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<blockquote data-quote="Willie Oleson" data-source="post: 434340" data-attributes="member: 8">Thief (1981)[ATTACH=full]58117[/ATTACH]To be honest I&#039;ve been avoiding this film because I thought it would be just another heist/robbery flick, but it has a fairly positive reputation so I thought, what the heck.Apart from the action, which is very good, I also find it an unexpectedly layered character drama.Frank (James Caan) is not a nice person and he&#039;s also not a pleasant person. That air of entitlement works fine when he deals with other crooks but not when he communicates with the people in every-day situations.Initially this looks like a flaw - who wants to spend two hours with a character like that - but at the same time it could be considered a matter of confidence on the part of the filmmaker.As the story progresses we get to see what makes Frank tick but they trusted the audience to have the patience to get there.Regardless of how I feel about a protagonist I&#039;m always rooting for his/her &quot;mission&quot; because the alternative is no mission and therefore no story at all.Frank never becomes adorable and there&#039;s no melodramatic redemption arc, it&#039;s just that the baddies who cross his path (murderous, corrupt police and a super-villainous gangster) make him the most likeable character by default.Tuesday Weld (whom I often confuse with Britt Ekland) makes the very best of her love-interest character and basically most of the characters in the this film have something &quot;real&quot; about them. They&#039;re not in it just to get the point across.There&#039;s an interesting scene in which a black doctor informs Frank that his only friend had died, and there&#039;s nothing surprising about that information.The camera lingers on their faces without conveying anything in particular but it looks so unfriendly and uncomfortable, and I always love awkward stuff in films. If you want to know who Frank is, that&#039;s the only scene you need to watch.The film looks old-school gorgeous, many dark scenes without losing any of its gloss or details. It&#039;s sort of Blade Runner but with a good plot, oops sorry couldn&#039;t resist.THIEF looks like the template for HBO&#039;s criminal anti-hero success formula of the late 90s and 2000s.The soundtrack is good and on-topic but I also had a personal, sorta subconscious soundtrack playing in my head.[ATTACH=full]58118[/ATTACH]The colour palette of this LP cover is rather similar to the film and I kept &quot;hearing&quot; All For Leyna and also James from another album.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Willie Oleson, post: 434340, member: 8"] Thief (1981) [ATTACH type="full"]58117[/ATTACH] To be honest I've been avoiding this film because I thought it would be just another heist/robbery flick, but it has a fairly positive reputation so I thought, what the heck. Apart from the action, which is very good, I also find it an unexpectedly layered character drama. Frank (James Caan) is not a nice person and he's also not a pleasant person. That air of entitlement works fine when he deals with other crooks but not when he communicates with the people in every-day situations. Initially this looks like a flaw - who wants to spend two hours with a character like that - but at the same time it could be considered a matter of confidence on the part of the filmmaker. As the story progresses we get to see what makes Frank tick but they trusted the audience to have the patience to get there. Regardless of how I feel about a protagonist I'm always rooting for his/her "mission" because the alternative is no mission and therefore no story at all. Frank never becomes adorable and there's no melodramatic redemption arc, it's just that the baddies who cross his path (murderous, corrupt police and a super-villainous gangster) make him the most likeable character by default. Tuesday Weld (whom I often confuse with Britt Ekland) makes the very best of her love-interest character and basically most of the characters in the this film have something "real" about them. They're not in it just to get the point across. There's an interesting scene in which a black doctor informs Frank that his only friend had died, and there's nothing surprising about that information. The camera lingers on their faces without conveying anything in particular but it looks so unfriendly and uncomfortable, and I always love awkward stuff in films. If you want to know who Frank is, that's the only scene you need to watch. The film looks old-school gorgeous, many dark scenes without losing any of its gloss or details. It's sort of [I]Blade Runner[/I] but with a good plot, oops sorry couldn't resist. THIEF looks like the template for HBO's criminal anti-hero success formula of the late 90s and 2000s. The soundtrack is good and on-topic but I also had a personal, sorta subconscious soundtrack playing in my head. [ATTACH type="full"]58118[/ATTACH] The colour palette of this LP cover is rather similar to the film and I kept "hearing" [I]All For Leyna[/I] and also [I]James[/I] from another album. [/QUOTE]

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