Thieves Like Us
With Keith Carradine, Shelley Duvall, John Schuck.
US, 1974, 35mm, color, 122 min.
Print source: Park Circus
Thieves Like Us is an earth-toned, understated portrait of Depression-era gangsters in Mississippi that, in good Altman fashion, presents no heroes or even Bonnie and Clyde-like antiheroes, but the ordinary dreamers of Edward Anderson’s 1937 novel. Spending time with a band of ex-cons in their unguarded and awkward moments—around the dinner table, self-consciously flirting or telling bad jokes—Altman unfurls psychologically scenic tableaux grounded in an unflappable everydayness. Even the unglamorous coupling of Keith Carradine’s Bowie and Shelley Duvall’s Keechie arises from a genuine, mutual affection rather than out of desperation, violation or dangerous thrill: Keechie remains unimpressed and vaguely disappointed with Bowie’s unconventional profession. Apparently ignorant of Nicholas Ray’s more romantic take in They Live by Night (1948), Altman only wryly folds in elements of drama, performance and show business, as when the gangsters critique the coverage of their hijinks in the papers or when Romeo and Juliet plays on the radio. Meanwhile, he maintains an authentically felt consideration of these weary lives, their tragic foibles and those who do not perish in blazes of glory, but either die unceremoniously or bitterly toil on.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson
Vincent & Theo
Fool for Love
Prêt-à-porter
California Split
Thieves Like Us
A Perfect Couple
A Prairie Home Companion
O.C. and Stiggs
That Cold Day in the Park
Corn's-A-Poppin'
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
The Gingerbread Man
Dr. T and the Women
Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
