Thief

Dir. Michael Mann. 1981. 122 mins. 35mm. With James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Willie Nelson, Jim Belushi, Robert Prosky, Dennis Farina. Mann’s debut film reveals a master already at work, offering James Caan one of his greatest roles. After embarking upon one final heist, safecracker Frank hopes to leave his criminal past behind, but string-pulling Leo (a fiendish Robert Prosky) has other plans for him. Mann’s moody male melodramatics are in full effect, finding luminosity in Chicago’s dark alleys and mining the skittish pathos beneath Caan’s hustle and brawn.