User Reviews

Christopher Doogan is dressed nicely, walking along a street in a marginal neighborhood at night in the fog. He passes a street preacher, and later goes into a church. Later he goes into a somewhat sleazy-looking bar where people are surprised to see him. Like the fog we see outside, we're not at all clear on what is going on in the early minutes of this film.

I saw this at the Camera Cinema Club in Silicon Valley, CA on 10/20/2002. The director, R.T. Herwig, was there to answer questions afterwards. He said that the film is an "emotional tone poem," and that making an understandable narrative was not his main focus. That's good, because the film was often fuzzy.

But despite the fact that the story is apparently not very important, you might still want to know about it. If you don't, you should *skip* the rest of this paragraph... Christopher has just been released from prison were he has been for a few years for his part in a robbery of some sort. Christopher loyally took the fall for a man named Banion and the rest of his gang, but Christopher isn't sure he wants back into a life of crime. He goes home, where his parents and grandmother live, and is welcomed except for by his retired-firefighter father. And later in the film, we learn, not surprisingly, that Banion has plans to use Christopher for at least one more job.

The film was shot on Super 16 and blown up to 35mm. Despite some people saying that it looked good, I thought it looked very grainy, especially in darker scenes like the church. It was shot in 14 days, and the finished film feels like it drags on nearly that long - it really needs some significant trimming. The performances by the unknown cast vary from marginal to good, but even the better actors are sometimes given very stilted lines to read. And the lead actor is way too short to plausibly be the child of the actors who play his parents.

On the positive side, the direction is more interesting than most mainstream films, probably because the director sincerely seems not to care if this film makes money or not. The camera angles are tilted more often than they are straight, which effectively conveys the subjectivity of the main character's mind, while possibly also keeping the audience more detached (one audience member's reaction). The film is made up almost entirely of long shots, both in terms of camera distance and the time between edits (one memorable shot is of a dinner, shot through the spindles of a railing, with two spindles visually keeping the three diners separate, and all done in one very long take).

I would probably give the film a slightly lower rating than I have, except that the director was very entertaining, despite his obvious discomfort at being in front of a crowd. He says he was depressed when he made the film, and it shows. He repeatedly brought up "Charlie's Angels" and Jackie Chan films, more or less saying that since his film is more original than those (which were popular), it must be good. He sited John Ford as his biggest influence, and "The Informer" as the film closest to what he was trying to make here.

I would recommend this film if the director will be there to answer questions afterwards, such as at a film festival. Frankly, I would be surprised if this film ever sees a normal distribution, but if it is (and the director is back home in the Philadelphia area), I would marginally recommend *against* seeing it.

I talked to a few people who worked on this film, so I quickly rented the DVD when it was released. This is R.T. Herwigs's first and most like last film. He seems to lack any knowledge on how to make a good film. Others have said that Herwig has taken an artistic approach in an attempt to explain why this film is so bad.

Too many canted angles – the look of the film reminds me of the Joker's hideout on the old Batman TV series. Canted angles work if they help portray a characters mental state, but having every single scene shot at an angle waters down the effect.

The principal actors do an adequate job. But the supporting actors are poor in their craft. Christopher's mother is too young for the part.

Horrible DVD transfer is full of bad splices plus the poor DVD rendering is full of noise and artifacts. Its not even encoded for DVD wide screen mode which is the first anamorphic DVD I've come across. Other annoyances include: - The street people are unconvincing – too clean cut. - Actors give long soliloquies on how miserable they are. - Too many people have Irish accents; hey it's the year 2004 not 1850! - Lighting is half-baked; just using a single key light with no fill. The gaffer either did a poor job or perhaps it's another artistic touch! - Melodramatic acting. Can't understand why Christopher decided to take the crime job and then later refuses to go through with it. His character was inconsistent.

