Synopsis
Three criminals escape from prison and embark on a robbery spree across USA. Along the way, one of them falls in love while they plan a final heist before going their separate ways.
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Cast
- Keith CarradineBowie
- Shelley DuvallKeechie
- John SchuckChicamaw
- Bert RemsenT-Dub
- Louise FletcherMattie
- Ann LathamLula
- Tom SkerrittDee Mobley
- Al ScottCapt. Stammers
- John RoperJasbo
- Mary WaitsNoel Joy
Recommendations
- 91
The A.V. Club
Remove all the crime-movie trappings—and there aren't that many, once Altman gets through with them—and the film would still endure for its surface alone, capturing the Depression-era South with brushstrokes of language, décor, and radio-plays on the soundtrack. - 91
Entertainment Weekly
Anchored by Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall’s romance and full of Altman’s typical aural flourishes (old-time radio shows serve as the soundtrack), Thieves Like Us proves that it takes both joy and melancholy to equal nostalgia. - 90
Time Out
Never portentous, never a mere spoof, this is a touching, intelligent, and - in its own small way - rather wonderful movie. - 90
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. - 88
Chicago Sun-Times
Like so much of his work, Robert Altman’s Thieves Like Us has to be approached with a certain amount of imagination. Some movies are content to offer us escapist experiences and hope we’ll be satisfied. But you can’t sink back and simply absorb an Altman film; he’s as concerned with style as subject, and his preoccupation isn’t with story or character, but with how he’s showing us his tale. - 80
The New Yorker
Robert Altman finds a sure, soft tone in this movie, from 1974, and he never loses it. His account of Coca-Cola-swigging young lovers in the thirties is the most quietly poetic of his films; it’s sensuous right from the first pearly-green long shot, and it seems to achieve beauty without artifice. - 80
New York Magazine (Vulture)
It is, perhaps, the most demanding of his recent films--but as always, the demands are justified and rewarding. [11 Feb 1974, p.74] - 75
TV Guide Magazine
A well-done remake of They Live By Night that's slightly long but unusually free of Altman's customary indulgences.
