THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR
US, 1968, 108 minutes, Colour.
Steve Mc Queen, Faye Dunaway, Paul Burke, Jack Weston.
Directed by Norman Jewison.
The Thomas Crown Affair was a very popular entertainment for the end of the 60's. It corresponded to the entertainment mood of the times: the robbery thrillers were to the fore and provided a whole genre full of ingenious plans and executions for stealing jewels and money. Here the ingenuity is masterful and the cat and mouse play of suspect and investigator presented with precision, smartness and timing. The opulence of the characters and their situations appealed to the public -wealth, position, the amoral comfortable life, are the staple of the escapist movie and are used to compelling effect here.
Steve McQueen? and Faye Dunaway (just after Bullit and Bonnie and Clyde) provide the toughness, glamour and sex-appeal of the popular stars of the 60's. Steve McQueen? is an all-round sportsman and is a good driver. His Thomas Crown incarnates so many of the aspirations of the 60's. Faye Dunaway is a clever, sophisticated, chic Bonnie, after her man and trying to outwit him. The formula could hardly fail.
The film is also interesting in its theme of the rich man who robs to find himself, break the system and get kicks -another twentieth century fantasy. Here Thomas Crown becomes god and we probe a little modern man's need for a god, even if it has to be himself.
Norman Jewison (In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof, Jesus Christ, Superstar) directed with the slickest of styles (including split-screen) which suits this film well.
A most entertaining thriller, sophisticated and with implications.
1. What distinguished this film from other crime thrillers?
2. How did the slick techniques contribute to the mood, atmosphere and style of the film, especially the split screen techniques, the playing with focus, the chess game, the long kiss?
3. Comment on the effectiveness of the musical score for atmosphere -did the song "The Windmills of your Mind" make any comment on the theme of the film or was it just a pretty accompaniment? Why was it played during the credits with the montage of the images and during Thomas Crown's glider flight?
4. What kind of man was Thomas Crown? How successful a businessman? How successful a man? Comment on his home style, his varied sports, driving skills, beach house, golf bets.
5. Why did Thomas Crown want to rob a bank? What kind of achievement was it for him? How did he play God in his planning? Why did he want to mastermind a breaking of human systems and manipulate men? Note how he saluted himself in the mirror, his triumphant laughter and his pleased smiles.
6. How doee Thomas Crown stand for so many of the dreams of modern aspirations - wealth, comfort, pleasure, control, freedom, one-upmanship, being one's own god, defying others, outfitting others. "Who will I be tomorrow?" was all he had to think about.
7. How clever was the robbery? How clever was Thomas Crown?
8. What kind of woman was Vicki Anderson? Why was she in her job - just for the money? How clever was she - in working out how Thomas Crown was the likeliest suspect? - in her finding Brian and confronting him with Thomas Crown? - in her manoeuvring of Crown?
9. How emotionally involved did she become - the dinner, chess, beach-house?
10. How emotionally involved did he become? Why did he want to test her?
11. Was there any special significance in their eating a 'Last Supper' before the second robbery and Crown wanting some comforting and testing his followers?
12. Why did Vicki try to trap him in the cemetery? Why did she cry at the end - for losing Thomas Crown, for the money, for herself?
13. How did the opulence of the situations, fashions, sport, style of living affect the impact of the film - "crime in a twentieth century dream world"?
14. How cynical of standards and values was the film?
