Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

seymourblack-1 This adaptation of Edward Anderson's 1937 novel of the same name, focuses on the exploits of a gang of Depression-era bank robbers and a doomed love affair. The characters involved and the ways in which they relate to each other are fully explored and their rural Mississippi environment is recreated in a way that's both very authentic-looking and aesthetically pleasing. Their story is told in a style that's realistic, unglamorous and non-judgemental but also significantly, with the accompanying sound of a whole series of radio broadcasts that are deeply evocative, often pertinent to what's taking place on-screen and sometimes amusingly ironic.Three convicts serving long-term sentences escape from Mississippi state prison and hide out at a filling station run by Dee Mobley (Tom Skerritt). Gang-leader T-Dub (Bert Remsen), short-tempered Chicamaw (John Schuck) and youngest member, Bowie (Keith Carradine) soon get back to their criminal ways when they embark on a series of bank robberies with the aim of stealing enough cash to be able to live comfortably for the rest of their lives. T-Dub, as the most experienced gang member, masterminds the robberies which are mostly carried out without any problems.The gang have a great deal of downtime between robberies and Bowie, who hails from the Ozarks and was serving a life sentence for murder, is strongly attracted to Mobley's young daughter, Keechie (Shelley Duvall) who also works at the filling station. The couple grow closer after Bowie is involved in a car accident and Keechie nurses him back to health. Although the couple fall deeply in love, there's also a constant tension because Bowie remains fiercely loyal to his fellow gang members and both he and Keechie are constantly aware of the danger that he's in as the authorities get ever closer to bringing a permanent end to his freedom.Nicholas Ray's "They Live By Night" (1948) was also based on Edward Anderson's novel and interestingly there are some differences in the ways that the characters are portrayed in the two productions. In Ray's movie, Bowie had been unjustly found guilty of murder and after his escape from prison had misguidedly got involved in bank robbery as a means of getting sufficient money together to pay for the legal help he needed to prove his innocence of that charge. In "Thieves Like Us" however, the same character is depicted as a simple-minded person who has no regrets about what he did and has a propensity to keep allowing himself to be led by the wrong people. Similarly, the other gang members are portrayed as being equally simple individuals whose criminal activities (unlike in Ray's film) are not in any way related to the impact of the Great Depression.The quality of the acting in this movie is consistently top class with Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall brilliantly displaying Bowie and Keechie's awkwardness and lack of polish and Bert Remsen excelling as the ever-optimistic and good humoured T-Dub whose enthusiasm for his work is infectious. John Schuck also makes the volatile Chicamaw memorable by the sheer power of his performance, especially when his character starts to drink heavily and gets progressively more violent but also when his frustration drives him into self-destructive behaviour (e.g. during his second escape from Mississippi state prison).Unusually, in this movie, some of the incidents which could have produced a great deal of excitement, suspense or drama (e.g. all but one of the bank robberies and the fates of key characters) are not shown on-screen. "Thieves Like Us" is unquestionably a very accomplished movie that's better appreciated now than it was at the time of its initial release but the decisions to make the characters less sympathetic than they were in Nicholas Ray's movie and to eschew the old "show, don't tell" adage were probably responsible (at least in some part) for its poor box office returns.

JasparLamarCrabb Anyone expecting another rift on the Bonnie & Clyde legend are encouraged to look elsewhere. This Robert Altman film, based on the classic novel previously filmed as THEY LIVE BY NIGHT, is in a class (and genre) all its own. Bank robber Keith Carradine, along with two other cons, escapes from prison & finds refuge at the seedy gas station of Tom Skerritt. The three begin to rob more banks (rarely seen in action) until fate splits them up. Carradine ends up on the lam with Shelley Duvall, a bumpkin who seems to know nothing except movie magazines & Coca-Cola. Part love story, part bleak expose of life in the American south during the depression, Altman's film is wildly entertaining. There's bleakness mixed with a lot of comic moments. Carradine and Duvall excel in their roles and the supporting cast features many from Altman's "repertoire" including Skerritt, John Schuck, Bert Remsen and Louise Fletcher.

moonspinner55 Down South during the Depression, two wily crooks and a young man convicted on murder charges break out of prison and hole up at a rural truck stop. Robert Altman directed and co-adapted this second film version of Edward Anderson's book (previously made in 1948 as "They Live By Night"), and he's obviously in love with the damp, grubby milieu and characters. He gets some wonderful work from then-newcomers Keith Carradine and blithe, earthy Shelley Duvall, yet fails to drum up interest in the narrative. The trio take part in bank robberies but never raise much hell, while the interrelationships between the criminals and their familiars are so matter-of-fact that nothing comes along to surprise us. The screenplay (also worked on by Altman's associate Joan Tewkesbury and, for a brief time, Calder Willingham) is talk-heavy with lackadaisical dialogue; all the gabbing may indeed have the ring of natural conversation, but it mutes the film's pacing. The frequent radio broadcasts, vintage costumes and cars are fun ingredients initially, but with such a drab presentation (and hardly any light relief) one is apt to become restless with the lack of drive. Altman probably didn't want bold, vivid colors from cinematographer Jean Boffety, but what he did get--muddy-wet roads and paint-chipped old houses--is far too gloomy. The filmmaker takes his precious time presenting each scene, enjoying himself no doubt, but interest in these seedy lives is extremely limited. *1/2 from ****

tedg I miss Altman. I miss the feeling of ease he allows.Some films are work. Some aren't worth it, while you do all sorts of conceptual shuffling to follow whatever structure the filmmaker designs. Or in the worst case which has not been consciously designed so needs to be mastered without help.But Altman doesn't create crystals with edges. He does not refract great truths. He simply observes. By this film, his technique of discovery is in full bloom. He never storyboarded or blocked a scene. He did not tell an actor where to go or look. He simply trusted the actors to inhabit their characters and trusted the camera to find them. The minimum was manufactured. This is dogma film-making before the oddly formed rigors of dogma were proposed to "free" cinema.What is remarkable about this film is not simply the flow of the images and narrative, but that of the sound. "McCabe" was, I think, his first serious work in understanding how sound can bleed. Later, he (and Malick) would explore other effective techniques of soundweaving. Here, we have a simple but very effective device. Most of the narrative comes not from what you see or are told. We hear the radio. We hear it when there is a radio turned on in the world we are watching. But we also hear it when our characters leave the world of repose and go do something. That something has a radio show — usually a crime drama — overlain. The immediate effect is that these guys are not robbing because they need money, or for some philosophical purpose. It is because it gives them identity, and that identity is defined here by radio. Just as the radio allows the imposition of identity on those we watch, the idea is that what we watch similarly imposes on us. Much of what we see the characters do is measure how effective their adoption of character is. "Bonnie and Clyde" was something notable among Hollywood films in 67. It advanced this notion a tiny bit, using a French film vocabulary. It will be hard to recognize that today because the French derived from Hollywood. Altman does a B&C that lasts, because his vocabulary is wholly original, discovered and adopted, not engineered.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.