Dinner and a Movie Blurbs from Shawna's Watched Movies List
📽️ Join me for my Movie Blurbs. I try to include whether it is my first watch or repeat unless I have seen it so many times in my history that I don't have a count on it!
Michael Mann's Thief 1981 (1st Watch August 22nd, 2023) **Contains spoilers about Thief and about Miami Vice (1981-Michael Mann)**
I have been hearing the name of this director for a long time now. The film podcasts I listen to always talk in an exclamatory tone when they mention his name and now, I know why!!!
This movie is BEAUTIFUL. It is BLUE. and I mean the color.(not the mood) The entire hue of the movie is BLUE. EVERY scene almost (maybe even EVERY scene) has blue in it.
First 15 minutes of the movie...
Within the set-up of the movie, we watch James Caan in the morning routine he has personally crafted for himself ; walking along the Lake Michigan bay with the city skyline of Chicago behind him just before sunrise with his morning to go snack which he will eat in the company of his usual friend who sits fishing early in the morning out of the bay. After a mesmerizing (".." minutes-I'll have to check the exact amount where we have already watched James Caan and his crew carry out a heist with their fine tuned/well oiled thief trio ) The first word that is said in the movie is simply "Hey" as he is greeting his morning buddy.
My Mom, Nelda, always used to put on "Miami Vice" (also directed by Michael Mann 2006) while she worked on our jewelry business. So as I would come in and out of the living room, I would catch different scenes, but I also saw the movie in its entirety several times also. But this simple use of one word to convey such a human connection and the emotion involved in that connection reminds me of Miami Vice when Colin Ferrel's Character, undercover narcotics officer, Sonny Crockett, says to his love interest Isabella (Gong Li -also the girlfriend of the Cuban drug lord he has been sent to dethrone) simply "Hola Chica".
Michael Mann's movies have so much romance from what I have seen! - I am aiming to watch more of his movies! Not just romance about people but romance about everything! The cities, the oceans, professions of choice (although he does give the downside of crime and consequences in both this and Miami Vice).
I remember when watching Thief, just when I would start getting a little heavy or ready for humor (but didn't realize it-because his placement of it was so good that I didn't realize it until after the humor occurred! Like, oh! "I was just thinking I needed to lighten up a little right here but didn't realize I was thinking that until he put it right where it needed to be!) This is when he would put in some humor. There is nicely sprinkled humor in Miami Vice and Thief was packed with entertainment and heart. But it never breaks or ruins the seriousness of the plot. What a treat! I will write more later.