Michael Mann's directorial debut tells the story of a highly skilled safe-cracker (James Caan), doing very well as a freelancer, who falls for the temptation of glamorous scores offered by a better-connected wise guy. Caan's scuzzy bandit hawks used cars by day and slings boosted diamonds at night, a well-read but not exactly well-learned con man with a chip on his shoulder and a jumbo-sized inferiority complex. He developed his life's master plan while in prison, a grand ideal that's visualized by the oft-referenced photo collage he keeps folded in his wallet, but has overlooked the nuances of building his way up to that big payoff. As such, he's dead-set on skipping the formalities of courtship and leaping straight to material riches, familial spoils and industrial acclaim without taking the time to earn any of it. He gets pretty far by way of brazen fearlessness, unmatched technical know-how and raw willpower - right to the verge - but then the devil comes seeking his due and everything catches fire.

_Thief_ is a moody, wet-pavement type of film that's caught right in the middle of Hollywood's transition from slower, moodier '70s crime flicks to the more bombastic, narcissistic rewards of the coming decade. _Scarface_ probably borrowed a lot from this one, with its twisted sense of misplaced confidence, insatiable appetite and steep emotional distance.

Its dogged attention to detail is amazing - Mann insisted the actors learn the intricacies of the job, so when we're watching James Caan drill a safe, we're actually watching him do the dirty work - but that deliberate pace is less engaging during the long pauses and awkward hiccups of its human interactions. And the ending is more of a brick wall than a legitimate climax, a sudden rush of violent events that sees us to the credits but doesn't leave us completely satisfied. Right from the start, Mann shows he’s in full command of his medium, but he still has some room to grow.