Plot: What’s it about?
The films of the 1960’s from beginning to end had an interesting element. If you had to steal something, make it a fun theft. Throughout the decade, many of such films as Charade and The Pink Panther coined the caper genre showing that there’s nothing better than to take something for ones own and try to outwit the pursuers whether they are authority figures or not. In 1968, Norman Jewison followed up his Oscar-winning hit In The Heat Of The Night with one such caper that would involve a team, a woman and a man behind it all in The Thomas Crown Affair.
The day is quiet and four men have been chosen to wait at a phone booth to get the go ahead on a job from a mysterious man. Once they do, they set their course of action to a bank. They don’t know each other and their action at the bank would be the first time they have met. Right across the street from the bank, investor Thomas Crown (Steve McQueen) has just sold off a piece of property and takes care of business in his office where he keeps careful eye across the street. The heist is pulled and Crown is overjoyed, being that he is the mysterious man behind planning it. This leads to a cop (Paul Burke) and an insurance investigator named Vicki (Faye Dunaway) to trace back the money and the ones that are involved. With her path leading to Crown, her pursuit has her falling for him, while he having a few ideas of his own for her.
In any viewer curious of what was the big thing that made Steve McQueen popular, this film has elements as to why. He had an unexpected charm. He’s good at being the hero, but it’s so unexpected to see him play a sly adversary. He’s more at home with a western or a thriller looking serious, but the viewer never expected him to star in a caper film as a mastermind that has the slick grin at hand when needed. With that unexpected charm came a sense of calm. No one is cooler or more in control of himself like him and it shows especially playing the role of Thomas Crown.
As for his pursuer, Faye Dunaway is lovely as Vicki, the investigator that might have a few tricks up her sleeve enough to catch Crown in the act but at the same time Crown catches her vulnerability and pushes it as far as he can. She’s good at what she does but she has a tendency to go to far and that has it’s consequences
There’s a great deal of editing, done in the capable hands of Hal Ashby (who would later become a director himself), all the scenes using the multi-panel form from the setup of the heist team to the multitude of Crown’s leisurely activities outside of planning heists. This was used also that year in Richard Fleischer’s thriller The Boston Strangler.
It’s good when a movie is fun and it’s good when you don’t have to overthink everything and check your brain at the door and The Thomas Crown Affair is that kind of movie mixing fun with a bit of sixties style and even over thirty years and one remake later, it still plays well with a viewer today.
Video: How does it look?
The Thomas Crown Affair is given the 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen treatment and at the start of this DVD, it looked as if the beautiful multi-color palette of the credit sequence was going to be a very good indication of how the transfer was going to turn out. After a few minutes, the viewer starts to notice that it is not the case. The condition of the print is decent but nothing to write home about. There are elements of grain and the dark sequences are the only ones not affected by the flaws in the print. The bright daytime scenes bring out the flaws with speckles and a dirt bit every now and then mostly, but it’s not entirely a bad print. There are some clear scenes and the heist looks sharp and clear, and the chess scene shows the faces accurately and the multi-color vividly. A good print. There is also a pan and scan version of the movie on the flip side.
Audio: How does it sound?
The sound on this disc is a Dolby Digital Mono track and the dialogue comes out clear but at a lower volume than the score which is raised quite high when it is used. There’s not much use of surround effects as the film has it’s audio limitations and all action comes from the middle channels but all around it is an okay track. This film also has English and French subtitles.
Supplements: What are the extras?
For a 1998 disc, it has minimal extras like the exterior 8 page production booklet and the theatrical trailer of the film. What it also has is a audio commentary by director Norman Jewison. His comments are informative and chats about how the production went, very much like the movie did, at a breezy pace making for a fun shoot. Although his comments can be redundant, he’s never one to make the viewer reach for the audio button to turn off his track. His track is an entertaining one and well worth the listen.
The final result is a film that is a steal and a disc that is decent.
