Development Mann made
James Caan do research as a thief for his role, and said: I always find it interesting, people who are aware, alert, conscious of what they do and are pretty good at it... People who want to put in 50-60 hours a week and go home and are not really conscious of life moving by, don't really interest me very much... As part of the curriculum designed for an actor getting into character, I try to imagine what's going to really help bring this actor more fully into character. And so I try to imagine what experiences are going to make more dimensional his intake of Frank, so that he is Frank spontaneously when I'm shooting. So one of the most obvious things is it'd be pretty good if [James Caan] was as good at doing what Frank does as is Frank.
Casting Thief marks the first film appearance of actors
Dennis Farina,
William Petersen,
James Belushi and
Robert Prosky. At the time a Chicago police officer, Farina appears as a mob henchman. Conversely, John Santucci (real name: John Schiavone), who plays the role of corrupt cop Urizzi, was a recently paroled thief on whom the character Frank was partly based, and acted as a technical adviser on the film. Another actor in the film, W.R. 'Bill' Brown, was also a former safecracker and associate of
Joseph Scalise. were also Chicago police officers, while
Gavin MacFadyen, who plays Detective Boresko, was a journalist who later served as adviser to Mann's 1999 film
The Insider. In 1986, Farina and Santucci both were cast in Mann and Adamson's TV series
Crime Story, Farina as a Chicago police lieutenant and Santucci as a jewel thief. Petersen, who later would star (along with Farina) in the Mann film
Manhunter, appears briefly as a barman at a club. The influential Chicago
improv teacher
Del Close has a brief appearance as a mechanic, in a scene that was improvised with the other mechanic actors.
Filming park in Chicago, one of the filming locations used in
Thief.
Thief was filmed on-location in Chicago and Los Angeles.
Jerry Bruckheimer and Ronnie Caan served as the film's producers. Being Michael Mann's feature film
directorial debut,
Thief showcases many of the cinematic techniques that would later become his trademarks. Chief among these is the
cinematography (by
Donald E. Thorin), using light and shadow to give the proceedings, especially those taking place in the darkness of night, a sense of danger. The film also earns plaudits for its meticulous attention to detail: the tools and techniques of the trade, right down to the oxy lance used to penetrate a
safe, are authentic, the result of Mann's decision to hire real-life thieves to serve as technical advisers. The still of Frank holding a gun on Attaglia as he attempts to recover his money in an early scene was used for one of the movie's posters. Near the end of the film, Frank destroys his house. The film company built a false front onto a real house and attempted to destroy it with explosives. The explosions severely damaged the real house, however, leading to its demolition. James Caan's emotional several-minute monolog with Weld in a
coffee shop is often cited as the film's high point, and Caan has long considered the scene his favorite of his career. The actor liked the movie although he found the part challenging to play. "I like to be emotionally available but this guy is available to nothing."
Music Mann has gained a reputation as a director who uses cutting-edge music for his films.
Thiefs moody soundscapes were composed and performed by
Tangerine Dream. The soundtrack was the second of many notable film scores composed by the group throughout the 1980s. The film was nominated for a
Razzie Award for Worst Musical Score, but that didn't deter Mann from choosing them a second time to compose the music for his next feature film, the ill-fated 1983
World War II fantasy horror
The Keep. He originally intended to score the film with Chicago blues music, but ultimately felt that this choice might hamper the film's resonance with a wider audience. Mann said in a 2014 interview: "I felt that to be so regionally specific in the music choice would make Frank's experience specific only to Frank. So I wanted the kind of transparency, if you like, the formality of electronic music, and hence Tangerine Dream." He utilizes jazz/blues in one scene when Frank races to meet Jessie after the offer from Leo, transitioning from the meetup, all the way to the jazz club. Additional music cues were composed by
Craig Safan. == Release ==