- THIEF 1981 CINEMATOGRAPHY MOVIE
- THIEF 1981 CINEMATOGRAPHY PRO
- THIEF 1981 CINEMATOGRAPHY CODE
- THIEF 1981 CINEMATOGRAPHY TV
This goes against Frank's highly nihilistic personal code, and initiates a violent confrontation. Instead of his agreed-upon profit split from the million-dollar robberies, Frank is expected to take a pittance and keep working, under threat of violence to his family.
Frank can handle the cops to some degree, but can do little when Leo announces that he's now 'owned' by the mob just like anybody else. They try to intimidate him into handing over a percentage of his earnings, to 'spread the wealth around' and make the system work for everybody. Frank maintains a bar and a used car lot as cover activities these assets and his new family make him vulnerable when Leo begins to 'alter the deal'.įrank finds that his association with the mob raises his visibility with the local cops, who function as a mob of their own. But Frank's dream falls apart as soon as he ceases being a lone wolf Leo's syndicate insists on more and more control. The outwardly paternalistic Leo wins Frank's trust by greasing the path for an illicit adoption Jessie readily accepts her lavish new standard of living and joins with Barry's wife in supporting their spouses. He literally slices a new doorway through a formidable, sophisticated steel vault.įrank's ultra-materialistic plan is to make up for his lost years by rushing directly to a lavish lifestyle. In one fairly amazing (and authentic) scene, Frank uses a specially formulated metallic 'burning bar' that generates thousands of degrees of heat. Following the theory that any safeguard man can devise, can be defeated by men, Frank and Barry expertly neutralize multiple alarm systems and cut through parts of buildings to reach high-security diamond vaults.
At least half of the film is devoted to wordless heist scenes a la the classic Rififi. Despite boasting a highly expressive visual (and aural) surface, Thief is a much grittier and complex construction.
THIEF 1981 CINEMATOGRAPHY TV
Michael Mann would soon move on to his TV show Miami Vice, a glitzy style & fashion- oriented fantasy about unorthodox cops in Miami its signature image of sleek cars speeding to new pop songs, with neon signs reflecting in their paint jobs, was a major image for excess in the '80s. Herself an abused loser, Jessie is touched by Frank's blunt, impassioned offer. To this end Frank all but batters diner cashier Jessie (Tuesday Weld) into listening to his crude but heartfelt marriage proposal - she'll fit perfectly into his planned picture of the perfect future. Having spent most of his adult life in prison, Frank see's Leo's offer as a short cut to his dream of success - money, a loving wife and child, and the company of his 'adopted' father from prison, old-timer Okla (Willie Nelson), the man who taught him his criminal trade. Impressed with Frank's near-magical ability to cut his way into any safe in existence, Leo offers him an attractive deal - a high fee to bust into another jeweler's safe, with all the research work done in advance. Mob boss Leo (Robert Prosky) returns Frank's money. When Frank's fence dies owing him $185,000, Frank presses his attentions on the organized crime outfit likely responsible for the killing. Frank (James Caan) and his assistant Barry (James Belushi) use a special 200-pound electric drill to cut into a safe holding a fortune in diamonds. Mann's script alternates between dialogue-free images of thieves at work, and intense passages in which the leading character bulls his way through social and personal obstacles, in search of his dream of wealth and security. It's surely one of the best films of its macho star James Caan.
THIEF 1981 CINEMATOGRAPHY MOVIE
Filmed in glossy color on the winter streets of Chicago, the movie wastes not a single superfluous shot in its mission to flesh out the existence of a hard-bitten but ambitious ex-con, and his spectacularly professional, technically impressive robberies.
THIEF 1981 CINEMATOGRAPHY PRO
Its story of a pro safecracker pared down to essentials is unafraid to portray the less savory aspects of criminal life. Michael Mann's startling debut film Thief (1981) is like a beacon pointing to the future. No longer restrained by de facto censorship, these men established new trends in docu realism and trendy stylization. By the late seventies the reigning kings of this kind of picture were William Friedkin, Walter Hill and newcomer Michael Mann. One thinks of Phil Karlson's nearly sublime The Brothers Rico (1957), whose appalling vision of organized crime is marred by a pasted-on happy ending.
THIEF 1981 CINEMATOGRAPHY CODE
The Production Code discouraged realistic portrayals of the endemic corruption in law enforcement and the justice system, but these filmmakers frequently slipped through vivid impressions of the bleakness and cruelty of the criminal lifestyle. Back in the 1950s Hollywood had several directors that elevated the crime thriller: Phil Karlson, Budd Boetticher, Don Siegel, Jacques Tourneur.