About ten years ago, I purchased Thieves Like Us (1974) on DVD to be a completist on director Robert Altman’s career. After sitting in storage in my family garage inside a box of DVDS, it was finally reclaimed and rediscovered. Thieves Like Us isn’t as talked about in film circles, maybe it doesn’t have the same hip appeal as The Long Goodbye or Nashville, or it isn’t as evocative as McCabe and Mrs Miller, which the film is probably closest to in approach and tone. Adapting the Edward Anderson novel (which had already been filmed as They Live By Night in 1948), it’s a trademark Altman deconstruction of a film genre, the depression-era bank robbery picture, and it even runs counter to the counter culture vanguard sex and violence approach of Bonnie And Clyde. Following three cons who break out of a Mississippi prison – Altman regulars Bowie (Keith Carradine), Chicamaw (Tom Schuck from MASH) and T-Dub (Bert Remsen from California Split) – who decide to rob banks in small backwater towns, there is a lack of excitement to the robberies when they happen. Using the ironic contrast of radio plays on the soundtrack, ole timey FBI audio dramas like ‘Gangbusters’, we merely follow the getaway car waiting outside for the thieves. It’s downbeat realism with moments of observation and humour, which eventually sparks to greater life with the slow, sweet romance that develops between Carradine and Shelly Duvall as Keechie, the daughter of a mechanic (Tom Skerritt) that they hide out with. Their romance and chemistry makes for an endearing, singular coupling, which provides the heart of the movie, even though as with most 1970s American cinema, this is set for a downer trajectory (i.e. you can’t win in America, etc). Co-scripted by Altman, Joan Tewkesbury and Calder Willingham, and shot on location in Mississippi, this was an involving drama with great performances, particularly from Carradine and Duvall. Recommended.
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