In the Virgin edition the sound track Confrontation (composed by Craig Safan), used for the final gun fight between Frank (James Caan) and Leo (Robert Prosky), is omitted, apparently, by order of Edgar Froese, leader of the electronic rock group Tangerine Dream (born in the ‘70s in Germany), more inclined to produce an album exclusively of their pieces.

The wonderful post rock piece, whose player is still unknown and that vaguely recall Confortably Numb by Pink Floyd, has been replaced by another passage of a different kind and, equally great, called Beach Scene.

Anyway, it is possible to draw some conclusion, both for the style rendered in the album Force Majeure and for the fact that played but not composed works are often omitted (in The Keep it is possible to notice that twice); such elements make us think that Tangerine Dream themselves have performed it.

As a result of my enquiry at ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) my hypothesis could be all wrong.

Anyway, the  website Voice in The Net by Michael Berling quote this:

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Thief was the second big Hollywood film that TD worked on after
Friedkin’s Sorcerer. Michael Mann was professionally prepared and knew precisely
what he wanted. Up to this point, no one had ever used a sequencer
for this category of movies. Sorcerer, which was the first film in
which sequencers appeared, took place in very strange primeval
forest. Many people did not even really notice the exotic music. But
Thief took place in a normal thriller setting - here the music was
once unusual. This score was and is one of the most unusual of its
kind for American film, and TD received many offers after.

Michael Mann, who the band later worked for on The Keep, really helped TD
quite a lot on the way when he offered this film to them.

There were two versions of the album; only the US release from 1981
included the track Confrontation that was composed and performed by
Craig Safan. All other worldwide releases featured the composition
Beach Scene (itself an extended version of the opening title Beach
Theme) instead, though, by mistake, the US track listing was printed
on the covers of some of the first releases.

There have been rumours that Confrontation was composed by Safan but
played by TD, as the cover information suggests, but issue #9 of the
newletter of TD's now defunct official fan club (TDIFC) clearly
states: "During the time Michael Mann was editing and dubbing the
movie Thief, TD played some gigs in Italy. Michael rang them in
Venice and asked for a final guitar sequence which should close the
movie. There was no time for the band to step into an Italian studio
to record such a piece of music. What's very unusual for TD,
happened. Michael had to ask an LA based guitarist to compose what's
called later Confrontation on the record. It had to have playing
technique and a TD sound. Virgin records, who did the release of the
record outside the States, didn't like the piece or the whole
procedure. It was done and taken off the tape. Business as usual!"

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In the film, starting from the first talk between Frank and Leo and during the scene in the bar where the former quarrels with a very young William Petersen (Detective Will Graham in Manhunter), it is played Turning Point by the Mighty Joe Young (Album Lives from Wise Fools Pub), with Willie Hayes,the band leader percussionist also in real life. However, in the music credits there is  neither the title nor the author of the piece.

The track Diamond Diary opens the movie,first box's heist between police scanner and rain,Burning Bar accompanies the scene in which Frank turns to Grossman (Nathan Davis) at the scrap yard for technical advice on how to use magnesium bar to punch a Richmond Lackett box. Igneous appears in an official version from the album in the scene of the police's sidetracking with the signal that is put in the luggage compartment on a bus for Des Moines, a device that will also be mentioned by Casals (Wes Studi) in Heat. "Dr Destructo "slightly modified if compared to the album version begins with the prelude to Frank 's change where everything belonging to the past is destroyed.

Willie Nelson, actor and famous country singer, has a small part in the film as Okla while Willie Dixon, bluesman in the Chicago area, appears in a short cameo in a wonderful scene both for colours and shade, cut off in the movie theater edition.

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Finally, a note about back to the piece  Igneous also included in the above mentioned “Force Majeure”; in this latter, slightly re adapted album it is named “Thru Methamorphic Rocks” and it contains a part not present in the album Thief but used in the film, and precisely when Frank is driving to the car showroom unaware that some Leo’s hitmen (among whom “Carl” Dennis Farina) are waiting for him.It is no coincidence that sources close to Edgar Froese cite this:

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He got involved in our music by listening to a studio record called Force Majeure, which we recorded back in '78. He was listening to a piece called "Metamorphic Rocks" and so he put it into one of those sequences in Thief when they open up the roof on one of those skyscrapers. The sound mixed so well - that's what he said - that he called us and said, "Are you interested in doing the rest?". The thing is about Michael Mann, he's an American guy but he worked for about four years in London so he was very sympathetic with the European way of making films and using cameras. That's why he chose a lot of, what I would call French, British or early German shooting sequences in his movies. Like a man like Ridley Scott, who is known as a great American film maker, but in fact is very much British. He has given a big positive push to the American cinema by using certain European visions."

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SOUNDTRACK AVAILABILITY  CHECK https://www.discogs.com/Tangerine-Dream-Thief/master/13991

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