The Thomas Crown Affair

The Thomas Crowne Affair is a joy. It's a smooth, smart crime thriller and romance. Norman Jewison does a great job by having Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway underplaying and by having a script that's very light on dialogue. Those two choices allow the focus to be on close-ups, facial movements, and silence, which communicate beautifully the mystery, the enigma, at the heart of Thomas Crowne and also allow Faye Dunaway to evolve her character credibly, to fall in love, all the while doing her job and being increasingly, and deeply, conflicted. Dunaway and McQueen are a great couple. Jewison also did a great job of using, and not over-using, the split screen technique which was new and trendy at the time. That allowed him to communicate lots of the story in very short, silent bursts, and keep a cool 60s vibe at the same time. And the famous music was just right. Great stuff.

The Thomas Crown affair begs the question. What do the rich think of when they are bored? Norman Jewison decided to answer that question with a subtle, but over the top version of cops and robbers. Thomas Crown (suprisingly, but adroitly played by Steve McQueen) is a bored, millionaire who asks, "Who do I want to be tomorrow?" To that end, he decides on 'kicks.' In what seems like an absentminded challenge to himself, Crown designs and implements a down to the minute bank robbery. The plan is fantastic. He selects and hires five total strangers at random, instructs them on their part of the Bank robbery, then sets them in motion. What follows is perhaps the finest cat and mouse crime game between two intelligent and sophisticated players. Faye Dunaway plays Vicki Anderson, a top notch insurance investigator who for ten percent of recovered loot promises the capture of her agile quarry. Standing by to arrest the elusive Crown is Paul Burke, who plays Lt. Edward 'Eddy' Malone. Jack Weston portrays Erwin Weaver the get-a-way driver who could jeopardize Crowns Perfect crime. With the famous, "Windmills of your Mind" theme song, the viewer is hauntingly allowed into the mind of a sympathetic man and one cannot help but root for the thief. This film was McQueen's favorite. *****

This is a very stylish and cerebral film that's meant to stimulate your mind rather than your senses: it isn't fast-paced, there are no explosions or big "special effects", and it doesn't have a formulaic happy ending. But it will keep you guessing (and thinking)... that's what makes it so good.

The large number of reviews tossing this in the trash bin as an overwrought 1960s period piece, or inferior when compared to the Pierce Brosnan/Rene Russo remake caused me to find the DVD and take another look.

The problem with the 1967 film is that, unlike most films made today (including the remake), viewers need to think and connect the dots; and, there isn't always a "right" ending with all details neat and tidy. This is still a classic of the caper films, with McQueen giving the definitive performance of his absolute-cool image, and Dunaway as the Joan Crawford of the Virginia Slims generation.

The then-innovative parts of the film, including the multiple split screens and the repetition of the theme song with Noel Harrison look dated (and the split-screen is only effective on the big, big screens of the 1960s-era theaters), but the chess game is still the most-seductive bit of film where all the clothes stay on and nobody talks.

Listening to director Norman Jewison's commentary on the DVD is enlightening. The split screens were indeed a timely gimmick (Jewison and the producer saw the technique at Expo '67 in Montreal), and his explanation of the last scene in the cemetery gives a good insight as to how he aimed the film in general.

Not what I expected. I expected a movie centered around Steve McQueen pulling off a heist. But actually it's a movie where the (brief) heist occurs early and the rest of the movie is about an insurance investigator played by Faye Dunaway trying to snare McQueen. The leaps of logic that allow Dunaway to get on McQueen's trail strain credulity even more than the implausible heist. The plot leaks like a sieve but the flashy direction and charismatic performances by the leads keeps you interested. McQueen and Dunaway definitely had chemistry. Hard to believe that terrible theme song won an Oscar. It's a good film so give it a shot, especially if you're a fan of "the king of cool" Steve McQueen.