The Thomas Crown Affair is a 1999 American
heist filmA heist film is a film that has an intricate plot woven around a group of people trying to steal something. Versions with dominant or prominent comic elements are often called caper movies. They could be described as the analogues of caper stories in film history...
directed by
John McTiernanJohn Campbell McTiernan, Jr. is an American film director and producer, best known for his action films and most identifiable with the three films he directed back-to-back: Predator, Die Hard, and The Hunt for Red October, along with later movies such as Last Action Hero, Die Hard with a...
. The film, starring
Pierce BrosnanPierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
,
Rene Russo- Early life :Russo was born in Burbank, California, the daughter of Shirley , a factory worker and barmaid, and Nino Russo, a sculptor and car mechanic who left the family when Rene was two. Her father and maternal grandfather were of Italian descent. Russo grew up with her sister, Toni, and their...
and
Denis LearyDenis Colin Leary is an Irish-American actor, comedian, writer and director. Leary is known for his biting, fast paced comedic style and chain smoking...
, is a
remakeA remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
of the
1968 filmThe Thomas Crown Affair is a 1968 film by Norman Jewison starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. It was nominated for two Academy Awards and won the Award for Best Song with Michel Legrand's "Windmills of Your Mind"...
of the same name.
The film generally received positive reviews. It was a success at the box office, grossing $124,305,181 worldwide.
The film's success prompted plans for a sequel starring Brosnan. In January 2007, it was reported that the sequel, tentatively titled
The Topkapi Affair, would be a loose remake of the 1964 film
TopkapiTopkapi is a heist film made by Filmways Pictures and distributed by United Artists. It was produced and directed by the emigre American film director, Jules Dassin...
starring
Melina MercouriMelina Mercouri , born as Maria Amalia Mercouri was a Greek actress, singer and politician.As an actress she made her film debut in Stella and met international success with her performances in Never on Sunday, Phaedra, Topkapi and Promise at Dawn...
,
Maximilian SchellMaximilian Schell is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961...
, and
Peter UstinovPeter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...
. However, no such sequel has been produced.
Plot
Thomas Crown (
Pierce BrosnanPierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
) is a wealthy private equity banker who aches for a challenge. Despite all of his success in business (and with women), he feels bored. Among other diversions, he crashes an expensive
catamaranA catamaran is a type of multihulled boat or ship consisting of two hulls, or vakas, joined by some structure, the most basic being a frame, formed of akas...
while racing and bets $100,000 on a
golfGolf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
swing simply because "it's a beautiful Saturday morning," and there is not much else to do.
In order to cure his boredom, Crown orchestrates an elaborate heist to steal a painting (
San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk) by
MonetClaude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
, valued at $100 million, from the
Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
. The insurers of the artwork send Catherine Banning (
Rene Russo- Early life :Russo was born in Burbank, California, the daughter of Shirley , a factory worker and barmaid, and Nino Russo, a sculptor and car mechanic who left the family when Rene was two. Her father and maternal grandfather were of Italian descent. Russo grew up with her sister, Toni, and their...
), an insurance investigator, to assist
NYPDThe New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
Detective Michael McCann (
Denis LearyDenis Colin Leary is an Irish-American actor, comedian, writer and director. Leary is known for his biting, fast paced comedic style and chain smoking...
) in solving the crime.
From the beginning, Banning suspects Crown is behind the theft. A game of cat-and-mouse ensues that results in their becoming lovers and gives Crown exactly what he was seeking, as his psychiatrist puts it: "A worthy adversary."
To prove his sincerity and test her loyalty to him, Crown returns to the museum under the eye of Banning and dozens of police officers, vowing to put the stolen painting back.
Differences
The film makes several major changes from the original, most notably the ending. In the original, the insurance investigator betrays Crown but he escapes, saddened that she did not join him. In this film, after the betrayal and the realization that her jealousy of Anna Knutzhorn was unfounded, she unsuccessfully attempts to join him. Her sadness is short-lived as he surprises her by being on her scheduled plane trip home.
