Thieves Like Us (1974)

88% of critics liked it
(17 reviews)
65% of users liked it
(769 ratings)

Released in the same 12-month span as Terrence Malick's Badlands (1973) and Steven Spielberg's The Sugarland Express (1974), Robert Altman's Thieves Like Us (1974) also tells a story of doomed outlaws in love. Depression-era criminals T-Dub (Bert Remsen), Chicamaw (John Schuck), and Bowie (Keith… More Released in the same 12-month span as Terrence Malick's Badlands (1973) and Steven Spielberg's The Sugarland Express (1974), Robert Altman's Thieves Like Us (1974) also tells a story of doomed outlaws in love. Depression-era criminals T-Dub (Bert Remsen), Chicamaw (John Schuck), and Bowie (Keith Carradine) band together to rob banks after escaping from a prison farm. Hiding out with Dee Mobley (Tom Skerritt) and Keechie (Shelley Duvall), and then with T-Dub's in-law Mattie (Louise Fletcher) between bank jobs, the three crooks are a loyal group, but increasingly sensational news accounts of their bloodless robberies force them to split up before their next crime. After a car accident, Chicamaw leaves the injured Bowie in Keechie's care. Love blossoms between the two naïfs, compelling Bowie to find a way to balance his bond to Keechie with his loyalty to his friends and the need for money to head for Mexico. With the law closing in, Bowie and Keechie learn the hard way about the finite honor among thieves, and the need to survive. Adapted from the same Edward Anderson novel as Nicholas Ray's They Live By Night (1949), Altman, writers Calder Willingham and Joan Tewkesbury, and Altman's acting "regulars" reworked not just the classical crime movie but also the 1967 hit Bonnie and Clyde, presenting a resolutely unglamorous portrait of this Coke-swilling outlaw couple and the survivors' stoic drive to carry on. With the radio providing soundtrack and commentary, and the newspapers sending a veiled warning, Bowie and Keechie cannot escape the outside world, but they also cannot transcend it into the realm of myth. Rather than turning the crimes into stylish exploits, Altman's camera remains outside most of the robberies, observing the banal action on the street; he saves the slow-motion in the climactic shoot-out for the witnesses rather than the dead. His zoom shots hover between fragments of emotion and place, while they maintain their observational distance. Unfortunately for Altman (and Malick and Spielberg), audiences preferred outlaw glamour to genre-bending introspection. Still, with its deceptively laid-back tone, eye for expressive detail, and ear for ironic juxtaposition, Thieves Like Us takes its place in Altman's exceptional body of early 1970s work. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: R, 2 hr. 3 min.
Directed By: Robert Altman
Written By: Calder Willingham
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Feb 11, 1974 Wide
On DVD: Apr 17, 2007
Studio: United Artists

Critic Reviews

Jay Cocks, TIME Magazine
In many ways, Thieves Like Us is Altman's best work yet, his most stringent and evocative.
Don Druker, Chicago Reader
At times unbearably objective.
Variety Staff, Variety
Thieves Like Us proves that when Robert Altman has a solid story and script, he can make an exceptional film, one mostly devoid of clutter, auterist mannerism, and other cinema chic.
Vincent Canby, New York Times
It is full of things to think about, that hang in the memory like the details of a banal crime story on page 32, which, though read quickly, won't go away. Somehow you know that this happened.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Altman may not tell a story better than any one, but he sees one with great clarity and tenderness.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
A 1930s crime story with humor and humanity.
Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
A sleepy film about a motley collection of dim, but well-meaning failures. A perfect Altman film, in other words.
Steve Crum, Video-Reviewmaster.com
Great Altman film with strong work by Carradine and Duvall.
Chris Barsanti, Filmcritic.com
a daffy mix of purposefully bad jokes and often aimless ponderings
Sean Axmaker, MSN.com
(Robert) Altman creates a folk tale populated by characters more oblivious than naive, shot in the bright light of day... with a clear-eyed gaze...
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Captivating remake of Nicholas Ray's They Live By Night.
Jeremiah Kipp, Slant Magazine
The late Robert Altman had a good run, with a handful of enduring classics for the ages and a dozen great films that would be the high water mark of another director's career.
Jeremiah Kipp, Slant Magazine
Each scene plays out with equal measure given to humor, pathos, eccentricity of character, the unpredictability of life, and the blundering work of getting through the day as a human being.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Altman's ironic deconstruction of the Hollywood "couple on the run" genre, with direct references to They Live By Night and Bonnie and Clyde
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Never portentous, never a mere spoof, this is a touching, intelligent, and -- in its own small way -- rather wonderful movie.
, Film4
Review This Altman classic of love, crime and bank robberies during the Depression is adapted from the same Edward Anderson novel as Nicholas Ray's They Live By Night.

Read all 16 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Graham J

A minor work for Altman but still another exceptional film in his genre experimentation period.
Ken S

Altman does Bonnie & Clyde.
Stella D

altman's idiosyncratic update of nicholas ray's they live by night. carradine and duvall are sweet and gawky as the doomed lovers. great soundtrack of depression era radio shows really sets the mood. a somewhat forgotten altman but i think it's every bit as good as… More
altman's idiosyncratic update of nicholas ray's they live by night. carradine and duvall are sweet and gawky as the doomed lovers. great soundtrack of depression era radio shows really sets the mood. a somewhat forgotten altman but i think it's every bit as good as ray's film if not better. the source novel from 1937 was inspired by the real lives of bonnie and clyde. of course, being an altman film, it's more about the characters than the plot
Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]Robert Altman's problematic approach is again on full display in "Thieves Like Us" which is about three escaped convicts in 1937 Mississippi.(Well, escape is too strong a word. Strolling is more like it.) Of the three, T-Dub(Bert Remsen) and… More
[font=Century Gothic]Robert Altman's problematic approach is again on full display in "Thieves Like Us" which is about three escaped convicts in 1937 Mississippi.(Well, escape is too strong a word. Strolling is more like it.) Of the three, T-Dub(Bert Remsen) and Chicamaw(John Schuck) are bankrobbers while the youngest, Bowie(Keith Carradine), was in jail for murder but has dreams of playing professional baseball. He also takes a liking to Keechie(Shelley Duvall) at a hideout while the three plan robberies.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"Thieves Like Us" is an exquisitely staged(the radio broadcasts are a nice touch) and very well acted movie but it does ramble on a bit. Plus, it is good that these bank robbers are not glamorized nor romanticized but considering they are working in the Deep South of the Great Depression, it is sad that politics never enter the equation.(There is a casual mention of a lynching on the radio.) And Altman's emotionally remote style does not make it easy to relate to the characters.[/font]
Grifty G

Based on the same book that 'They Live By Night' was, but I enjoyed this version a little more. Both Carradine and Duvall are very likeable. Great overlooked Altman.
cody f

Great story about 3 bank robbers who's personalities begin to change as they become more successful.Great use of radio programs as the soundtrack and beautiful photography.