It's No Surprise That James Caan's Favorite Role Came in This Epic Michael Mann Neo-Noir Heist - And You Can Watch It for Free

The legendary career of James Caan has been full of surprise twists and turns. He made grown men cry with his heartbreaking performance as Brian Piccolo in Brian’s Song. Then his iconic role as the hot-headed Sonny Corleone in The Godfather elevated his status as a cinematic tough guy with box office clout. Of all the films he ever made, however, Caan’s role as a determined career criminal in 1981’s Thief was his most complex as it combined his macho persona with street-level sensitivity.

Before director Michael Mann changed the cop show formula with Miami Vice and made one of the best crime-thrillers of the ‘90s with Heat, he cast Caan in the moody crime drama about a professional safecracker looking to make his biggest score ever. The film features the earliest traits of Mann’s cinematic flair for dim-lit scenes and early MTV-style visuals. But it is Caan’s mesmerizing performance that translates to something much bigger than the simplistic title.

What Is Michael Mann's 'Thief' About?

As a career jewel thief in Chicago, Caan’s role as Frank lives a very compartmentalized lifestyle. He spends his days running a bar and a car dealership while safecracking at night with his loyal partner Barry (James Belushi). He desires a greater vision of his future by carrying around a vision board collage he made in prison, which includes his need for a family. This is a dream that he is driven to fulfill when he engages in a relationship with Jessie (Tuesday Weld).

A confrontation with a loan shark over skimming his money puts Frank in the sights of Chicago mob boss Leo (Robert Prosky). Impressed with Frank’s safecracking skills, Leo offers him a major score in Los Angeles as his one way to retirement, as well as assisting in the adoption of a baby for him and Jesse to raise. Soon, all of Frank’s dreams are shattered by the realities of his loyalty to Leo, setting in motion events full of chaos and self-destruction.

Michael Mann's 'Thief' Is Inspired by a Real Safecracker's Story

Frank is far from the charismatic roles Caan played in The Godfather and Rollerball. He’s more in line with Caan’s Axel Freed from The Gambler, but with far more self-control. (Thief is loosely based on the book, The Home Invaders: Confessions of a Cat Burglar.) Rather than overplay the part like a typical gangster, Caan adapted to Mann’s careful attention to authentic details that make him compelling in the safecracking sequences. He finds the perfect balance between his methodical approach to conflict, specifically with Leo, and his explosive intensity reminiscent of Sonny Corleone whenever he’s figuratively up against a wall.

Much of Frank’s life structure stems from his troubled upbringing without it. Despite learning the trade of his masterful skills from his wise mentor, Okla (Willie Nelson), Frank always fought for freedom away from a legal system that hindered his life dreams. He functions as the ringleader of his operations while showing restraint to powerful authority figures like Leo, who want to enslave him for greater opportunities.

'Thief' Was the Template for Michael Mann's Future Anti-heroes

While Thief’s narrative contains a subtle redemption arc, its criminal anti-hero in Caan’s Frank has a "live by fire, die by fire" ending. For all his dreams of family and freedom, the life of an illegal safecracker has no good outcome. Frank’s investment in working with Leo certainly helps him achieve his personal goals for a child and a new home, but when he finds out that Leo is withholding his final score money in exchange for more jobs, Frank tries to end business until he realizes just how many tentacles Leo has in his life.

Thief’s final act is not the typical hero fighting to save what he loves. To find true freedom once and for all, Frank has to cut ties with everything he loves and hates. The vision he seeks for himself will never be attainable through his lifestyle choices. So he ends his marriage, destroys everything he owns with explosives, and takes Leo down for good. As tragic as the final shot of an exhausted Frank walking into a dark street appears, the powerful score by Tangerine Dream underlines his discovery of independence regardless of what comes around the corner next.

As Mann’s first theatrical film, Thief served as the template for Robert De Niro and Johnny Depp's characters in later classics such as Heat and Public Enemies, where the criminal is not only human but also justifies his lifestyle through a moral code. Frank would be the character that Caan considered his favorite of all the roles he played throughout his career, due partly to Mann’s gritty direction. It was Caan’s finest moment to play a character with a heart inside a cold exterior.

Thief is available to watch on Tubi in the U.S.

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