There was no painting stolen in the first film, with Crown and his men instead stealing $2.6 million in cash from a bank (The change was based on the idea that the more tumultuous society of the time would be less inclined to sympathise with a man who committed armed robbery out of boredom).
The original story took place in Boston, not New York.
Steve McQueen's version of Thomas Crown has no physical involvement in the actual robbery; he merely plans it. Pierce Brosnan's version steals the painting himself.
Cast
- Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
as Thomas Crown
- Rene Russo
- Early life :Russo was born in Burbank, California, the daughter of Shirley , a factory worker and barmaid, and Nino Russo, a sculptor and car mechanic who left the family when Rene was two. Her father and maternal grandfather were of Italian descent. Russo grew up with her sister, Toni, and their...
as Catherine Olds Banning
- Denis Leary
Denis Colin Leary is an Irish-American actor, comedian, writer and director. Leary is known for his biting, fast paced comedic style and chain smoking...
as Detective Michael McCann
- Fritz Weaver
Fritz William Weaver is an American actor and voice actor.-Life and career:Weaver was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Elsa W. and John Carson Weaver. His mother was of Italian descent and his father was a social worker from Pittsburgh. Weaver attended Peabody High School...
as John Reynolds
- Frankie Faison
Frankie Russel Faison , often credited as Frankie R. Faison, is an American actor.-Personal life:Faison was born in Newport News, Virginia, the son of Carmena and Edgar Faison. He studied drama at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois, where he joined Theta Chi Fraternity...
as Detective Paretti
- Ben Gazzara
-Early life:Gazzara was born Biagio Anthony Gazzara in New York City, the son of Italian immigrants Angelina and Antonio Gazzara, who was a laborer and carpenter. Gazzara grew up on New York's tough Lower East Side. He actually lived on E. 29th Street and participated in the drama program at...
as Andrew Wallace
- Mark Margolis
Mark Margolis is an American actor who has been making films since 1976.Margolis went to Temple University briefly before moving to New York City, where he studied drama with Stella Adler and at the Actors Studio...
as Heinrich Knutzhorn
- Esther Cañadas
Esther Cañadas is a Spanish actress and model.- Biography :Originally, Cañadas wanted to pursue a career as a criminologist, but her mother persuaded her to give modeling a try....
as Tyrol Anna Knutzhorn
- Faye Dunaway
Faye Dunaway is an American actress.Dunaway won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Network after receiving previous nominations for the critically acclaimed films Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown...
as Psychiatrist
- Michael Lombard as Bobby McKinley
- Simon Jones
Simon Jones is an English actor, most famous for his appearances in the television and radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which he played the lead role of Arthur Dent from 1978 to 2005...
as Accountant on phone (uncredited)
Faye DunawayFaye Dunaway is an American actress.Dunaway won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Network after receiving previous nominations for the critically acclaimed films Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown...
played the Catherine Banning role in
the 1968 originalThe Thomas Crown Affair is a 1968 film by Norman Jewison starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. It was nominated for two Academy Awards and won the Award for Best Song with Michel Legrand's "Windmills of Your Mind"...
. However, the character's name was Vicki Anderson.
Production
At first, director
John McTiernanJohn Campbell McTiernan, Jr. is an American film director and producer, best known for his action films and most identifiable with the three films he directed back-to-back: Predator, Die Hard, and The Hunt for Red October, along with later movies such as Last Action Hero, Die Hard with a...
was unavailable for the project.
Pierce BrosnanPierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
and his fellow producers considered several directors before returning to their original choice. McTiernan then received the script and added his own ideas to the production.
Script amendments
After McTiernan signed onto the project, he changed the theme of the central heist and a number of key scenes. McTiernan felt that at the time the film was released, audiences would be less forgiving of Thomas Crown if he staged two armed bank robberies for fun like McQueen did in the original, than if he staged an unarmed art heist. He rewrote the heist around the classic Trojan horse entrance and technical failure of the thermal cameras. McTiernan also deemed a polo match as used in the original and rewritten into the original new script to be too much of a
clichéA cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...
