Thief 1981 review
A man in that picture is his mentor Okla (Willie Nelson) who is incarcerated for his time as a safecracker but has a chance of getting out. He also has this idea of a dream he wants to do of a life outside of crime and major responsibilities that he wants to share with Jessie as there is this scene at a diner that is seven-minutes long where Frank talks about this dream he has with a picture he had been carrying. Still, he has endured so much trouble and wants to stay away from trouble just as he’s getting his life going upon meeting and dating a restaurant cashier in Jessie (Tuesday Weld). Michael Mann’s screenplay follows the world that Frank lives in as despite his legitimate businesses, he is at his best when he is opening safes and steal its goods while maintaining a low profile as he answers to no one. The job would allow Leo a chance to not just get the money he’s owed but also so much more including a way out of the life of crime as he had been to prison and doesn’t want to go back. Frank learns that his dealer owes money to a crime boss in Leo (Robert Prosky) who wants to offer Frank a job to steal diamonds in California. Yet, when a fence who is supposed to pay him is killed and unable to give the safecracker named Frank (James Caan) his money.
It’s a film that is really more of a character study of a man that does have a couple of businesses that he runs in a bar and in a car dealership yet he makes great money in being a safecracker. The film follows the life of a safecracker who has decided to end his life of crime to focus on living a cleaner and safer life but a crime boss offers him a job that would make him rich as he copes with what the job will do for him but also if it can really set him free. Thief is an entrancing and gripping film from Michael Mann. Starring James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Robert Prosky, James Belushi, Tom Signorelli, Willie Nelson, and Dennis Farina. Written for the screen and directed by Michael Mann, the film is a look into a thief who is known for his professionalism as he deals with the dangers of his profession as he is eager to start a new life.
Based on the novel The Home Invaders: Confessions of a Cat Burglar by John Seybold (under the pseudonym Frank Hohimer), Thief is the story of a safecracker who decides to go straight upon completing one more diamond heist only for everything to go wrong.