Michael Mann’s Thief received mixed reviews and only modest box-office success when it opened in 1981, but it has since become acknowledged as a classic. This is nothing new for Mann, some of whose films have taken years, even decades, to find their audience. But the cosmic influence of Thief — which came out on 4K from the Criterion Collection earlier this month, and is among a collection of Mann films streaming on the Criterion Channel right now — was felt not long after its release. With its waves of electronica, its foregrounding of style, its pendulum swings between romanticism and alienation, the movie turned out to be one of the harbingers of what many deemed the MTV aesthetic.
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