Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6656 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-02-01
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, French, Swedish, Finnish, Polish, Dutch
• Dubbed in: German, Italian, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Millionaire businessman Thomas Crown (Steve McQueen) is also a high-stakes thief; his latest caper is an elaborate heist at a Boston bank. Why does he do it? For the same reason he flies gliders, bets on golf strokes and races dune buggies: he needs the thrill to feel alive. Insurance investigator Vicky Anderson (Faye Dunaway) gets her own thrills by busting crooks, and she's got Crown in her cross hairs. Naturally, these two will get it on, because they have a lot in common: they're not people, they're walking clothes racks. (McQueen looks like he'd rather be in jeans than Crown's natty three-piece suits.) The Thomas Crown Affair is a catalogue of 60s conventions, from its clipped editing style to its photographic trickery (the inventive Haskell Wexler behind the camera) to its mod design. You can almost sense director Norman Jewison deciding to "tell his story visually," like those newfangled European films; this would explain the long passages of Michel Legrand's lounge jazz ladled over endless montages of the pretty Dunaway and McQueen at play. (The opening-credits song, "Windmills of Your Mind," won an Oscar.) It's like a "What Kind of Man Reads Playboy?" ad come to life, and much more interesting as a cultural snapshot than a piece of storytelling. --Robert Horton

Video Description
DVD Special Features

Feature-length commentary by Director, Norman Jewison
Original theatrical trailer
Chapter Search
Soundtrack: English/German/Spanish/French/Italian
Subtitles: English/Swedish/Norwegian/Dutch/French/Polish/Finnish

Synopsis
McQueen stars as Thomas Crown, a "proper" and rich businessman, the last person to be suspected as a bank-robbing mastermind. Dunaway is the insurance investigator assigned to the case. Also known as "Thomas Crown and Company" and "The Crown Caper." Academy Award Nominations: 2, including Best Original Score. Academy Awards: Best Song ("The Windmills of Your Mind".)

Customer Reviews

Steve McQueen at his peak!
Before the new version of Thomas Crown was released I thought I ought to see how it should have been, so I bought this. What a gem of a movie - did you know the original bank heist sceen was filmed with only five actors - everyone else there were members of the public who actually thought it was real ! This shows sixties cult filming at it's highest, well shot and excellent editing make this a film to own for all the right reasons.

Ice, just like ice!
All the kudos usually goes to Bullit, released the same year, yet with this movie, McQueen, the King of Cool, comes of age as an actor, at the height of his power as the No.1 Box office Hollywood star. Commonly regarded by critics as a triumph of style over substance, Jewison crafted a movie for the age and drew from McQueen the kind of performance of which few thought him capable. True, Dunaway's outfits (and Burke's hats) do cement the movie pretty firmly into its time period but anyone coming new to this movie who wasn't around at the time it was made has ample compensation in the luminosity of the stars, the fabulous jazz inspired Michel Legrand soundtrack, a gem of a performance from Jack Weston, as Erwin, and the famous chess game scene. Through the filter of McQueen's performance in the movie, picturing Brosnan as Crown in the recent remake is even more ludicrous than trying to picture Alec Baldwin as Doc McCoy: watch out for the scene in which Crown sets the 'ball rolling' by phoning up the members of the 'gang' he's hired to carry out the heist and then reflect on the observational skills of his detractors. His acting in this movie was matched only by that of his performances later in Papillon and the Getaway. Ultimately, the movie has stood the test of time and will continue to be watched long after DVDs of the Brosnan remake are gathering dust, deservedly, on the shelves of charity shops up and down the country.

A Classic
A change of direction for Steve McQueen in this film playing a millionaire businessman who likes to plan bank robberies in his spare time.Shot in a unique way for its time Norman Jewison(In The Heat Of The Night) has made a remarkable film.McQueen and Dunaway are both great!!!