, and wanted a scene that conveyed more action and excitement, not just wealth—he hence created the catamaran race, in which Brosnan undertook his own stunts.
Filming
Filming took place throughout
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, including
Central ParkCentral Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
. The corporate headquarters of
Lucent TechnologiesAlcatel-Lucent USA, Inc., originally Lucent Technologies, Inc. is a French-owned technology company composed of what was formerly AT&T Technologies, which included Western Electric and Bell Labs...
stood in for Crown's suite of offices. Due to it being nearly impossible to film interior scenes in the
Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
(the producers' request was "respectfully declined"), the production crew made their own museum on a soundstage. Artisans were hired to create a realistic look to the set. Another scene was filmed in an entirely different city landmark: the main research library of the
New York Public LibraryThe New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
.
The glider scenes were shot at
Ridge Soaring GliderportRidge Soaring Gliderport is a public-use glider airport located two nautical miles southwest of the central business district of Unionville, in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is privately owned by Knauff & Grove, Inc....
and Eagle Field in Pennsylvania and at Corning-Painted Post Airport in New York. The two glider aero-tow shots were actually taken from film shot at different airports with different tow planes. The initial take-off was photographed at Harris Hill Soaring Center, Elmira, NY. The glider pilot was Thomas L. Knauff, a world record holder, and a member of the US
Soaring Hall of FameThe Soaring Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who have made the highest achievements in, or contributions to, the sport of soaring in the United States of America. It has been located at the National Soaring Museum in Elmira, New York, since 1975...
. The glider used is a
Schempp-Hirth Duo Discus|-See also:-References:*...
, in which it is physically impossible to reach the front controls from the rear seat (the close shot sections were shot in a modified cockpit under a blue screen in the studio).
A number of McTiernan's vehicles then appear in the next sequence, as well as his farm. The tractor in the background after the glider lands belongs to McTiernan, while the dark green Shelby Mustang that Crown drives on
MartiniqueMartinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
was originally intended to be used for
Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
's character in 1993's
Last Action HeroLast Action Hero is a 1993 American action-comedy-fantasy film directed and produced by John McTiernan. It is a satire of the action genre and its clichés, containing several parodies of action films in the form of films within the film....
, and was retrieved from the director's garage for this film. The six-wheeled Jeep was built specifically for the film. The house used as Crown's Caribbean getaway is owned by one of the 30 original families who settled in
MartiniqueMartinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
in the 17th century. The scenes around it, like the beach, are a montage of various other parts of Martinique, including St Pierre and the Lamentin airport.
Paintings
The paintings, copies of which were supplied by "Troubetzkoy Paintings" in New York, appearing in the film are:
- "San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk" by Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
, owned by the National Museum and Art Gallery in Cardiff, Wales.
- "Wheatstacks" by Claude Monet, owned by the Getty Museum in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
- "Noon: Rest From Work (After Millet)" by Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
- The painting Crown admires and calls "his haystacks," the original is owned by Musée d'OrsayThe Musée d'Orsay is a museum in Paris, France, on the left bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, an impressive Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture,...
in ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France.
- The Son of Man
The Son of Man is a 1964 painting by the Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte.Magritte painted it as a self-portrait. The painting consists of a man in an overcoat and a bowler hat standing in front of a short wall, beyond which is the sea and a cloudy sky. The man's face is largely obscured...
by René MagritteRené François Ghislain Magritte[p] was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images...
- The painting that is seen several times in the film depicting a man in a suit with a Bowler hatThe bowler hat, also known as a coke hat, derby , billycock or bombin, is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown originally created in 1849 for the English soldier and politician Edward Coke, the younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester...
and an apple covering his face.
- "Banks of the Seine at Argenteuil" by Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet was a French painter. One of the first 19th-century artists to approach modern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism....
- The second painting to go missing, given to, and later returned by, Catherine. It is currently housed at the Courtauld Institute of ArtThe Courtauld Institute of Art is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art. The Courtauld is one of the premier centres for the teaching of art history in the world; it was the only History of Art department in the UK to be awarded a top...
