Thief

        

          Going back to films my brother instructed me to watch, and my latest selection has now become one of my favorite movies of all time as well as in my lest of 100 greatest films of all time well, mainly in my non-bias whichever comes first. Thief staring James Caan as well as the directorial debut of infamous director Michael Mann, famous for such great films like Heat and the Insider. Another surprising factor is this was in fact Jerry Bruckheimer's first ever produced movie as well, almost a couple of years before films like Top Gun and Michael Bay came into his life.

          A highly skilled jewel thief, Frank (James Caan) longs to leave his dangerous trade and settle down with his girlfriend, Jessie (Tuesday Weld). Eager to make one last big score in order to begin living a legitimate life, Frank reluctantly associates with Leo (Robert Prosky), a powerful gangster. Unfortunately for Frank, Leo wants to keep him in his employ, resulting in a tense showdown when he finally tries to give up his criminal activities once and for all. 

          The interesting thing about Thief is, it's really a simple story, just a simple safecracker trying to get out of the business finds a perfect score but soon realizes it's not easy getting out. I mean the story is so, simple and so great that even through the course of the movie, I was playing the Dan Harmon storyline game (long story, but Dan Harmon found a simple way to write a script) and this movie hits all the right themes to creating a simple story, and it's crazy how Michael Mann was able to get this story so simple to the core though in all fairness it was independently made, in all fairness. What makes the film great personally is that this was one of the first films where we see these criminals in blue-collar professions basically seeing the thieves in the everyday lives before they begin to hit a score at night, and Michael Mann does a fantastic job staying true and more realistic to what a modern thief at the time would usually steal in terms of not going all high fashion like the Ocean's films and that they get away by the end of the film, and Man actually does a fantastic job portraying the film on what these types of thieves choose to do but realize the consequences of their actions. James Caan is a fantastic actor in the movie you can see that he's a man who wants to have a better life but deep down is a tough guy and through the course of his journey can't hide his criminal life even though trying to have a normal life tends to never be easy in his personal life, and even Caan himself claims that besides The Godfather, Thief is another performance he's actually proud of. From the camera work to the outstanding visuals as well as the realism to thieves and safecrackers combined, Thief is a fantastic neo-noir film that holds up the same way Heat holds up in terms of realism and great visuals. Found this on Tubi and once and always again Tubi is still holding the top streaming service for me, by perfect films to watch as well as hidden treasures and so, if you don't have Tubi, then I would highly recommend subscribing Tubi and watching this crime caper classic.