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 Michael Mann (b. 1943) is an American film & TV director. Born & raised in Chicago, he received a B.A. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Subsequent to that, he moved abroad, to England and to continental Europe to receive education and training as a filmmaker, and returned to the United States in 1971. He did industrial, documentary, and television work for the second half of the 60s and the entirety of the 70s. 1979 saw the release of his TV feature, The Jericho Mile on ABC. It won 3 Emmy awards. Following this, he began his theatrical feature career while continuing his work in television. He has directed 11 theatrical feature films (writing and producing most of them as well), two TV feature films, and has worked as a producer, writer, and director on several TV shows, including Miami Vice. An auteur director, he is known for: his meticulous, exacting, and dictatorial directing style; attention to detail in the minutae of his films (although the bigger picture usually gets fudged in favor of dramatic tension); narratives that focus on solitary, professional men who are also meticulous, exacting, and dictatorial; yearning romantic subplots; tragic narrative arcs; tactile action sequences; stylish visuals; blue-gel lighting; brooding macho atmospheres; questionable music choices. Frequent collaborators include actors like Dennis Farina, Robert Prosky, William Petersen, Tom Noonan, Al Pacino, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jamie Foxx, John Voight, and John Ortiz; cinematographers like Dante Spinotti, Dion Beebe, and Ron Garcia; music by Elliot Goldenthal and Tangerine Dream. THE FEATURES Mann's filmography lends itself well to being understood chronologically, but additionally, his shift into digital filmmaking in The New Millennium allows for an interesting lens through which to view his work. As such, I will be breaking this section up into film features and digital features (by decade). A. THE FILM FEATURES 80s Thief (1981)  James Caan stars as Frank, an ex-convict jewel thief, the film opens with an extended heist sequence that goes out of its way to show us that Frank is the best at what he does: taking jewel scores. As a front for his criminal operations he owns a car lot and a bar, but feels like something is missing. Despite his unconventional lifestyle, Frank, like every 80s boomer aspires to middle class mediocrity and settling down with the bar cashier he is dating, Jessie (Tuesday Weld). To do so he plans to take one final score. Perhaps no better feature to start watching Mann's films with than his debut, all of the narrative and formal elements on display here will be reworked in the majority of his subsequent features (described in my introduction), and it is just an all around great action thriller. Mann describes this as, and I quote, "a left-extensionalist critique of corporate capitalism." lol. The Keep (1983)  A colossal misfire by most metrics, although it does have some love on the Internet these days, The Keep is Michael Mann's equivalent of David Lynch's Dune: a film made with a clear vision that got hacked to pieces by the studio. Mann's cut was originally 210-minutes long(!!!) but he was only allowed to have a two-hour long film, and Paramount cut it even further. It's a total jumbled mess of a film, the production design is incredible and the atmosphere is on point, it has an insanely good Tangerine Dream OST, and you can see Mann's true vision peeking through the muck. Honestly, I find this film interminably boring as is, and it only runs 96 minutes, and Mann's cut will probably never see the light of day. An adaptation of F. Paul Wilson's novel, it's about Nazi Zombies or something. This is sort of in for completists only territory: it has never been released on DVD or Blu, and its only home media incarnations so far have been Laserdisc and VHS. It was streaming on Netflix instant for a bit and I believe Amazon Video has it. You can probably skip this one. Manhunter (1986)  Mann's third feature has the distinction of being the first big screen adaptation of one of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lector novels. An adaptation of Red Dragon, Mann can't help but leave his fingerprints all over this. Will Graham (played here by William Petersen, hot off the tails of acting in William Friedkin's masterful To Live and Die in L.A. (which Mann sued Friedkin over for ripping off Miami Vice lol)) suffers a mental breakdown after being attacked by Hannibal Lector, but comes back to the job to investigate the Tooth Fairy murders. In Mann's hands the film becomes a more deliberate piece of storytelling than perhaps Demme or Scott's later adaptations of Harris' material, placing significant emphasis on the forensic process used to catch a killer paired with another great chilly score. Its influence on crime procedurals can still be felt to this day. 90s The Last of the Mohicans (1992)  Mann's fourth feature, and first of the 