Thieves Like Us
Robert Altman, USA 1974, 123 minutes
Rating: R16
Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall star as young lovers in this Depression-era tale of bank-robbing Mississippi convicts portrayed as innocents all at sea in an uncaring world.
It’s a serenely simple film — contained and complete. You feel elated by the chasteness of the technique, and the film engages your senses and stays with you, like a single vision. It’s beautiful right from the first pearly-green long shot. Robert Altman finds a sureness of tone and never loses it …
Pauline Kael, Scraps from the Loft (1974)
It’s the closest to flawless of Altman’s films — a masterpiece.