I really want thank you all for the great conversation you've all added here on IMDb regarding my film. That's really what this is all about. The sharing of ideas and opinions, etc. Kudos to you all. When I had set out to make this film I made it with the hopes that there would be one thing each person watching it could take away from it. Good, bad, or indifferent. To me that's art. That's what film-making is all about. It's not about pleasing everyone at all times. It's about experimenting and learning. That's what makes directing so exciting. That said, I will take what I learned on this film and add it to my next one. Progressing each time. Hoping you all will stick around for the ride. All the best. - RT

i belong to a film club in san jose, california and was fortunate enough to see this film at our october, 2002 event. the event was even better because rt [the director] was there in the flesh for q&a.

this is a thinking persons film. lots of metaphor and use of older movie techniques. while the film may be flawed and overly ambitious, it really is the story of one man's journey towards absolution.

the director made this film for himself. if you like it, ok; if you don't that's ok too. what's important is that rt really did think this fillm through....but you might not know that if you had not heard him discuss the film. each scene was deliberately set up, actors kept from one another until their scenes, etc.

this is an excellent start for a first time feature director. i look forward to his future features. i agree with rt that those that don't like this film now will one day look at his work as a body and then say "now i get it" or more importantly "now i get him".

i like this film hence the rating. it probably won't ever get a release...never was rt's intention...but will play film festivals. go see it with an open mind and heart: think about sin, good v. bad, redemption and absolution. nothing is concrete in a metaphor....

I saw some postings online about this film so I wanted to check it out. I was even more jazzed when I found it on NetFlix and all.

OK, going into it I knew it was going to be an indie, and not a studio indie film. I read the other postings. So my expectations were very indie based and I also saw that it was 114-mins, so I knew it would be long.

Length aside, I gotta tell you I was pretty impressed with the job RT Herwig did with this film. Being that it was his first film. It was very visual. And when I say that I mean it is the kind of film that you have to watch from the eyes of the characters to understand. It's more like watching them and watching their troubles. Kinda like you were friend with a kid from a dysfunctional family and they invited you over to their house for dinner and you just sat there and watched them. I get the feeling that in an RT Herwig film its all about the characters in relationship to one another and the surroundings they are in. More so then the story they are living in. I know that might not make any sense.

It was not your typical film that was held together with clever writing as is the case with most indie films. Ya know films that are directed by writers that don't have much of a screen language. You know. They have brilliant writing, but I guess they missed the classes where you actually have to have a style. These kinds of films are all about shaky-cam and fast cutting. RT's film is waaaaaaaaaay on the opposite end of this scale. It's just all visual.

This film has a visual style all its own. I'm sure RT sees his world in these emotional colors and tones.

Then to read that he had shot this film in only a week. It was a beautifully shot film. I love how RT just hangs on his actors and allows them to follow thru on a thought after a scene has played out. Brilliant. But if you are from the mindset that films need to be quick, quick, quick, and cut, cut, cut, and witty banter line after line; then you might so miss the boat on this one.

Saint Christopher is the kind of movie that you can make too much of – or too little of. It is excellent, mind you, but having the wrong expectations will surely ruin your viewing pleasure. If you're looking for a sophisticated art film with thought-provoking ambiguities and dark psychological imagery, you'll be wanting more. If you're looking a fast-paced urban crime drama, you'll also be wanting more. St. Christopher falls between the two: It is a simple, straightforward story that is raised to the level of film art by its fully developed complex characters, extraordinary acting, and the director's eye for powerful natural imagery. I highly recommend it.

The Director's unique style is immediately evident in the opening sequence as "Saint" Christopher descends into dark uncertainties of his old neighborhood as ascending angelic images slip past him. R.T. Herwig displays a masterful use of light, angle, perspective and framing to evoke a primal sense of this dark, tortured world where the protagonist must return to battle his demons – and hopefully, to rise again to light. Though the Director may use a tilted screen a bit too often, there is nothing heavy-handed in the dialog or the imagery that smells of art film pretension. The shots are thoughtfully composed and enjoy a simple grace and flow. The choice of images is exquisite, yet so natural that the viewer melts entirely into its world.

The greatest flaw may be pacing. Director R.T. Herwig is generous in giving his actors the screen time for authentic emotion. Some scenes are perhaps "too realistic" in allowing encounters to occur at real world speed and by using real world silence to convey the characters' inability to articulate their regrets, alienation and loss of faith. At the same time, however, the acting in this movie is its great strength. Every main character is fully developed and convincing and the actors deliver superb performances with emotional wallop. The lead actor, for better or worse, reminds us of a young Robert DeNiro, raw and seething, fascinating to watch, and utterly compelling in evoking the viewer's sympathies. To use a tired phase, Christopher Kadish has the makings of a star. His is an auspicious performance you don't want to miss.

