The Thomas Crown Walk

Just about everyone is always capable of devising a list of improvements for themselves, be they cosmetic or otherwise. Whole industries have been born around what is in essence mere vanity. And people are in fact willing to put in a lot of time, effort, and money to achieve these improvements. Of course the motivators can be intrinsic or extrinsic and a debate could be spawned around which is better. But it's precisely the reason why women take so long when getting ready to go out on a Saturday evening. Everything has to be perfect from the outset, even though tradition and experience tells that more often than not, especially with younger females, the nights typically end more or less badly. But regardless, it's the mental image from the outset that matters.

But fortunately not all things can be bought with money and not all things related to vanity are productized. I'm a huge fan of The Thomas Crown Affair (both versions, although I slightly prefer Brosnan's interpretation as it isn't as outdated, if you will, as the McQueen version). Thomas Crown is more or less the epitome of style, elegance, and understated chic (ok, this last one is debatable). Granted, I wouldn't mind having his town house or his Jaeger-LeCoultre. But what I really envy is his walk. It is just brilliant.

Very early on in the Brosnan interpretation, Thomas Crown enters the office after leaving his briefcase in the museum. This is the scene where you can see the walk. The posture is good and upright. Very balanced and graceful. It oozes a certain type of sophistication. But then it is also very American; it's strong and assertive, something that you would indeed expect from a great 21st century industrialist, in this case a banker. But it isn't rigid. Through an analogy, his walk is sort of like what a good handshake should be like: firm but gentle, enough to signal that you are powerful, but not a brute. And that's what I like about his walk. Maybe I'm digging into it a bit too much and it is certainly a vanity thing, but still... Check out the scene if you have the movie and you'll see.