90s, is an adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's novel. Set during the French and Indian War, it follows Hawkeye (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) escorting the two daughters of a British Army colonel through enemy territory. Mann trades in his sleek blue hues, vehicles, and night for earth tones, daytime, and period piece elements (which interestingly figure into his later digital work). This one is noteworthy because of its attention to detail in production design. Something like 400 dagger sheaths were weaved in various patterns using porcupine quills, DDL learned how to track and skin animals as part of his research, and large parts of the dialogue are spoken in Mohawk and Huron. I need to give this a rewatch because I suspect it may be better than I remember. Heat (1995)  I don't really have to explain this one do I? I should write something because this is widely held up as Mann's masterpiece, a well oiled machine firing on all cylinders. It is the centerpiece of his filmmaking career, everything before was just a lead-up to this, and everything after derives at least some portion of its narrative or formal engine from this. Mann reworks his TV film L.A. Takedown's script with people who can actually act -- not only is this central to Mann's career, it is perhaps the last truly great performance from both De Niro and Pacino (yes, Ronin, and Mann's own The Insider are excellent but this feels like the last one where they're really giving their all) -- he also gives it some significant tragic, Western heft. Lightning in a bottle. The Insider (1999)  Mann guns for the Oscars here, he got 7 nominations. A wordy journalism thriller a la All The Presidents Men, this tells the story of radical leftist journalist Lowell Bergman (Pacino) who helped to revolutionize 60 Minutes, and Jeffery Wigand (Russell Crowe), a tobacco industry whistleblower. Bergman gets some dirt on the tobacco industry dropped on his doorstep and contacts Wigand, who just got fired at his as a research scientist with a big tobacco company, about fingering the CEOs. He initially refuses and from there the film becomes a game of wits for all involved. Mann takes what would probably otherwise be stodgy material for dads and transforms it into something special. This is probably the first of his films where you can feel that facts are being played with a little fast and loose to ramp up the tension. B. THE DIGITAL FEATURES Michael Mann posted:When steel came in to architecture in New York, they tended to use it to make buildings go up, but they didn't know what to make them look like. So they took the basic maison — or a house, the ground floor — then they made the premier étage — the first floor — fancy. And then where there would be one or two stories and then a roof of the pediment, they stretched that to 30 stories. So if you think about all those buildings right around the turn of the century that are starting to use steel, they're all the same. They've got a couple of fancy floors, they've then got brick for 30 floors and then they've got a roof. It's like you want to slice 18 of the 20 floors out, drop it down and you've got a house, right? Around the turn of the Millennium, Mann began to experiment using digital cinematography. Every feature he has made post-2000 uses digital cameras in one way or another, although his latest feature, Blackhat, is the only one to be shot entirely digitally so far. Along with Davids Lynch, Fincher, and Cronenberg, I would say that Mann is perhaps the most innovative user of digital cinematography working commercially today. As noted in that quote above, he attempts to derive a digital aesthetic owing to the camera itself rather than attempt to recreate film cinematography using digital cameras. He was an early adopter and his films evolved with the technology, so the films of this half of his career are all starting to look dated, but not in uninteresting ways. These dated technologies give films like Collateral and Miami Vice some really bizarre, sui generis visual aesthetics since they don't make digital cameras now like they did a decade ago. Digital is also used to give an immediacy to the action, there are so many digital sequences in the films of this period that appear to be shot completely off the cuff, and most of the camera placements and angles are bizarre and unconventional. 