Thieves Like Us
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Synopsis
A group of criminals daringly escape from prison in depression-era Mississippi. They survive by robbing banks and hole up with a gas station attendant where injured Bowie (Keith Carradine, Nashville) falls in love with the attendant’s daughter Keechie (Shelley Duvall, 3 Women). Made within one of the great runs of back-to-back classics by any filmmaker, Robert Altman followed multi-award-winning classics like M*A*S*H and The Long Goodbye with Thieves Like Us, an adaptation of Edward Anderson’s pulp novel. Previously adapted by Nicholas Ray as They Live by Night, Altman's film takes a more faithful approach to the source material, preserving the original tone and period of the novel, going back to historical and American myth themes that Altman mined so brilliantly in his earlier McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Critically praised, noted critic Pauline Kael described it as “the closest to flawless of Altman's films – a masterpiece.”
Picture 7/10
Radiance presents Robert Altman’s Thieves Like Us on Blu-ray in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on a dual-layer disc with a 1080p/24hz encode. The disc is locked to Region B, and North American viewers will require players that can playback Region B content. I did do QC work for this release.
I currently don’t have any information about the source of the presentation, but it is easy to see that Radiance has been given a very old master (almost certainly the same high-def one used for MGM’s DVD) that was more than likely taken from a scan of the 35mm interpositive. At the very least, the picture remains “consistent,” delivering a picture with a good—if unimpressive—level of detail, adequate range and shadow delineation, and a general film-like consistency. Clips from the film used throughout the features show more damage than what is present here, showing that Radiance has done further corrective work. Some minor marks still appear (a little heavier during the opening credits), but otherwise, it’s pretty clean in this area.
Film grain is rendered adequately enough, though it’s clear the base master is problematic, so it can still have a bit of a clumpy appearance and never looks entirely natural. The image has been encoded well, so it doesn’t exasperate any issues, and the grain rarely looks blocky or buzzy. Honestly, I was impressed with what they could pull off here.
All said, Radiance has done what they could with a less-than-optimal base master, and it still manages to come out looking quite good in the end.
Audio 7/10
The film’s audio soundtrack is presented in lossless PCM mono. It’s not the most dynamic monaural track I’ve ever come across, but it holds its own. The voices feature solid range and fidelity, and I thought the music throughout the film sounded great. Gunshots that appear have a nice pop, as does a car crash midway through the film. It’s a better-than-average mono presentation.
Extras 9/10
Radiance throws together an impressive special edition for the film after both MGM/Fox and Kino (in North America) provided the film with simple DVD and Blu-ray editions. Robert Altman’s audio commentary, initially recorded for MGM’s 2007 DVD edition, has been ported over. Though it does feature its fair share of dead space, I found it to be one of Altman’s better solo tracks. A lot of that comes down to him explaining recreating the era (similar to his track for Kansas City) and pointing out the details he added (newspaper being applied to walls) or contextualizing specific aspects that may seem odd to a first-time viewer (Coca-Cola being a constant throughout the film, for starters). But he also brings up the novel and Nicolas Ray’s original adaptation of it, They Live By Night (Altman claiming he never saw it), and also talks about the radio programs that pop up throughout, amazingly able to recall his reasoning for those decisions and every other little one, including scenes he cut. It’s a solid track and well worth listening to if one hasn’t had the opportunity to do so yet.
[Correction: The audio commentary was, in fact, recorded in 1998 for the MGM LaserDisc edition, not 2007.]
Radiance then adds on a couple of new interviews, including an 18-minute one with writer Joan Tewkesbury, who recalls first meeting Altman and how she came to be brought on to adapt Thieves Like Us (after apparently doing a poor job of being a script girl). Like Altman, she also mentions she never saw Ray’s film but did eventually, and she compares the two here.
There’s also a fantastic new interview with actor Keith Carradine, who gleefully sits for 35 minutes to talk about the film, his early career, and first getting bit by the acting bug. Like Altman, he can recall an impressive level of detail (even specific names of individuals) as he covers what drove him to act and how he would meet Altman for the first time, leading to his casting in McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Thieves would be his big one, though, his first starring vehicle, and he describes how it made him feel (“over the moon” is what I believe he says). The film ultimately wasn’t one of Altman’s successes, but his pride for it comes through as he shares stories about it, the areas where they filmed (which were chosen because they hadn’t changed since the era), and his co-stars. And like Altman, he also expresses his displeasure in what he felt was improper marketing for the film since the people it was trying to attract would never like the type of film it was. It’s an incredibly insightful and energetic conversation, one of the better actor interviews I’ve seen lately.
Geoff Andrew then sits to offer an in-depth and engaging appreciation of the film, which he feels is severely underrated in Altman’s filmography, and possibly one of his “warmest” when it comes to the characters. He likens it to other films of the period, like Bonnie and Clyde (which Altman had no desire to imitate), and brings up Ray’s earlier adaptation. He compares the direction the two films went while also pointing out how Altman, not being restricted by the Hayes Code as Ray would have been, had more freedom with the material. His discussion then expands out to the look of the film, Altman having to use Jean Boffety instead of Vilmos Zsigmond due to budget restrictions, before getting into the film’s recreation of the period. It’s a nicely edited piece, and Andrew does a superb job highlighting the film’s strengths.
The remaining features are all archival, which includes the film’s trailer (from a standard-definition source) and a small gallery featuring posters and photos. In a nice touch, Radiance also includes two complete episodes from radio programs that appear in part in the film, including an episode of The Shadow (featuring Orson Welles and running 29 minutes) and one of Speed Gibson of the International Secret Police (12 minutes). Both play over stills from the film that feature close-ups of radios. The episode of The Shadow features a complete storyline, while Speed Gibson’s episode sounds to be just a tiny part of a larger serialized storyline. Nothing much happens before ending on a cliffhanger that involves its heroes going on the next leg of their journey to come face-to-face with super villain “The Octopus.”
Radiance will also include a booklet, though I still need to get a copy as of now. I will update you once I see it.
Still, even without the ability to reference the booklet, Radiance has assembled a superb set of features that may end up aiding in improving one’s appreciation for the film.
Closing
Radiance has done what they can with a very dated master, delivering a solid-looking presentation in the end. But the features are the best yet assembled for the film, pushing one of Altman’s more overlooked films to the forefront.
Radiance's new Blu-ray help push one of Robert Altman's more overlooked films up to the forefront
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