1960’s heist caper Seven Thieves is the subject of a excellent article by Pedro Blas Gonzalez, an associate professor of Philosophy from Miami, at Senses of Cinema.
Not many users at Criticker have seen this film, which on its surface seems to be an unsophisticated crime film. Joan Collins stars, and the plot concerns nothing more than beautiful people, casinos and crime. IMDB’s reader reviews are middling.
Given the film’s age, standard-issue plot and mediocre reviews, one wouldn’t expect it to be the subject of a lengthy, academic analysis. It’s an interesting challenge — to say something interesting about a film no one remembers, and Gonzalez’s essay rises to the task. Though focused on Seven Thieves, is a meditation on the higher purpose of film in general and crime films in particular. Read it, if you have time for 6000+ words, and the stomach for sentences like:
But despite the imaginative conventions established by any art form, human reality remains the anchor of how much we can actually reap from imagination, our inherent regulator of possibility.
… It took me 4 re-reads to understand that.
It’s possible to write an intelligent, thought-provoking article about any film, though critical attention is mostly focused on the abject successes or the total failures. By tackling of Seven Thieves, Gonzalez proves that a film need not be memorable to provide food for thought.
Read the article at Senses of Cinema.
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