I worked on "The Good Thief" as a Production Assistant, which meant I got to yell out, "Rolling! Quiet please!" in some of Philadelphia's finest neighborhoods. I saw the movie last week, and let me tell you, standing outside a crack house at 2am was worth it. RT Herwig's debut was made for under $700,000, and throughout the course of the movie, it becomes obvious that they got the most out of every penny. The film looks nicer than most movies made for millions and millions of dollars. "The Good Thief" is a story about an honorable man returning home from prison and trying to reconcile his past with his future. Namely, he wants to provide for his daughter who doesn't know he's alive but doesn't want to return to crime to do so. Rather than tell a straightforward story, Herwig lays on some trippy spirituality to mix things up. There's a lot of smoke in this movie, (hence my subject line) and that's just one of the visual metaphors Herwig uses to demonstrate the protagonist's mental state. More often than not, this doesn't look like a cheaply-made movie. The film is beautifully shot, and you can tell a lot of care went into making each frame look wonderful. Some of the acting falls flat, and some scenes drag on, but there is enough strength in other scenes to redeem the film. Herwig throws in some neat clues here and there, and the soundtrack is very cool. It will be nice to see what Herwig can do with a larger budget. He's obviously a very talented filmmaker with a bright future ahead of him. People spend a lot of money on making really crappy movies. "The Good Thief" didn't cost a lot of money, and is not a really crappy movie. It's actually pretty good, and well worth checking out. Just watch out for all the smoke.

I was on NextCat.com poking around and came across RT Herwig as the featured filmmaker. Dug deeper on his page and saw that he had directed this film, blah, blah, blah. I came on here and read the comments and then went to get the film. Luckily I had found it on Amazon and bought myself a copy. It is an indie film. And when I say indie I mean it's a film done completely outside the mainstream. It's a film completely perceived from RT's own emotions and thoughts and feelings. It was so heavy that it could only have come from someone who actually felt this way. It was honest. It was emotional poetry. It was unlike anything. I think why some people might not like it is because its very heavy. When the screen goes dark you feel sad and bummed out. It brought back so many feelings I had of my parents and our own family life growing up. It's not something I was glad to think about, but if a film can move me emotionally like that than I think it has done its job. Most films leave you with that false sense of something, this film left me thinking about my life and the choices I had made. I can see people not really digging that kind of film experience, but if you are a fan of cinema; cinema that has a certain emotional baggage then you should check this film out. If you go into it knowing that it is not what it seems to be that is. It's not the crime drama you want it to be. Watch it more like a parable, or a poem, or a metaphor, or whatever. Try to watch it as if you were there and looking right into the eyes of these people. If you do that, you might have the experience that the film was intended to give you.

I live in Philadelphia and had the opportunity to see a cut of R.T. Herwig's film THE GOOD THIEF which I think will be released soon on a wider scale.

What a cool little film. Very honest and truthful. I loved the vision of the film and the subtext. It has a very old school feel to it.Herwig likes long takes and a static camera and its very refreshing to see this now a days. Would compare R.T. to a young John Ford or John Sayles. I love John Ford and guess that's why I loved THE GOOD THIEF. I just stumbled upon it.

I was also talking to some people afterwards and found out that he shot it in 14-days. It was amazing that this piece of art I just saw was shot in 14-days. I can only imagine what RT will do next with a larger budget and a more time. He has such great vision as a filmmaker.

Basically the film stars Christopher Kadish who was in Acts of Worship, The Believer at Sundance, and some other films. Well he plays a man who returns home from priosn to put his life back together. As he does, he relizes that his past, present and future are all connected with those around him inlcuding a daughter and the old crime guy he used to work for. But deep inside the film its about the father son relationship. Herwig adds some religious elements to the film, but not in a real heavy handed way. I guess to just show the guilt of his main character and what he is thinking.

I get the impression while watching that RT left the interpretation of the film up to me to decide. It's like he shot it with three or four POV's in a single scene and it was up to me to decide what I was watching. Was it a dream of some kind? It could have been a foreshadow? Or it could have been a flashback? Or it was reality? I didn't know and that was what was so fun about this movie. I love to think at a film and Herwig made me think.

Without giving away the ending it was such a great little film. Very moving and artistically sound. I loved how RT shot the end. Just so simple, yet so expressionistic. It's like he took a single second of one man's life and exagerated its length so show what was going on internally and externally at the same time.

I'm gonna see it again when it at The County Theater in Doylestown, PA on Aug. 8th. Heard there will be a party afterwards. Maybe I'll meet R.T.

