Let's discuss how awful this movie was
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LornaKieran — 21 years ago(November 11, 2004 03:38 PM)
Parker, im sorry but you're wrong & too harsh in slating this forgotten masterpiece. This is as cool as they come, Caan is as mean as they come & the direction is spot on, oozing style. The neon lit city, the cars, its all totally cool & the clothes, well, slick as beep "SLICK".
The script is quality, in one particular scene the main villain makes a threat to Caan which i cant repeat, so evil it shocked me.
Everything about this movie is stylish, including the action scenes. Im not usually a fan of slo-mo shoot outs, but Maans unique skills as a director never disappoints me. A slow motion shot of Caan blowing a guys head off to the sounds of "Tangerine Dream", yeah, this movie is almost too cool! -
red_cloak — 21 years ago(November 27, 2004 11:03 AM)
thief is still mann's best film, and looks like it always will be. It only gets better with age.
check this out
http://www.cdbaby.com/decapolis99 -
joegranby — 19 years ago(July 04, 2006 11:27 AM)
Let's discuss how awful this movie was. Er.. let's not. Obviously you don't watch, or can't tell a pretty good crime film if it slapped you in the face. If anything, it's the rather easy to follow plot that draws you in. Unlike many of Michael Mann's later films that seem to drag on and on, yet are still very good. Plus, the music is very good and gives a great atmosphere to the robbery scenes. The opening 10 mins is very well directed and sets you up for what these guys are into. It's also a film I enjoy watching from time to time. As I get older, It's looking better each time I see it. Definitely one of James Caan's better films from his eighties period. As for let's all say how bad it was, I don't think you know films at all. If you came out with a post like this, I guess it's not a film for everyone.
Don't read the book, go see the film. -
maverick-media — 19 years ago(July 18, 2006 03:11 AM)
Well I cant see anything wrong with the movie, nothing that I could imagine why someone would call it awful. I think Thief and heat are excellent movies; I wouldnt go into comparing the two side by side. Its fine that someone doesnt like this movie, where would we be if everyone agreed on everything?
Its interesting that the op didnt elaborate much as to why he thinks this movie is awful other than the film editing bothering him, inane dialogue and laughable direction. Personally I think thats bollocks.
http://www.maverick-media.co.uk -
griff_2000 — 21 years ago(December 17, 2004 11:53 AM)
Let's discuss what bollucks you are saying considering thief shows us one of James Caans Powerhouse performances and is considered to be his best being at that point in his life he was at the peak of his drug addiction and his sister had died which all create his aggressive persona and a great story. Also the movie is true by not giving us a pathetic "happy ending" or then agian some over the top "un-happy ending". It is simple it is most probably what any other person would do, which is just walk off and go back to reality.
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parkermj — 21 years ago(January 22, 2005 08:03 PM)
This coming from someone who posted in forums for 'Christmas with the Kranks' and 'Untitled Texas Chainsaw Massacre Prequel.' Not exactly cinematic gold we're talking about.
example post:
I CAN SEE IT NOW..
TAGLINE "TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BIRTH OF LEATHERFACE"
NAH TOO DAVID CRONENBERG
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE PART -1?
TEXAS CHAINSAW : THE UNNECESSARY PREQUEL
TEXAS CHAINSAW : THE 1 BEFORE THE FIRST ONE!!!!!!
TEXAS CHAINSAW: LET US TAKE 2 HOURS OF YOUR LIVES TO MAKE A PROFIT OFF THIS beep
WHAT AN beep I AM BUT IN ALL RETROSPECTS IT WOULD BE ..NICE TO SAY THE LEAST TO SEE LEATHERFACE UP AND ABOUT BECAUSE I LOVE ANY OF THE TCM MOVIES. -
yucel81x — 21 years ago(December 22, 2004 07:39 AM)
This film in many ways is a percursor to "Heat". I like to think of it as "Heat" without the police element. Certain scenes are very similar (like the scene where Caan gets pulled over), not just because of Michael Mann's style of writing/directing, but I think in such a way that he was always trying to make a film like "Heat," but didn't get it exactly as he wished until 1995. In that regard you're right. From wanting to cast William L. Petersen in "Heat" before switching to do "Manhunter," to doing it as the TV movie "L.A. Takedown," it just seems like Mann had been trying for a long time to make "Heat" and "Thief" was the first stepping stone, both towards that project and towards being a successful director.
That said, I think both films have a lot of things going for it and I enjoy "Thief" just as much as "Heat." James Caan I think is a wonderful actor who was very believable at playing tough, yet principled, yet still flawed good guys, and really devious despicable bad guys. His role in "Thief" definitely struck me as one of his best, if not THE best, performances of his life. He plays his emotions so well, and makes it all work. The man has different sides to him. He can be a compassionate and caring man capable of sensitivity and romance (I thought his relationship with Tuesday Weld was very believable and touching, from what he says to her in the coffee shop to convince her to be with him, to the scene where he tells her what he doeswhich I thought was hilarious, and shows his principles as well, because Willie Nelson told him, "Lie to no one."), but he's also cold and methodical. That scene where he tells her to leave him and get out of his lifethat's such a great scene because it shows how much he loves her, but more than that it shows how deep his principles run.
Remember what Robert Prosky said to him, "You're not that guy anymore." He could not allow himself to be controlled, so he had to become that guy again, and that meant turning away anything and everything he had built up that could hold him back. The only way he could really get back his life is if he destroyed it. There's few things more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose. His friends were dead, his freedom was gone already, he had to remove everything. His wife, his child, his business, everything. That's why I think that scene is so powerful because in his facial expression alone, as cold as he is, you can tell that he is doing the most painful thing he can think of, and the most determined.
If a comparison there must be made to "Heat," "Have no attachments, have nothing in your life that you can not turn your back on in 30 seconds flat if you spot the heat around the corner." The heat was on for Caan in this film, and I think the end shootout, as cliche as it might seem to end a film with a shootout, it is one of the most believable and one of the most logical (how else could it end?).
I can't tell you to like this film. I'm not much good at convincing and persuasion. I can only give my opinion of the film and hope that someone takes it to heart when considering their own opinions. In all honesty, some scenes did bore me, at least the first time around. But I watched it quite a few more times, and I can honestly say the film holds as much for me as "Heat" does. I think "Thief" is a good film. But that's me.
Note: Remember what Jon Voight said in "Heat" to Robert DeNiro when he was telling him about Pacino. "He took down Frank's crew in Chicago." Interesting connection. Makes one wonder what happened to him after he survived in "Thief." -
Howlin Wolf — 21 years ago(January 03, 2005 06:46 AM)
Actually, no; there's to be no 'discussion' - you're just
wrong
!!
Oh, go on then
Disjointed? In what way? Inane dialogue? ONE example to be going on with, please "Laughable direction"?? Surprising, considering I'd wager that most Mann afficionados could mark his progression from this to your well-received
Heat
, if put side-by-side for a 'comparison'
I look forward to your justifications, although I doubt you'll find many people who concur !
"I wish I could carry your smile in my heart, for times when my life feels so low" -
racer12_99 — 20 years ago(April 12, 2005 07:10 PM)
I have watched this movie SEVERAL times over the years, and I never get tired of seeing it. No matter what the ups and downs that people on here write about, I think the movie is Enjoyable. It is very Gritty and to the point. It portrays a side of life that some of us know about, and some of us don't. Everybody has different likes and dislikes. I have seen movies that I think are better(not a lot of tho), but I have seen a lot of movies that are a lot worse.