Forgive me if this has been brought up before but I'm 99% sure that Mann referenced thief in his later work heat. In a conversation between Nate (Jon voight ) and McCauley ( deniro) they first bring up Vince Hanna (Pacino) and voight says he's taken down some heavy crews "blew away Frankie yonder in Chicago and he was a *beep* maniac. " that hassss to be a direct reference to frank in thief. Either way two of my favourite films ever.
shareThat's what I thought from the first time I saw Heat. Great tie in.
shareI don't think it was. The last name of Caans character in "Thief" is never mentioned. But as the book was written by Frank Hohimer I always assumed that would be his last name.
The person named in Heat is actually Frankie Younger. Add to that the fact that while Caans character was undeniably violent he only used violence as a last resort.
The inference from the comment in Heat is that the person Hannah took out was violent to the point of making even Nate, a hardened career criminal, note this Frankie as being an exceptionally murderous sort.
Violent only as a last resort? I don't think so. He walked around with a chip on his shoulder, looking for trouble. And what about the scene in the bar, when he dragged his ladyfriend out to the car, nearly ran over some pedestrians, and then made some other cars crash?
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See a list of my favourite films here: http://www.flickchart.com/slackerinc
Another pretty subtle reference is the costume Val Killmer uses in the vault
http://film-grab.com/2013/03/27/heat/27-139/
Which is petty similar looking to the one Frank uses on the opening scene