Director: Michael Mann

Name	Occupation	Birth	Death	Known for
Jim Belushi	Comic	15-Jun-1954		According to Jim
James Caan	Actor	26-Mar-1940		Vegas, Elf
Michael Paul Chan	Actor	26-Jun-1950		Robbery: Homicide Division
Dennis Farina	Actor	29-Feb-1944		Ray Barboni in Get Shorty
Willie Nelson	Country Musician	30-Apr-1933		The red-headed stranger
William L. Petersen	Actor	21-Feb-1953		CSI, Manhunter
Robert Prosky	Actor	13-Dec-1930		Pat Chase on Veronica's Closet
Tuesday Weld	Actor	27-Aug-1943		Looking for Mr. Goodbar

REVIEWS

Review by Striker5 (posted on 14-Aug-2007)

Aside from being an excellent director, Michael Mann is unerringly consistent in the themes that propel his films. Mann's protagonists are almost without exception extremely professional, proficient, emotionally confused and prone to violence. No greater example exists than his first feature film Thief. In this movie we see the basic ideas Mann would revisit thematically for over two decades. Thief centers around a man named Frank (James Caan). Frank is a fiercely independent professional safecracker. From the opening sequence where Frank and his crew cooly pull of a heist and methodically dispose of clothes, vehicles and tools it is obvious that Frank is very good at what he does. As the plot develops we see that Frank lives a socially empty life peopled only by his teammate (Jim Belushi) and his surrogate father Okla (Willie Nelson). Frank is driven to obtain the things he could not get during a lengthy prison sentence. Wife, house, kids, cars and so forth. These very human desires are his Achilles heel. Enter local mob kingpin Leo (Robert Prosky). Leo capitalizes on Frank's needs and cajoles him into sacrificing his most precious possession in return for everything he wants: his independence. Alternately touching, brutal, and technically dazzling, Thief is an outstanding experience. It features Caan's best performance (his favorite according to the commentary) and Mann's trademark attention to detail. Actual safecrackers were pressed into service as technical advisers to ensure the tools and methods of cracking safes were realistically portrayed. Caan and Mann also went to Gunsite, a famous school for defensive pistol shooting, to teach Caan how to fight with a pistol. As is all Mann's films, the realism of the gunhandling and shooting are second to none. Thief explores the themes of professional (criminal) ethics and vulnerability, as the very things that make Frank human are his most dangerous weaknesses.

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