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The Michael Mann appreciation thread
LeonardPine
The Bar on the Beach
Watching some of Michael Mann's film's recently, I thought there should be a discussion thread for this amazing director.
I'll start with a list of my personal favourites.
1. Manhunter (The best Thomas Harris adaptation. William Peterson and Brian Cox are great in it)
2. Heat (One of the best crime epics ever made. Pure Mann and pure class)
3. Thief (Almost a companion piece to Heat. Really riveting crime thriller. One of James Caans best performances)
4. Last of the Mohicans (A beautiful and spectacular period piece)
5. Miami Vice (I know some of the dialogue is a bit off but I think this is severely underrated)
6. Collateral (Has a lot of flaws but so well shot and acted)
I must admit I need to rewatch The Insider and Ali. I've also guiltily never seen The Keep...
I'll start with a list of my personal favourites.
1. Manhunter (The best Thomas Harris adaptation. William Peterson and Brian Cox are great in it)
2. Heat (One of the best crime epics ever made. Pure Mann and pure class)
3. Thief (Almost a companion piece to Heat. Really riveting crime thriller. One of James Caans best performances)
4. Last of the Mohicans (A beautiful and spectacular period piece)
5. Miami Vice (I know some of the dialogue is a bit off but I think this is severely underrated)
6. Collateral (Has a lot of flaws but so well shot and acted)
I must admit I need to rewatch The Insider and Ali. I've also guiltily never seen The Keep...
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Comments
Just out of curiosity, what are Collateral's flaws in your opinion, @LeonardPine? I've often seen people pick it as their favourite Mann film.
I’ve also always enjoyed the way Mann writes his characters have some sort of moral ambiguity, people who live in perpetual shades of grey; it’s reflective of our own society - that no one is entirely good, or entirely evil
I have the majority of Mann's films on DVD. Heat is probably my favorite of his films.
I later saw Heat, Collateral and his other brilliant films. But I also really like the more recent Public Enemies as well. His fast and engaging direction and the performances he got from Bale and Depp. I also really like Elliot Goldenthal's somewhat eclectic score and the way he uses it in the scene where Depp's Dillinger looks at photos of his dead gang members and in the final scene, when Depp's Dillinger meets his end, it really adds tension to Mann's direction.
Some individual shots are fantastic. The vertical tracking shot at the beginning is one. There’s another shot where the soldiers first look into the abyss under the castle, and Mann does something brilliant there with the long track away from the soldier, the shot goes and on and on and the soldier disappears into the remote distance. Superb and very chilling to watch.
But the performances IMO are really hammy.
My view is biased though because I’ve read the original novel too, so I’m suffering from a bad case of “the novel was better” syndrome. Mann changed the monster. The new monster was ok but the original monster (a vampire) integrated much better with the setting.
Everything else in Mann's resume, including Black Hat, ranges from good to great in my book. HEAT is my favourite film of his, no doubt about it.
I just find some of the plotting and scenarios in Collateral hard to swallow.
Other than that it's top notch.
It's pretty much Heat but cheaply made with low rent actors. Worth a look for curiosity value. You can see why Mann saw the potential in remaking it.
That's fair enough. I would agree with @patb above with respect to the ending. I think the film peaks in the middle third, which is just one great scene after another. Cruise is phenomenal, too.
Enjoy all the films you listed apart from 'Miami Vice', which didnt work for me!
I wouldnt bother with 'The Keep', its pretty poor!
'Manhunter' is still a favourite of mine. Awsome thriller. And Brian Cox is a far more frightening Lector than the cartoonish Hopkins!
Cheers mate!
I thought a director as interesting as Mann deserved a thread.
His films are seriously re-watchable.
On a side note, I used to work with a guy who is a historic reenactor and enthusiast and he was an extra in that film and said Mann was an "idiot" as far as the details and such went. That guy was a big blowhard anyway, so I didn't put much stock into that since the work speaks for itself.
I think one of my favourite details from Mann was having Val Kilmer's Chris in Heat use an Arkansas driver's license to buy the explosives materials at the beginning of the film. Apparently (and I wonder if anyone here can confirm this?) there was a faulty batch of Arkansas driver's licenses produced in the early 90s that made them easy to copy/replicate - making them popular among criminals for obvious reasons.
But I'd like to mention Miami Vice as well. I just love that show. The cinematography, the music, the characters.
I have. Indeed, it's interesting just to see where he came from and how much of LATD returns in HEAT.
Anyone seen "Thief" - his first feature I think? Not his best but you can seen some of the classic Mann style and Caan is very good.
Another great Tangerine Dream soundtrack, too.
I used to have the Thief soundtrack on vinyl. Not sure where it went to. Gutted!
It's an amazing soundtrack 👍
Brilliant films. I think Vice is seriously underrated.
Just love that scene between Jamie Foxx and Javier Bardem in Collateral.
Count me among those who rather enjoyed Miami Vice (2006). Then again, I also liked The Keep, but I may have been distracted from its flaws by all the intoxicating Tangerine Dream and I agree with the sentiment that the book was an incomparably better animal—sort of like Stoker meets Tolkien in Nazi-occupied Romania. Exactly like that, actually.
I always felt that the book was going for pure Lovecraft. The film seemed to be going there too, which is why I wish we could see a restored version of THE KEEP, though I'm not sure the many scenes they cut out have actually survived.
To be fair Javier Bardem is in it for a mere 10 minutes 😁
I can see the Lovecraft influence too. Like the part with the guard working on that painting that supernaturally changes. I'd love to see a more complete The Keep. I'd love to see it out in any form, but who knows when that'll happen.
Ah okay. I also haven't seen the film since around the time it came out, so there's that.
Other than that, magnificent film 👍