Amerika

Lots of hype surrounded the movie Drive (2011) but its ancestor is this ancient movie which draws a great deal from Raymond Chandler in its portrayal of the criminal underworld and, as must be the case, a character in it who wishes to escape it to a better life.

Unlike Drive, in this the reward is not a wayward girl and her mixed-race offspring, but an actually attractive woman and the child the two of them adopted. The criminal in question is a crass, difficult man who aspires to the American Dream however he can get it.

He wants to take his stolen loot, of course, and his problem is that he has paired up with local organized crime that wants him to keep working for them as the master thief that he is. Naturally this tension cannot exist for long.

Like Drive, the characters in this movie are fully delusional, thinking that they can make the big score as criminals and then somehow become like ordinary people. Movies like Ronin (1998) make more sense because the criminals stay, well, criminal.

In this, the real story happens after the movie ends, because this character is at odds with his nature. He wants to be a thief, but he also wants to stop being a thief, which causes all the other parasites around him to object. It is probably almost as bad as the DNC.

The strength of this movie, which is not the hirsute James Caan, is its soundtrack by Tangerine Dream which basically invented the synthwave movement just as digital synthesizers were becoming a thing. Its true-to-form characters are also a strength.

You could see this one as a dry run for “Miami Vice,” even if Manhunter (1986) standardized that format in film, because of its use of darkwave-style music with epic scenes of human struggling by characters who see no choice but the life they are living.

In that, it touches the essence of Raymond Chandler, which is that all people become what they are. The debutante with dubious morals becomes a courtesan; the policeman on a power trip becomes a crime boss. All reveal themselves when exposed to money, alcohol, and guns.

Unlike Drive, in which the delusions become reality, Thief features some hard choices made in pursuit of a normal life, which explains its appeal: we all feel like co-conspirators in a criminal enterprise known as modern society, and want to bail out if we can.

Tags: cinema, james caan, michael mann, thief