Thieves Like Us (4K UHD Review)
- Review Date: Sep 04, 2024
- Format: 4K Ultra HD
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Director
Robert AltmanRelease Date(s)
1974 (August 27, 2024)Studio(s)
United Artists/MGM (Cinématographe/Vinegar Syndrome)- Film/Program Grade: A-
- Video Grade: B+
- Audio Grade: B
- Extras Grade: B+
Review
Robert Altman was a filmmaker who stubbornly followed his own muse wherever it might take him, and he didn’t give a tinker’s damn what anyone else thought about that. He pursued the projects that he wanted to pursue, and while there’s no doubt that he was happy when audiences came along for the ride, that was never his primary concern (or even his secondary or tertiary concerns, for that matter). After the smash success of his landmark war comedy M*A*S*H, he felt no desire to rest on his laurels. Instead, he immediately turned around and made the offbeat Brewster McCloud, a film that was pretty much guaranteed to repel most of the audiences that had flocked to see M*A*S*H. Then, he gleefully deconstructed the western genre with McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and followed that up with the psychological thriller Quintet, a film that baffled critics and audiences alike. From there, he ended up deconstructing film noir and private detective fiction with The Long Goodbye, before finally making another detour to deconstruct Hollywood crime dramas with Thieves Like Us in 1974.
Of course, Arthur Penn had already started that process seven years earlier with Bonnie and Clyde, but Penn’s film formed something of a bridge between old Hollywood and new Hollywood, glamorizing and deglamorizing his antiheroes in roughly equal measure. While Thieves Like Us is based on the 1937 novel by Edward Anderson, which had already been adapted once before by Nicholas Ray as They Live By Night in 1948, Altman pretty much burned any bridges between that romanticized version of the story and his own decidedly deglamorized take on the material. The criminal world as presented on screen during Hollywood’s golden age was a construct that had been designed to satisfy the Production Code Administration and audiences alike. Altman didn’t have to deal with the former, and he wasn’t particularly concerned about latter, so he deconstructed that world through relatively simple means: by returning to Anderson’s book as his primary source.
Calder Willingham had already written the first draft for an adaptation, and Altman took his own pass at it, but Thieves Like Us didn’t come to life until he brought in Joan Tewkesbury to write the actual shooting script. At the time, Altman and Tewkesbury said that they weren’t familiar with the Nicholas Ray version of the story, and Tewkesbury also admitted that she never even read Willingham’s draft before diving in to write her own. None of that really mattered, because their primary goal was to be as faithful as possible to Anderson’s book—at least in terms of the narrative structure, characters, and period details, anyway. While the novel was set in Oklahoma, fate intervened for the low-budget production when the decision was made to shoot the film in Mississippi for tax credit purposes. As a result, they ended up rewriting the script on the fly based on what they discovered in the Mississippi locations, many of which were Depression-era throwbacks that didn’t need much alteration in order to evoke that bygone era. Altman always felt that any story didn’t really take shape until he had found a sense of place, and rural Mississippi provided just that.
While it’s never directly referenced in the film, Anderson opened his novel with a dedication that included a quotation from the King James version of Proverbs 6:30, 31: “Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry; but if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.” That’s the reason for the title Thieves Like Us—it’s a reference to the notion that desperate people during the depression were stealing because they had to do so in order to survive, and that banks were justifiable targets because they were already taking advantage of needy people. In other words, it’s about thieves stealing from thieves. Yet a dark fate still awaits those who end up going down that path, as the second half of the verse indicates. Altman and Tewkesbury chose not to spell any of that out in their adaptation, letting the story and the characters speak for themselves. Yet Anderson’s themes are still crystal clear in Thieves Like Us, all the way to the bitter end.
Bowie (Keith Carradine), Chicamaw (John Shuck), and T-Dub (Bert Remsen) are three bank robbers who reunite after Bowie and Chicamaw escape from prison. Since they need to lay low at first, they hide out at a gas station owned by their friend Dee Mobley (Tom Skerritt). Bowie becomes interested in Mobley’s daughter Keechie (Shelly Duvall), but the trio ends up having to move on and stay with T-Dub’s sister-in-law Mattie (Louise Fletcher). Bowie can’t get Keechie out of his head, and the two of them eventually become lovers. Yet he still feels loyalty to his partners in crime, leading to conflict with Keechie and a bleak ending for everyone involved. Thieves Like Us also stars Ann Latham and Al Scott (watch for Tewkesbury in a cameo as a woman at a train station during the coda).
