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As far as official cinema debuts go, few come to mind that have had as strong a lasting legacy as Michael Mann‘s Thief. In fact, since the release of that essential crime thriller, many have linked Mann’s understanding of the criminal character to many of the famed writer/director’s other films such as Heat, Collateral, and Miami Vice. Yet, Michael Mann’s deep understanding of these types of stories and the characters within didn’t start with Thief. In fact, Thief itself was heavily influenced by the ABC TV movie that Mann wrote and directed right before working on Thief called The Jericho Mile. The film would win multiple primetime Emmys and give Mann a unique knowledge base to carry into the creation of his theatrical debut.
What Is ‘The Jericho Mile’ About?
Centered around Larry Murphy (Peter Strauss), a convicted murderer at Folsom Prison, who spends his recreation time running around the prison yard. Eventually, a sports writer at the prison times him and realizes that he is running record times. This sets Murphy on a path to attempt to qualify for the upcoming Olympic trials. What ensues is a combination of prison drama, sports triumph and ultimately, tragedy. The film originally had a different director slated to work on the film, but when lead actor Peter Strauss read the script, he liked it so much that a deal was made with ABC for Mann to direct the film as well. This project would ultimately shape the way Mann approached the highly regarded Thief and inform his character creation for years to come.
‘The Jericho Mile’ Was Shot on Location
Paramount to furthering his understanding of prison life and the prisoner mindset was shooting the Jericho Mile on location at Folsom Prison in California. This included the use of actual inmates in advisory capacity and as actors in the film. Yet even before the film was in development Mann had spent time talking to inmates when researching material for his rewrite of the film Straight Time. When he received permission to shoot in the prison, the warden at the time gave Mann a word of caution recalled by Mann in an interview for The Hollywood Reporter, saying “we were told by the warden that there’d be individual stabbings, and that happens routinely.” In an effort to curb any violence before it happened, Mann talked to various members of the gangs in the prison and established a sort of quid pro quo where their involvement with the movie would be in exchange for no race wars during the shoot.
These experiences and interviews would inform Mann as he created Thief. The impressions he got from what prison life was actually like allowed him to craft a realistic and nuanced character in Frank, the expert safe cracker at the center of Thief, portrayed by the legendary James Caan. Mann created a character that embodied the type that had been removed from everything that was happening outside the walls of the prison. Small details such as the pin-ups inmates had in their cells allowed Mann to understand the ways that they escape their situation and harden their resolve towards the goals of their life after their release, or in some cases, the remainder of their life inside.
The Prison Shoot Inspired Michael Mann’s Style & Authenticity
Two overriding elements of Thief are its “look” and its heist sequences. By getting first-hand exposure to the life inside a maximum-security prison at Folsom, and the lives of those inside told by the inmates themselves, Mann crafted a look first seen on a smaller scale in The Jericho Mile and coming to fruition in Thief, of a gritty, dark, and realistic. The look is speaking to the reality of the perspective of a prisoner whether on the inside in The Jericho Mile or the ex-con on the outside in Thief. Thematically, both main characters are thwarted in their goals by elements outside their immediate control no matter how hard they resist that fact.
The heist sequences in Thief are still celebrated today as some of the most authentic safe-cracking on screen. This is no accident as Mann made sure to hire former safecracker John Santucci to advise James Caan on the technicalities of the steal. Santucci even got screen time as one of the cops in the film. The use of a former criminal carries over from the use of inmates at Folsom. The authenticity that came across the screen in The Jericho Mile added a unique layer to a film about inmates themselves and the inspiration for the idea is easy to trace to the production of Mann’s theatrical debut. The safecracking sequences onscreen in Thief are actually Caan cracking the safes. He even improvised hammering locks off the double doors that greet him after the initial exterior door is opened, in true safe cracker fashion.
‘The Jericho Mile’ Explores the Personal Expression of the Prisoner
Even though Mann uses prisoners both past and present in The Jericho Mile and Thief he manages to capture their humanity which is often lost when discussing those from these populations in the real world. Specifically, Mann touched on the self-expression he noticed from inmates in that same Hollywood Reporter interview saying “You could tell they were very self-possessed. [They] found any way they could of expressing their individuality…” That hard grasp on individuality would carry over into designing and writing Frank for Thief, with Mann striving to create a character that was left out of society for so long.
A career favorite of James Caan, Thief’s diner scene shows that self-expression and escapism are first emphasized in The Jericho Mile by Mann. The scene includes a moment where Frank pulls out a collage of magazines and photo pieces put together to resemble the life that Frank wants for himself outside of prison. It refers to the pinups that Mann noticed at Folsom that were of real-life photographs, including the pornographic ones, mentioned above. The idea that Frank was isolated from understanding how life works for years but maintains a firm vision of what he wants entrenches his motivations for being the master thief we see him as in the film.
As Michael Mann continues his career in filmmaking, notably with movies such as the upcoming Heat 2, its important to reflect on the origins of a filmmaker that captures the criminal mindset so well across his work on both TV and film. As Thief approaches its 42nd anniversary later this March, be glad you now know the extra lengths Mann went to in order to acquire such an in-depth knowledge base for the landmark film. Further, the style first utilized in The Jericho Mile and later expanded upon in Thief carries over to much of Mann’s other work past and most likely future too.
