Product: Thieves Like Us (1974)
Rating: 5.0
Altman's unique, thoughtful and humanistic vision of 1930s gangesters
I teetered between 4 and 5 stars on this. A gentle, slow, and moving study of some none-too-bright bank robbers in the 1930s. Keith Carradine and Shelly Duvall are terrific, and their scenes together are alive and wonderful. Some of the surrounding acting and storylines are good, but not nearly as strong as the films center. Beautiful production design, and a feeling, as with `McCabe and Mrs. Miller', of both tremendous reality, of `being there', while still feeling Brechtian and ironic at the same time. There are moments where the radio music in the background -- used in place of score - is a bit on the nose, and a few moments feel forced or slow. But this is a unique, odd and special movie, examining thieves in the depression without any hint of glamorization on one hand, or forced empathy on the other, while still breaking our hearts.