Thief

Thief (1981) 

Runtime: 123 minutes

Directed by: Michael Mann

Starring: James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Robert Prosky, Jim Belushi, Willie Nelson

From: United Artists

The perfect way of seeing Thief: on a VHS cassette recorded off of Showtime while I was still in diapers.

For the purpose of digitizing some things I have on tape (which mainly are not films), an old VCR was hooked up to a flatscreen TV that's a few years old-thus it still has RCA plugs-and through the summer that task will be done. I mean, soon I'll have to order a converter in order to accomplish this task. Years ago I purchased some tapes at a rural flea market; I might as well wear my ass as a hat for not buying the entire lot-which I was offered-as the material between the films (recorded off of Showtime in the early 80's) was great and room could have been made for a haul that was only 20 bucks. The tape I watched last night had Sharky's Machine, this movie then Ordinary People. At least the first two are similar to each other as the third certainly sticks out like a sore thumb.

To test this setup, a VHS tape was played and it had this movie; I hadn't experienced Thief in many years. It was one hell of a theatrical debut for Michael Mann. The general synopsis is simple enough: James Caan is an expert safecracker who hooks up w/ Robert Prosky for a big score so he can settle down w/ Tuesday Weld and become a regular guy, but of course things go wrong. It is more complicated than that... Caan's Frank doesn't give an F as he spent years in prison so his relationship with Weld (who has a checkered past herself) has its struggles. The cops are after him & oh yeah, Prosky is rather ruthless... he says and does some awful things.

Frank and his pals-including Jim Belushi-are shown to be great in the opening scene as they successfully pull off a score w/ meticulous planning and the patience to do it right. It was real-life burglary tools that were used, to boot. As it's Mann, even then there was plenty of panache with how the entire movie was filmed. There was neon light, plenty of different colors, and the heists all looked great. For me the highlight was Tangerine Dream's incredible electronic score. Of course, it earned a Razzie nomination for WORST score; as Kubrick got a nomination for The Shining and De Palma has received multiple nominations, this is why I've said on a number of occasions that the Razzies have always been pretty worthless. Anyhow, listening to the soundtrack on YouTube today, that alone bumps the score up from what I originally was going to give it. In addition, a great realization was that the song during the ending scene/end credits (Confrontation, and yes there is a confrontation at the end) sounds an awful lot like Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb. This was not an accident... Mann was not able to use Comfortably Numb so instead he had a ripoff song created. That is fine with me as I rate both tunes rather highly.

I don't want to downplay the acting on display in the film. No complains with any of the main players but Caan & Weld were the highlight, especially during a scene set at a diner when they discussed similar awful experiences they had previously. Willie Nelson wasn't just stunt-casting; in fact I would have liked to have seen more of him. It was still great to revisit Thief; one day I will check it out in HD to enjoy the audio/visuals. It was quite the reminder to recall how I experienced films at home when I was a child.

As for what else is on the VHS tape that someone created over 35 years ago, the VCR does not rewind or fast forward too well... after Thief the only thing was the last minute of an interview w/ Mark Hamill and he plugged a theater tour he was doing where he was one of the leads in Amadeus. That reminds me... the original Broadway production starred Ian McKellan, Tim Curry and Jane Seymour; that sounds pretty damn great to me. After Ordinary People the only thing I recalled was AEROBICIZE; if you're not familiar, it was ostensibly an exercise show that women could follow along to. In actuality, it was erotic in nature and was for lonely men. The soundtrack even sounded like something from an 80's adult film. It was what Axel the randy doctor was viewing in the morgue during the opening act of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.