Thief (1981)

Thief (R)

"Honor among Films"

Before electrifying 80s television with the cinematic crime series "Miami Vice" that catapulted him to fame, Director Micheal Mann wrote and directed this superb noir starring James Caan as a safecracker trying to do one more heist and go straight for his new found love and life.

Mann brings such a hard edge and slick sense of style to the film it's pulse is palpable.  Caan's thief is a palpable antihero, an ultimate professional who has pulled himself by his bootstraps above street crime to profitability and self-righteous dignity.  Unfortunately those he works among are missed the notice about honor among thieves, and through a disconnected series of events makes his last play at love, life and respectability while his new bosses try to suck him farther and farther into a new career of crime.  One of Caan's most powerful roles, he is trapped between the need for wealth, need for love and the need for legitimacy.  He is an uneducated, brutal bleeding heart whose only fear is a return to prison.

The rough edges of character and directly balanced out by Mann's best visuals and style.  Thief crackles with energy, even in the shadows, and the final shootout brings a neon-lit Peckinpah vibe to the violence.  His most visually striking film is also his first, and his best written characterization on screen until the release of Heat, Thief steals the show for both Mann and Caan.

9 Blue Jeans and Windbreakers with a .45 out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)