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There’s a sentimental heart to Michael Mann’s films, as much as his fans might not like to hear about it. Run a movie like Heat or Thief alongside the finest crime novels of the same bygone era Mann taps as fuel for his ongoing, elegiac meta-saga on heist men, bag men, and hit men. Run them against key works by Westlake, Chandler, Hammett, or Bezzerides—authors whose heroes and antiheroes are all hard, bad edges. In Mann’s world, sentimentality is front and center, the prize beyond the horizon for the Los Angeles cab driver, the storied Depression-era stickup man, or the Miami vice cop. It’s the reason for some of those mournful stares, those knowing half-smiles that punctuate your Miami Vice, your Public Enemies.

At the same time, these stories may also be that of the sentimental dream being crushed, its embers stubbed out by crippling disappointment.

Stars: James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Willie Nelson, James Belushi, Robert Prosky, Tom Signorelli, Dennis Farina, Nick Nickeas, W.R. Brown, Norm Tobin, John Santucci | Written and Directed by Michael Mann

When it comes to Michael Mann the number of movies he’s directed may not be huge, but the impact that they have has been. With the likes of Manhunter, Heat, and The Last of the Mohicans he created memorable movies that have a definite Mann style. Thief, which gets the Arrow Video treatment with this new Blu-ray release, was his first move into major movie making and a fine example of him at his best.

Thief is the story of Frank (James Caan) a professional safecracker who specialises in diamond jobs. Looking for a way out of the business and living his dream of a normal family life he agrees to do a high paying job for big-time gangster Leo...