This is another fantastic long scene from Michael Mann. I think it is interesting to compare this scene with the scene between Pacino and De Niro from Heat (which this blog examined last week). Consider the settings. Both are in restaurants and both are at night. However, in Thief, but for the bit where Caan asks for the fresh creme, it’s as if he and Weld are alone in the diner. By having the scene in that restaurant spanning the interstate, Mann in a subtle way emphasized that both of these characters were loners - yet not alone - in the world. After all, there are the headlights and the road noise from the speeding cars and trucks beneath them. Those effects were amazing to me and it was a glimpse of something Mann would use in so many of his films - the loner in the midst of movement in an urban setting on the highways (think Collateral, or so many night scenes from Miami Vice) or the scene (sans highway) of Russell Crowe hitting golf balls at the driving range in The Insider. Alone. But not alone. How many of us have not, at some point in our life, experienced that feeling of being alone, but not alone? In Heat, Pacino and De Niro’s conversation takes place amidst more customers. In fact, the script’s description pointed out that the two would be set amid other more normal customers, the kind of folks who “had not handled a 9 m.m. before.” I believe the scenes from both movies were primarily exposition where we learn so much about the characters. And wow, we learn a lot about the journey of Caan’s character, Frank. To me, his journey is one from nihilism to an existential affirmation by Frank that his life has meaning. Consider that "[n]ihilism comes from the Latin nihil, or nothing, which means not anything, that which does not exist.” http://www.iep.utm.edu/nihilism/ . Frank explicitly states he was able to survive prison and rape because he got “to where nothin means nothin.” That is where he was. But now he is an individual, a free and responsible agent determining his own development through acts of his will, which is the essence of existential thought. And the writer (Michael Mann) “showed it” rather than “said it.” It is shown through Frank’s collage of photos declaring who he is and what he wants and the life he dares to create. Who says exposition is boring? What fantastic writing. Consider the thematic similarity between Hanna’s (the De Niro character) acknowledgment in Heat that his dream represents his fear that he is running out of time in getting to where he needs to go and Frank’s direct statement in this scene that “I’m running out of time. I cant’ run fast enough to catch up... [the only way to catch up] is to do my magic act.” Both Frank and Hanna need that last big score so they can move on - get to where they need to go. To me this is an effective way to bring a tick-tick-tick of the clock - a sense of urgency - into the personal story of these characters. And again, how many of us have not, at some point in our life, experienced that feeling that we are running out of time to get done what we need to get done? If they could give an acting award for one scene I’d give one to Tuesday Weld for this scene. I’m hard pressed to think of a scene where empathy is as effectively shown as Weld does here when she listen’s to Frank’s story of how he prepared for and fought his prison rape. Caan’s acting in this scene and movie is as good as it gets. I wish he’d have had a few more great roles. I think he’s a special actor. And did you notice that when Caan and Weld grasp each other’s hand that their hands come to rest on that collage? Just another magic touch from Michael Mann. Another little stroke of genius, perhaps, comes when the scene starts with camera angles that do not disclose that the diner they are in spans a highway. We don’t know that off the bat. As Weld’s character explains her life as a drug courier, she says “we kept moving through the moves. It ended badly...” and just then Mann gives us the shot which reveals that Cann and Weld are sitting in a diner that is above an interstate highway and we see the headlights approaching on the road below them and the background sound of the vehicles increases. Is Mann that subtle to have consciously chosen to mix the metaphor of movement in that way? I’d bet, you bet! For personal reasons this is my favorite Michael Mann movie. Without disclosing my age, I’d just state that the diner spanning the highway has a special place in my memory bank. When I was growing up you could still get a driver’s permit at age fourteen. I’d gotten mine just two months shy of my fifteenth birthday. I had a sister living in Battle Creek, Michigan. My mother and two little brothers and I got into the station wagon in August and headed that way from our home in Kansas. We were making it a one day trip. My mother let me drive. She fell asleep in the passenger seat of the front car. We get to Chicago. I did not wake her up. It’s about 2 a.m. and I - this fourteen year old from Kansas who has been driving for all of two weeks - am cruising through Chicago on the Interstate and in front of me is this diner - I could tell it then - that spanned the highway. So when I saw this scene upon Thief’s release, a special smile came across my face as it took me back to a time when a fourteen-year-old kid felt like he was - what - all of eighteen years old. Thanks Scott for posting this scene. It is great for all the reasons you state.