This adaptation of Edward Anderson's 1937 novel of the same name, focuses on the exploits of a gang of Depression-era bank robbers and a doomed love affair. The characters involved and the ways in which they relate to each other are fully explored and their rural Mississippi environment is recreated in a way that's both very authentic-looking and aesthetically pleasing. Their story is told in a style that's realistic, unglamorous and non-judgemental but also significantly, with the accompanying sound of a whole series of radio broadcasts that are deeply evocative, often pertinent to what's taking place on-screen and sometimes amusingly ironic.
Three convicts serving long-term sentences escape from Mississippi state prison and hide out at a filling station run by Dee Mobley (Tom Skerritt). Gang-leader T-Dub (Bert Remsen), short-tempered Chicamaw (John Schuck) and youngest member, Bowie (Keith Carradine) soon get back to their criminal ways when they embark on a series of bank robberies with the aim of stealing enough cash to be able to live comfortably for the rest of their lives. T-Dub, as the most experienced gang member, masterminds the robberies which are mostly carried out without any problems.
The gang have a great deal of downtime between robberies and Bowie, who hails from the Ozarks and was serving a life sentence for murder, is strongly attracted to Mobley's young daughter, Keechie (Shelley Duvall) who also works at the filling station. The couple grow closer after Bowie is involved in a car accident and Keechie nurses him back to health. Although the couple fall deeply in love, there's also a constant tension because Bowie remains fiercely loyal to his fellow gang members and both he and Keechie are constantly aware of the danger that he's in as the authorities get ever closer to bringing a permanent end to his freedom.
Nicholas Ray's "They Live By Night" (1948) was also based on Edward Anderson's novel and interestingly there are some differences in the ways that the characters are portrayed in the two productions. In Ray's movie, Bowie had been unjustly found guilty of murder and after his escape from prison had misguidedly got involved in bank robbery as a means of getting sufficient money together to pay for the legal help he needed to prove his innocence of that charge. In "Thieves Like Us" however, the same character is depicted as a simple-minded person who has no regrets about what he did and has a propensity to keep allowing himself to be led by the wrong people. Similarly, the other gang members are portrayed as being equally simple individuals whose criminal activities (unlike in Ray's film) are not in any way related to the impact of the Great Depression.
The quality of the acting in this movie is consistently top class with Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall brilliantly displaying Bowie and Keechie's awkwardness and lack of polish and Bert Remsen excelling as the ever-optimistic and good humoured T-Dub whose enthusiasm for his work is infectious. John Schuck also makes the volatile Chicamaw memorable by the sheer power of his performance, especially when his character starts to drink heavily and gets progressively more violent but also when his frustration drives him into self-destructive behaviour (e.g. during his second escape from Mississippi state prison).
Unusually, in this movie, some of the incidents which could have produced a great deal of excitement, suspense or drama (e.g. all but one of the bank robberies and the fates of key characters) are not shown on-screen. "Thieves Like Us" is unquestionably a very accomplished movie that's better appreciated now than it was at the time of its initial release but the decisions to make the characters less sympathetic than they were in Nicholas Ray's movie and to eschew the old "show, don't tell" adage were probably responsible (at least in some part) for its poor box office returns.
Three convicts serving long-term sentences escape from Mississippi state prison and hide out at a filling station run by Dee Mobley (Tom Skerritt). Gang-leader T-Dub (Bert Remsen), short-tempered Chicamaw (John Schuck) and youngest member, Bowie (Keith Carradine) soon get back to their criminal ways when they embark on a series of bank robberies with the aim of stealing enough cash to be able to live comfortably for the rest of their lives. T-Dub, as the most experienced gang member, masterminds the robberies which are mostly carried out without any problems.
The gang have a great deal of downtime between robberies and Bowie, who hails from the Ozarks and was serving a life sentence for murder, is strongly attracted to Mobley's young daughter, Keechie (Shelley Duvall) who also works at the filling station. The couple grow closer after Bowie is involved in a car accident and Keechie nurses him back to health. Although the couple fall deeply in love, there's also a constant tension because Bowie remains fiercely loyal to his fellow gang members and both he and Keechie are constantly aware of the danger that he's in as the authorities get ever closer to bringing a permanent end to his freedom.
Nicholas Ray's "They Live By Night" (1948) was also based on Edward Anderson's novel and interestingly there are some differences in the ways that the characters are portrayed in the two productions. In Ray's movie, Bowie had been unjustly found guilty of murder and after his escape from prison had misguidedly got involved in bank robbery as a means of getting sufficient money together to pay for the legal help he needed to prove his innocence of that charge. In "Thieves Like Us" however, the same character is depicted as a simple-minded person who has no regrets about what he did and has a propensity to keep allowing himself to be led by the wrong people. Similarly, the other gang members are portrayed as being equally simple individuals whose criminal activities (unlike in Ray's film) are not in any way related to the impact of the Great Depression.
The quality of the acting in this movie is consistently top class with Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall brilliantly displaying Bowie and Keechie's awkwardness and lack of polish and Bert Remsen excelling as the ever-optimistic and good humoured T-Dub whose enthusiasm for his work is infectious. John Schuck also makes the volatile Chicamaw memorable by the sheer power of his performance, especially when his character starts to drink heavily and gets progressively more violent but also when his frustration drives him into self-destructive behaviour (e.g. during his second escape from Mississippi state prison).
Unusually, in this movie, some of the incidents which could have produced a great deal of excitement, suspense or drama (e.g. all but one of the bank robberies and the fates of key characters) are not shown on-screen. "Thieves Like Us" is unquestionably a very accomplished movie that's better appreciated now than it was at the time of its initial release but the decisions to make the characters less sympathetic than they were in Nicholas Ray's movie and to eschew the old "show, don't tell" adage were probably responsible (at least in some part) for its poor box office returns.