Thieves Like Us trades in the romanticism of the golden age of Hollywood for authenticity instead. The Mississippi locations all look like they arrived out of a time capsule that was transported directly from Depression era America, and the art department didn’t have to add much set dressing in order to fully evoke that age. Even the costumes were purchased at local second-hand shops. Everything looks dirty, broken-down, and lived in—including the perpetual haze in front of the camera lens. There’s no score, just a variety of period radio broadcasts that are heard throughout the film. Altman populated this evocation of the past with characters who are all hicks and rubes, and yet they never cross the line into self-parody (in that respect, Thieves Like Us is no O Brother, Where Art Thou?) These are simple people, but they always feel authentic. In fact, that ends up being Bowie’s fatal flaw: he lacks the self-awareness to grasp how his choices will eventually lead to him having to give all the substance of his house while restoring what he’s stolen.
Altman and Tewkesbury did make one major alteration to Anderson’s novel by allowing Keechie to survive the downward spiral that traps the other characters. That was partly to avoid looking like they were aping the finale of Bonnie and Clyde, with the lovers dying together in a hail of bullets. Yet the story arguably works better this way, with Keechie living on to become another version of Mattie. According to Altman, it’s the Matties of the world who are the real survivors. Keechie has allowed herself to be pulled first one way and then the other by Bowie, but she gains strength in the process. She does rationalize everything by inventing her own slightly less dramatic version of the tragic events that led her to this point, but that’s just part of her survival mechanism. She needs to publicly distance herself from Bowie’s gang in order to move on with her life. In doing so, she finally achieves the self-awareness that Bowie lacked. The world is a hard place, but true survivors understand that what doesn’t’ kill them makes them stronger.
Cinematographer Jean Boffety shot Thieves Like Us on 35mm film using spherical lenses, framed at 1.85:1 for its theatrical release. This version is based on a 4K scan of the original camera negative, with a new High Dynamic Range grade provided in HDR10 only. While any Robert Altman film is welcome in 4K, it’s important to manage expectations where any of his films from the Seventies are concerned. Altman loved diffusion, and he even had Vilmos Zsigmond flash the negative on The Long Goodbye. While Boffety doesn’t appear to have done the same thing with Thieves Like Us, the diffusion is omnipresent, both on the lens and in front of it as well. Boffety shot the film through fog, smoke, screen doors, and yes, diffusion filters as well, so even a scan from the OCN won’t appear sharp and clear as the best that the format can offer.
With that out of the way, this version of Thieves Like Us does look cleaner than any previous release, with little of the speckling and other damage that was present on the master that Kino Lorber used for their 2014 Blu-ray. (I don’t have the 2023 Radiance Films Blu-ray, but it appears to have used the same master, albeit with some additional tweaking.) Dupe footage for the optical work like the opening credits and dissolves still have baked-in blemishes and even some scratches, all of which has been left alone here, yet everything that was sourced from the OCN is nearly spotless. The grain always looks smooth and natural. It may not be true 4K levels of fine detail, but Thieves Like Us in 4K looks better than it ever has before on home video.
As sometimes happens with Vinegar Syndrome titles, the flesh tones vary quite a bit, sometimes natural, and sometimes pushing a bit too red and oversaturated. Normally, that’s a characteristic of their HDR grades, but in this case, the Blu-ray does the same thing. The effect is exaggerated slightly in HDR, but it’s still a common feature between the two. In comparison, the Kino Lorber Blu-ray has far more even flesh tones—although that’s not to say that Kino’s flesh tones look more natural, because they don’t. Both the HDR grades and the SDR grades here look better, even though they may be less consistent as far as the faces are concerned. It’s still an upgrade.
Audio is offered in English 2.0 mono DTS-HD Master Audio, with optional English SDH subtitles. The sound is clean and clear, with little noise or distortion to mar the experience. Altman loved diffusion with his dialogue as well, but Thieves Like Us is far more straightforward than some of his other films from the period, with less of the multitrack overlapping dialogue. With Robert Altman, incomprehensible dialogue is sometimes a feature, not a bug, but that’s not the case with this particular film.
