Thief (1981)
Directed by Michael Mann. Starring James Caan and Tuesday Weld.
Michael Mann’s electric, neon-soaked debut feature is drenched with a sense of melancholy and sadness. A celebration of the mastery of craft, as the film’s title implies, the film ultimately wrestles with loneliness and the attempt to build meaning and connection through the trappings of our fundamental desires, to be known, to love, and to be loved. There are few who do it better against the darkened city skyline than Mann, who explores the notion of lawlessness and those living on the fringes, yet seeking to find their place amidst the trappings of normal life. Standing at a critical juncture between decades, Thief paints a world that is both gritty and realistic (such as The French Connection) while looking forward to the more pulpy, stylized entries of the crime/heist canon in the following decades.
