as the very attachments that Frank wants (a nice house, a wife, a kid) are exactly the kinds of things that give other criminals and the cops power over him.

#The thief 1981 movie

(These are all crime movie tropes, but Mann has always wholeheartedly embraced tropes and focused on formal, not narrative, innovation). HeвЂ™s also a man with a code, and heвЂ™s got one last job to do thatвЂ™ll score him enough capital to start fresh. Thief follows Frank (James Caan), a safecracker who wants to leave the criminal lifestyle behind and start a family. ThiefвЂ™s plot is something weвЂ™ve come to expect from Mann, but even at the time it wasnвЂ™t entirely unique-the French crime filmmaker Jean Pierre-Melville had popularized the existential criminal over a decade before MannвЂ™s film came out. Thief is thoughtful and stylish and a little corny, but oh so cool-classic Mann. ItвЂ™s a bridge film for the crime thriller and the announcement of a major talent. It weds the gritty auteurism of the 1970s with the flashier stylisms of the 1980s. This is because the film sets up so confidently and precisely the themes and styles that have obsessed Michael Mann for the following three decades. ItвЂ™s hard to talk about Thief, Michael MannвЂ™s 1981 feature film debut, without discussing MannвЂ™s entire career that has followed.