 | The 1968 original was a picaresque in the tradition of Thomas Mann's Felix Krull and the folk anti-hero Tyl Eulenspiegel. The 1999 remake is the result of a new generation with higher demands. In the 1999 story, the conflict is hot, heated, and high-spirited. In both versions, the motivation for multi-millionaire Thomas Crowne to pull off the perfect heist is the same: he needs challenge. However, in the original, the challenge is not enough; it is ultimately pointless, as is life. In the 1999 remake, Thomas Crown and Catherine Olds Banning both have risen because other people have underestimated them. In the remake, the challenge creates a conflict that brings a new test, and the protagonist rises to it because he is a man of ambition and achievement. The two movies are so different in their sense of life, that all they have in common is the basic elements of the plot.
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