Vinegar Syndrome’s 4K Ultra HD release of Thieves Like Us is a two-disc set that includes a Blu-ray with a 1080p copy of the film. It’s part of their Cinématographe sub-label, and it’s currently available in a Limited Edition of 6,000 copies. The disc itself is contained in a simple but striking clothbound Mediabook with essays by Mitchell Beaupre, Carlos Valladares, and Marya E. Gates. The Mediabook is housed in a J-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Tony Stella, with a handy ribbon to help remove the book. The whole package was designed by Haunt Love. The following extras are included:
DISC ONE: UHD
- Audio Commentary with Robert Altman
- Audio Commentary with Nathaniel Thompson
DISC TWO: BD
- Audio Commentary with Robert Altman
- Audio Commentary with Nathaniel Thompson
- Interview with Keith Carradine (HD – 34:40)
- Interview with Joan Tewkesbury (HD – 15:18)
- Theatrical Trailer (Upscaled SD – 2:01)
The commentary with Robert Altman was originally included on the 1998 MGM/UA LaserDisc release of Thieves Like Us—although it was probably recorded the prior year, since Altman notes at the beginning that he made the film 23 years ago. (He also brings up the fact that he had just shot The Gingerbread Man). He admits that he loves diffusion, and points out the various way that Boffety achieved that effect in Thieves Like Us. He also provides plenty of other practical details, like process of adapting the book; the choice of vintage radio programs instead of a score; and shooting on practical locations, sometimes quite literally—since it was such a low-budget production, he filmed the shootout at the end with live ammunition, and just let the extras shoot the hell out of the building. Like most Altman commentaries, this one can be a little sparse at times, but it’s still a priceless collection of his memories about the production.
Author and film historian Nathaniel Thompson is also on hand to provide a new commentary for Thieves Like Us. He mentions Altman’s LaserDisc commentary and suggests listening to it was well for the technical information, but says that he’s going to try to avoid providing overlapping information—and he largely succeeds in that regard. He opens by comparing the different adaptations of the Edward Anderson book, noting Altman’s proclivity for revisionist storytelling. He traces the complicated history of the production, its battles with the MPAA ratings board, and its competition at the box office in 1974. He also provides biographical information about Altman and other members of the cast and crew, as well as some thoughts about the themes of the film. Thompson clearly did his research before sitting down to record this commentary, and he took detailed notes, so there are no gaps in the action here.
Aside from the Theatrical Trailer—which is a genuinely clueless effort from the marketing department at United Artists—the rest of the extras consist of two different interviews. The first one was conducted for the 2023 Region B Blu-ray from Radiance Films in the U.K. Keith Carradine talks about why he ended up becoming an actor despite the fact that he was intimidated by having such a successful father, and how his first audition with Robert Altman for McCabe & Mrs. Miller was an unusual experience. He also describes his experiences making Thieves Like Us, including working with Altman and the other actors. He tends to build his characters in his own way, so he was never quite comfortable with Altman’s freewheeling methodology and improvisatory nature—Carradine prefers clearly written dialogue instead. (While he doesn’t mention the trailer, he does complain about the deceptive way that United Artists marketed the film.)
While Joan Tewkesbury was also interviewed for the Radiance disc, her interview here is a new one. She explains how she and Altman originally came to work together, and the immediate synchronicity that she felt with him. When writing Thieves Like Us, everything that she needed was already in the book, and since she had served as continuity supervisor on McCabe & Mrs. Miller, she was already familiar with the individual voices of all the lead cast members. (There are just a few moments that she added for the film.) She describes herself as a vacuum cleaner; she isn’t a great storyteller, but she’s great at hoovering up bits and pieces and assembling them into a new whole. That’s a bit of an understatement, to say the least.
There are a few other extras from the Radiance disc that haven’t been carried forward here, including their own interview with Tewkesbury, an interview with critic Geoff Andrew, and two full radio programs that make partial appearances in Thieves Like Us: one episode from The Shadow, and another from Speed Gibson of the International Secret Police. Radiance also offered their own unique artwork and booklet. The only other noteworthy extra available elsewhere is an interview with critic Olivier Père that was on the 2022 Region B Blu-ray from L’atelier d’images in France.
While there’s no getting around the fact that Thieves Like Us doesn’t benefit greatly from the upgrade to 4K, Vinegar Syndrome’s new master is a clear improvement over the older ones, and it’s hard to say no to any Robert Altman in 4K. It’s a worthy set for the extras alone, never mind the improved transfer of the film itself. It’s not quite accurate to say that Thieves Like Us is underrated, but it’s an important part of Robert Altman’s filmography that’s easy to overlook these days. In that respect, it’s perfect material for Vinegar Syndrome’s Cinématographe label, and they’ve done their usual excellent work with it.
- Stephen Bjork
(You can follow Stephen on social media at these links: Twitter, Facebook, and Letterboxd).