jack_mine Publish time 12-3-2021 00:06:10

Bonnie & Clyde without the star power

This movie hit me hard when I first saw it on the big screen. I consider it to be the closest to "Bonnie & Clyde" in acting and impact of any of the Depression-era crime stories. Subsequent viewings have added to my admiration of Robert Altman's directorial technique of taking a fairly basic story of a Mississippi robber gang, the hunt for them and also allowing you to feel for them, as the hunt grows more tense, without glamorizing them or even necessarily expecting you to like them. In my opinion, the more popular "Bonnie & Clyde" glamorized its namesakes' story in part by the terrific acting of its stars, but "Thieves Like Us" stayed firmly in the grit and mud of its era and the basic plainness of its protagonists. Addtionally, with character actors like Bert Remsen and John Schuck (Altman regulars) and its own pair of star-crossed lovers, Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall, the story of this time and rural place becomes more important than the brilliance of its "stars" or their performances.

score 9/10

jack_mine 31 January 2007

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1587539/34894
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