10 Underappreciated 80s Thrillers You Must Watch
7. Thief
Thief stars James Caan as Frank, a professional safe-cracker, in this early Michael Mann film. He decides to take one last job for Robert Prosky’s mob boss before going straight.
Frank is one of Caan’s most interesting character portrayals: he is a child of the state, an ex-con, and a very successful thief. But, he is a character with missing pieces, he continuously refers back to a photo collage he keeps that reflects the more respectable life he wants.
As part of his grand plan he marries a waitress he has been getting close to in pursuit of a straight life. He wants a family, she can’t have children, but he finds a solution to this. He is a powerful man with resources and the means to get what he wants, but not in the way that the regular average joe would go about it. This is the paradox of his character, he can’t just walk away from the life he has made and become that regular person he wants to be.
The film shows many of Michael Mann’s go-to techniques, it is a hyper-stylistic thriller with a dazzling script and stand out performances, particularly in the case of Caan and Prosky.