Michael Mann: Ranking His Films From Worst To Best
3. Thief
Thief is one of those movies that, despite everyone seeming to agree is absolutely excellent, almost never seems to get brought up in conversations of the best American crime films or the best movies of the '80s. Watching it today, its not hard to see why: Manns 1981 theatrical debut, starring James Caan as Frank, an expert safecracker, is unapologetically unflashy and almost startlingly contemplative, especially for a movie that follows the all-too-familiar one last job blueprint. This isnt Mann at his most violent or operatic, but rather, at his most introspective: in Thief, Mann is quietly pondering the very same themes of criminal ambition, unattainable dreams for the future, and unbridled machismo that he would go on to spend an entire career examining. Here, however, the lens through which Mann is probing these notions is decidedly lower-key, making for a film thats every bit as rich in terms of what it is trying to say, but in terms of its stylistic sensibilities is mostly devoid of the same decorative fireworks that would come to mark the remainder of Manns later work. While that lack of aesthetic ornament arguably makes Thief a less conventionally entertaining endeavor for Mann, it also serves to accentuate the films ultimate impact as a low-key character portrait.