Gallery in LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by
Bill ContiWilliam "Bill" Conti is an American film music composer who is frequently the conductor at the Academy Awards ceremony.-Early life and career:...
and arranged by
Jack EskewJack Eskew is a musical arranger/orchestrator based in Los Angeles, California. He studied music at the University of Southern California before beginning his career by touring the United States with various bands....
. It features a variety of jazz arrangements which harken back to the film's original version. In addition, the film ends with a reprise of the Academy Award-winning song "
Windmills of Your Mind"The Windmills of Your Mind" is a song performed by Noel Harrison, with music composed by Michel Legrand and English lyrics written by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman, which was used as the theme for the 1968 film, The Thomas Crown Affair, starring Steve McQueen alongside and ultimately versus...
" sung by Sting. Throughout the film, segments are used of a song by
Nina SimoneEunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...
called "Sinnerman" (from the album
Pastel BluesPastel Blues is a studio album by singer/pianist/songwriter Nina Simone . It was recorded in 1964 and 1965 in New York City and released in 1965 by Philips Records...
, 1965). Mostly the non-vocal parts are used (hand-clapping and piano riffs), but in the final scenes, where Crown returns to the scene of the crime, Simone sings "
Oh sinnerman, where are you gonna run to?"
Track listing
- Windmills of Your Mind – Sting
- Sinnerman – Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...
- Everything (...Is Never Quite Enough) – Wasis Diop
Wasis Diop is a Senegalese musician of international renown, known for blending traditional Senegalese folk music with modern pop and jazz...
- Caban La Ka Kratchie – Georges Fordant
- Black & White X 5 – Bill Conti
William "Bill" Conti is an American film music composer who is frequently the conductor at the Academy Awards ceremony.-Early life and career:...
- Never Change – Bill Conti
- Meet Ms. Banning – Bill Conti
- Goodnight/Breaking & Entering – Bill Conti
- Glider Pt. 1 – Bill Conti
- Glider Pt. 2 – Bill Conti
- Cocktails – Bill Conti
- Quick Exit – Bill Conti
Complete track listing (from unreleased CD)
- Main Titles (01:33)
- Crown's Office / The Crate (00:56)
- No Sarcophagus (00:39)
- Trojan Horse (01:17)
- The Break-In (09:19)
- Stealing The Monet (01:27)
- The Booty (01:07)
- Catherin Appears (02:56)
- Three-Legged Bench (01:01)
- The Catamaran (02:05)
- Cocktails (01:43)
- Crown's Keys (00:56)
- Dinner At Capriani's (05:21)
- Home Alone (01:26)
- Cleaning Service (01:45)
- A Black And White Ball (03:54)
- Glider (03:39)
- Burning A Renoir In Martinique (02:45)
- Pillow Talk (01:01)
- MIchael's Story (01:27)
- Bulgari Necklace (01:37)
- Thomas And Catherine (00:57)
- Plan To Leave (01:29)
- Visiting Michael (00:53)
- Crown Enters The Museum (00:31)
- Change Of Mind (00:23)
- Cab Ride (00:58)
- Wall Street Heliport (00:31)
- Love At Last (01:30)
- Goodnight / Cleaning Service (alternate) (03:42)
- Bonus Track (00:55)
- Bonus Track (02:18)
- Bonus Track (05:34) "Windmills Of Your Mind" performed by Sting
- Bonus Track (10:20) "Sinnerman" performed by Nina Simone
Reception
The film made $69,305,181 at the U.S. box office and a further $55,000,000 in other territories, totaling $124,305,181 worldwide.
The film generally received positive reviews. Based on 91 reviews collected by
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, the film has an overall approval rating from critics of 67%, with an average score of 6.4/10.
Sequel
A sequel has long been in development. In January 2007, it was reported that the sequel would be a loose remake of the 1964 film
TopkapiTopkapi is a heist film made by Filmways Pictures and distributed by United Artists. It was produced and directed by the emigre American film director, Jules Dassin...
. Brosnan said in January 2009 that
Paul Verhoeven was attached to direct the film. In 2010, Verhoeven said he had left the project due to script changes and a change in the regime.