Thief

Michael Mann is a real man’s Mann, behind such classics as Manhunter; he also directed movies that don’t start with M, such as Ali, The Insider and Collateral. Of them all, it's his directorial debut, Thief, that cannot be topped. This 1981 classic features what very well may be leading man James Caan’s finest performance as a, you guessed it, thief who begins to second-guess his chosen career. Co-starring James Belushi and Willie Nelson, the film presents a neon-drenched high life that seems both near and far. Come view a pristine 35mm print of a classic caper. It's part of a brief UW Cinematheque series, with a screening of 1995’s Heat set for April 8.

media release:USA | 1981 | 35mm | 122 min.

Director: Michael Mann; Cast: James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Robert Prosky

In his finest lead performance, Caan plays Frank, a home-invading safecracker and ex-convict living and working by a strict code. He has a reliable partner in Barry (Jim Belushi) and a mentor in the still-behind-bars Okla (Willie Nelson). When a Chicago mob outfit recruits Frank for some high-end heists, the thief finds his entire way of life in jeopardy, especially his new marriage with Jessie (Weld). Writer/director Mann’s first theatrical feature, with its neon-lit nightworld pulsating to the music of Tangerine Dream, is one of the most exciting and stylish debuts of the 1980s.

Admission free for all screenings, seating limited. No admission 15 minutes after scheduled start times. Please visit our website for a complete listing of programs and descriptions.

2X: JOHN CARPENTER, BILLY WILDER, MICHAEL MANN, JACKIE CHAN

Our first 2023 calendar offers double doses (presented over two consecutive weeks) of four very different and highly idiosyncratic auteurs. The first two features of celebrated genre director John Carpenter provide a glimpse into Carpenter’s developing style (Dark Star) and a fully-realized embodiment of that style (Assault on Precinct 13). Six-time Academy Award winner Billy Wilder is represented by two wonderful but lesser-known comedies: one from his first decade of filmmaking (A Foreign Affair) and one from his last (Avanti!). Thief and Heat are two highly stylized and critically acclaimed crime films of Chicago-born Michael Mann, and both will be shown on 35mm prints! The amazing martial arts acrobatics of the legendary actor-producer Jackie Chan will be on full display when we screen one entry from each of the popular film series that definitively established his big screen persona: Drunken Master II and Police Story III: Supercop.