Thief

UK Release Date. 3 August 1981
Certification. X

Running Time. 2 hours 3 mins
Director. Michael Mann
Cast. Jim Belushi, James Caan, Willie Nelson, Robert Prosky, Tuesday Weld.
Rating. 80%

Review.

Michael Mann was virtually a fully formed filmmaker by the time his debut feature-length film, Thief reached US cinemas in March 1981. Having received a degree from the London Film School, Mann spent the next seven years honing his craft working on commercials in the UK. When he returned to the US in the mid-1970s, he worked as a screenwriter in television [he wrote episodes of Starsky and Hutch, Police Story and Vega$]. In 1979, Mann won an Emmy for the documentary, The Jericho Mile, an anthropological study of prison life.

The result is a remarkably assured debut, with many of the director's signature touches already in evidence - the rain-soaked neo-noir nightscape, the cinematography (ahead of its time, a celebration of shadow and neon), and the pulsating synth score by Tangerine Dream. A work of formal precision, there's certainly a case to be made that Thief is the purest distillation of Mann’s unmistakable brand of filmmaking. 

Thief has a simple premise. Ex-convict Frank has been out of jail for four years and has established a solid reputation as a highly professional safecracker specialising in high-end heists. Frank intends to undertake one final job - the 'heist of his life' - and then plans to retire from this sordid existence. But as numerous other films in the genre that came after Thief have taught us, the 'one last job before retirement' plan often doesn’t work out the way it was originally planned.

Played by the nothing short of brilliant James Caan, the actor brings a well-worn gravitas to the role that lends Thief a gritty, melancholic flavour. Frank is intensely charismatic. He’s no-nonsense yet sensitive, dangerous yet honourable - Frank is one of Mann’s many portraits of the ultra-professional criminal.

Plus, Thief has a diner scene - where Frank bares his soul to Jessie (Tuesday Weld) - to rival the more famous one from Heat, where Robert De Niro (Neil McCauley) and Al Pacino (Vincent Hanna) trade dialogue on screen for the first time.

Influenced by the classic film noir, Thief is especially interesting as the film exhibits themes and style preoccupations that would later become Mann's trademark. The sheer attention to detail Mann invested in Thief is astonishing - from the very opening scene, it is clear that the director's intention is to strive for authenticity.

Thief is a near-perfect thriller; tight, tense, completely believable and inhabited by full-blooded characters. A bold statement of intent from a director already all too familiar with the art of high-quality storytelling.