Rewatchables Reference

• Winner: The diner monologue – Frank's first date with Jesse at the Howard Johnson's (all three pick this).
• Frank goes to the plating company to get his money ($185,000) – first time we see Farina.
• The Okla prison visit scene with Willie Nelson – 'I don't want to die in here, Frank, not in here'.
• The elevator/safe-cracking heist sequence.
• Prosky lays down the law monologue – 'I'll whack out your whole family, people will be eating them for lunch tomorrow in their Wimpy burgers'.
• The ending shootout/revenge sequence.

• The dialogue – Mann insisted actors never speak in contractions; incredibly deep criminal underworld lingo that never dumbs down for the audience.
• Tangerine Dream score – hot off Sorcerer, then Thief, then 'Risky Business'.
• Frank's collage/vision board – Mann essentially invented Pinterest.
• Prosky saying 'Done. You've got a boy' when Frank asks for a child.
• Film debuts of Jim Belushi, William Petersen, Dennis Farina, John Kapelos, and Robert Prosky.
• Tuesday Weld's performance.

• The film was nominated for a Razzie for worst musical score – completely invalidates the Razzies.
• Willie Nelson stunt casting – he was so famous in 1981 that it's distracting seeing him in a prison drama.
• All communications running through your favorite bar.

• Jeff Bridges was Michael Mann's original choice for Frank – rejected by the studio as too young and not experienced enough.
• Gene Hackman was considered – feels too close to roles he'd already played.
• Roy Scheider was considered – Bill would have been all in on this.

• Robert Prosky – was 'that guy' in this film debut, went on to shed that status.
• Dennis Farina – was 'that guy,' went on to become a star.
• Tom Signorelli (Attaglia) – the only one who held 'that guy' status permanently; always the eighth goon in everything.

Winner: James Caan – both the first date with Tuesday Weld ('What the hell do you think that I do? I'm a thief!') and the adoption agency scene.

James Caan – coming off 'The Godfather' era, completely inhabits this role.

Bill suggests Jonathan Banks for the Sergeant role – would have been perfect timing, right before 48 Hours and 'Beverly Hills Cop'.

• Cast hung out with real-life crooks, learned how to actually rob things.
• Mann brought Caan to Gunsite Academy firearms school in Arizona for weapons training.
• All burglary tools were real, not props; actors were trained to use them.
• The Green Mill jazz club used for filming was an Al Capone hangout; they used Capone's booth.
• Tuesday Weld's Wikipedia page is 'lit' – dated Al Pacino, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Omar Sharif, Ryan O'Neal, etc.

• James Caan: No ('The Godfather' is his apex).
• Tuesday Weld: No, even though she's really good.
• Michael Mann: No.
• Robert Prosky death scenes: Yes.
• Joliet prison: Yes – between Blues Brothers and Thief with Willie Nelson.

• The Frank/Jesse relationship is confusing – they edited it to seem like they just met, but the director's commentary reveals they did surgery to compress an 8-month courtship.
• The boat heist proceeds at the end are not obvious enough – Mann has acknowledged this.
• Is the mall deal Prosky offered really that bad? Shopping malls were a rocket ship in the early '80s.

• Bill's answer: 'Fuck you' – but acknowledges interest in a 2021 version with modern technology.
• An 8-episode season about one job.
• What kind of technology does a thief have in 2021? Texts, burner phones instead of bar phone calls.

• What happened to Frank? Mann doesn't have an optimistic view ('Where's he going? Nowhere.') Caan thought a man with Frank's determination would get everything back.
• Frank vs. Neil McCauley: who do you call to get $5.5 million out of a downtown LA bank? All pick Neil – Frank is too combustible.
• James Caan never appeared in another Michael Mann movie – why? The most notoriously difficult actor and most notoriously difficult director made one perfect movie together and called it quits.

• Chris: One of Frank's Oldsmobiles, or Prosky's yellow golf shirt tucked into khakis from the LA rooftop scene.
• Sean: The 2,000-pound thermal lance.
• Bill: The big booth from the Green Mill bar.

• Winner: James Caan (Sean and Chris vote Caan; Bill says Michael Mann; Caan wins the vote 2-1).
• Prosky gets an honorable mention from Chris as one of the great crime movie villains.

• Craig Horlbeck watched the movie for the first time; thought it was a little slow at the beginning but loved it overall.
• His connection was seeing James Caan (Sonny Corleone) get his revenge.