"You can't buy three months of my life." Listen to James Caan.

I spent a couple of hours Saturday afternoon enjoying Thief, Michael Mann’s 1981 directorial debut starring James Caan as a robbery artist with a vicious (and compelling) case of emotional disconnect. 

Why didn’t anybody tell me about this before?

It’s a damn fine – damn fine – piece of work. The missing link (to me before Saturday) that helps explain why Heat and Collateral are so good.

I went digging around online for more info and found this New York Times article about Caan’s promo work for the movie. That guy gets it. Some highlights (not including the quote that gives this post its title):

• He won’t direct again, Mr. Caan says, because ”everybody wants to do ‘Rocky Nine’ and ‘Airport 96’ and ‘Jaws Seven’ and you look and you listen, and what little idealism you have left slowly dwindles.”
• “Anybody that can tell you how he’ll feel tomorrow is full of baloney.”
• ”I want to be the best actor in the world, but that’s not what happiness is. Happiness is my kid, and my friends, and being able to laugh as much as possible.”

I tend to take my cues from iconoclasts, and I’ve always had a passing admiration for James Caan. Now I’ve got a better sense of why.