What a great start by this new American director. I can't wait to see what he does next on a larger scale. Like what Aaronofski did after Pi. After seeing The Good Thief. I'd have tosay that DA and Pi and R.T. Herwig and The Good Thief are my two favorite debuts by a director.

I thought this film was truly amazing for a first time director (Herwig) and screenwriter (Iasiello). I went to the premiere at Doyleston and thought the film exuded a very non-Hollywood type of narrative that hasn't been seen since the early days of such directors as John Ford and Howard Hawks. It was both moving and thoughtful,

The main writer (Iasiello) created such true-to-life blue collar characters that struggle for everyday existence in the underbelly of a city. The acting was superb as well, another rarity in first time films.

Overall, I recommend anyone who likes movies whose stories and characters are the focal point of the film, rather than explosions and CGI.

My Wife and I recently attended a screening of "The Good Thief" in Doylestown, PA, and unlike other features by local directors that we'd seen, we both felt that this was a first rate effort. Director RT Herwig's first feature effort has the style of film noir of the 30's & 40's, a script that gives the audience plenty to think about after they leave the theater, & a strong cast that delivers the goods. Christopher Kadish, looking very much like a round faced DeNiro, gives a most believable performance as Chris, an ex con recently released from prison and trying very hard to straighten out his life. The entire cast makes it look like this is a slice of life that we're looking in on and not a performance, a feeling enhanced by long loving shots and not any quick & jarring cuts. A must see.

R.T. Herwig's THE GOOD THIEF was a thought-provoking, visually rich film, which artfully deals with questions of quilt and forgiveness. It was a haunting and very atmospheric piece of cinema, where the darkness not only ruled the streets, but also in the hearts of the people living within the shadows. It was a terrifically well-crafted film that features excellent performances by its cast, a very effective score and beautiful cinematography.

RT Herwig's THE GOOD THIEF is a stunning testament to independent filmmaking. RT handles the daunting task of brining a dark, moody morality tale to an audience, and he delivers. In an assured, well-crafted manner his directorial debut shows that he is a storyteller with a firm grasp on his work, even more telling is that he co-wrote, edited and produced the piece. I'm so sure he will continue to make films for many years to come, and I don't doubt that they will continue to challenge him, and that he will meet the task, to a film going audiences delight.

Christopher Kadish holds a likeable screen presence as the lead character Christopher Doogan. he carries the audience with him by his somber understated performance. Kadish holds the charisma and the sometimes appearance of a young Robert DeNiro. But that said, there is much originality to his acting. His career I suspect is just starting to take off to the next level.. This is breakthrough stuff for Kadish. He was great. He turns in a brooding performance, the kind that great indie's are known for. His moral dilemma, to go straight or succumb to his past, pulls him apart inside, and Kadish bleeds out these emotions carefully, never giving in to the temptation to overplay his hand.

Lisbeth Bartlett portrays the semi-destroyed matriarch of a collapsing family with an intense performance. I read online that she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress nod at The Method Fest in LA for this performance. Clearly she has had her share of roles and knows how to tap into territory of tragedy. Throughout the film she holds the most sympathy from the audience, even while her ineffectiveness earns our frustration, it's her weakness that we most relate to. She drives the story forward and provides the back-story with her strong performance as a clueless, unloving mother who thinks as all bad mothers do, that she has done her best for her child.

I just loved this film. RT used darkness, mood and music to create the world of Doogan (Kadish). The film broods over his dilemma, and allows the audience to invest in his future. The camera lingers over the many strong dramatic performances, allowing all to do their best work. Much of the movie is lit from above and has a tilted camera angle. The sharp contrasts become metaphor for the manic highs and lows of the world they inhabit. It's a strong film, a true indie film. Give the film a chance to grow on you.

Director RT Herwig is a filmmaker that will be heard from again and again. I'm so glad I found his work.

RT guides this story along smoothly, never allowing the threads of the storyline to come unravel. RT brings out the details of his characters through the actors, his camera and the use of light, in a seamless manner that is fascinating to

behold. This I guess if what they call the Herwiglian style. I myself was mesmerized by his camera work and the film's mood and applaud RT's courageous choices while maintaining accessibility. Give it a shot.

RT Herwig's The Good Thief is highly recommended. RT is my new favorite upcoming director. You should really look into his work and career.

C.P.