Thief (1981)

The Michael Mann movie with James Caan as a thief trying to make the big score that will let him leave that life behind and start a family. Of course things are never that easy, as his work catches the attention of a crime boss, syndicate guy, whatever you want to call Leo (Robert Prosky, offering an excellent blend of a genial old man and a vicious bastard as needed). The money offered for stealing the diamonds is good, so Caan goes for it, only to find the agreement is not what he thought.

There's a scene fairly early where Frank (Caan) and Jesse (Tuesday Weld), sit in a diner somewhere. Jesse is annoyed because he was two hours late to their date, then basically strong-armed her out of the bar and into this car like she's unreasonable for being annoyed. But then they have a long conversation where she talks about one of her previous boyfriends, who got her stranded in Bogota when he was trying to run cocaine, and he explains his time in prison, and how he got through by basically caring about nothing.

Throughout the movie, as we've watched Frank slowly prepare for this diamond heist by getting the specs on the alarms and dealing with bent cops, we've also seen him trying to build a home. He gets a house for he and Jesse in the suburbs, with trees and bushes and everything as he buddy (played by Jim Belushi) points out. They try to adopt a kid, and when the state proves unhelpful, Leo makes an arrangement. He hires a lawyer to get an old friend (Willie Nelson, who I did not expect to see in this movie) of his out of prison before he dies. 

As he's getting the tools to break in and steal the diamonds, he's gathering stuff of his own someone else could take away. He's still getting used to the idea of setting down roots, because when he discovers the bent cops bugged his phone, he immediately offers to sell the house and move Jesse to another, which she refuses. But ultimately, when the strings Frank either didn't see or chose to ignore reveal themselves, he finds he can't fight the way he normally would. So he systematically removes all of it and strikes back. Effective, but it leave him right back where he started.

The other side of that diner conversation that caught my eye is Frank says Jesse's last guy left her in a box, stuck with no future and nowhere to go. And for all his efforts to do better, that's ultimately what Frank left her with. Sends her and the baby on the run with a bunch of money, to live somewhere else with some guy she'll pay increasing amounts each month to protect her. Sounds like a box with no future.

I don't know if it's meant that the system is set up so once you're down, you can't ever dig yourself back up, or if it's a statement about these particular people. That it was always going to be easy for Frank to throw it all away and go back to being alone, because it was where he felt safest. He can be mule-headed, pick a fight, stand his ground, and it's fine because he's not risking anyone but himself.