00s Ali (2001)  This is a really confounding film to me. It makes sense why Mann is attracted to the subject material in question here, and the cast give incredible performances with the script but something about this is just off, like the ambition is misplaced. It is ostensibly a biopic of Muhammad Ali but it subverts the genre's conventions at most opportunities. It focuses on Ali's fights with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman, and his romances. Additionally it touches on the civil rights movement, his involvement with the Nation of Islam, and his Vietnam War opposition. Worth a look if only for the opening 12 minute montage set to a medley of Sam Cooke songs, which is maybe one of the best sustained moments of filmmaking in his career, and the use of digital: it is primarily used to capture during the boxing matches, really putting you in the moment of the fight, and it's really jarring whenever it cuts to these moments, sort of like being punched. Collateral (2004)  This film is really silly but I love it. Mann directs the first script of his career he didn't have a hand in writing, Tom Cruise plays against type as Vincent, a salt & pepper haired hitman, Jamie Foxx plays Max, an innocent taxi driver courier taking Vincent along on his killing spree. Vincent is killing a bunch of witnesses involved in a trial, but is also tasked with killing the prosecutor in the case (Jada Pinkett Smith) who Max picked up and dropped off earlier in the night and has sort of fallen for. It's all a little contrived but Mann creates a taut thriller out of the material, and it's all lensed gorgeously through the Los Angeles night. Miami Vice (2006) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3TeE2Z7a_U (This was a terribly marketed film. People went in expecting it to be like the TV show and then came away disappointed when it basically turned out to be Heat 2.0 with bad accents, a cold-open with Linkin Park & Jay-Z's "Numb/Encore", and a butt-rock cover of "In The Air Tonight". It has had a huge rehabilitation in the critical consciousness over the past few years. I love every second of this film so much.) Public Enemies (2009)  Heat 3.0 masquerading as a biopic of John Dillinger starring Captain Jack Sparrow and Batman in the De Niro/Pacino roles. Another terribly marketed film, but maybe Mann at his most radical with the digital camera, an audacious choice to film a period piece with, lots of that off the cuff and immediate shooting and bizarre camera mountings and angles I described. Again Mann trades in his blues for earth tones and a huge amount of attention is paid to period detail going as far as to shoot the prison escape sequences at the prison itself, the Little Bohemia scenes at Little Bohemia in Manitowish, Wisconsin, and Dillinger's final moments at the Biograph in Chicago. And again, some of the factual details are fudged or left out. Some people have issues with the sound mixing for the guns and the digital cinematography but I think this is my favorite. 10s Blackhat (2015)  Heat 4.0 masquerading as a hacker film, I love this film but there's an extent to which you could argue that it is an excuse for Mann & co. to travel to a bunch of exotic places for location shooting. His first all digital feature starring Thor as a hacker (hard to accept? you be the judge) and again, terribly marketed and bombed at the box office. People went in expecting a hacker film and got a Michael Mann film. I think this one is particularly interesting because it shifts the focus away from the individual and partnerships (as in pretty much every aforementioned film) and focuses more on collectives. Maybe the end of an era for his filmmaking? We'll see. UPCOMING PROJECTS He is currently working on a biopic about Enzo Ferrari (tentatively titled Enzo.) Christian Bale was attached to play the lead, but dropped out and I believe they are in the process of recasting it. THE TV FEATURES The Jericho Mile (1979) I haven't seen this! All I know is that it's a prison crime drama from 1979. L.A. Takedown (1989) Heat 0.5 with people who can't act in double-breasted shoulder-padded suits. Skip. Why now? He has a film far off on the horizon and his last one came out a year ago, I should be more timely, yes? Well, yes, but because I have been rewatching his films lately owing in part to a career retrospective at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in February and I want to talk about them with people outside of my echo chamber of mutual followers on Twitter who also love him. Ideally this thread will be limited to discussion of his films. If you want to talk about his TV shows (Miami Vice et al) take it to TVIV or take it up with the mod I suppose. TL;DR: Let's Talk About Michael Mann Radio Spiricom fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Apr 8, 2016 |
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Apr 6, 2016 18:56
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LA Takedown owns, and Last of the Mohicans is absolutely better than you're remembering it to be.
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Apr 6, 2016 19:08
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Thank u for making a good thread, op
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Apr 6, 2016 19:11
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Radio Spiricom posted:I would say that Mann is perhaps the most innovative user of digital cinematography working commercially today. stephen soderbergh wakes from a restless slumber, not knowing why his eyes are blotted with tears
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Apr 6, 2016 19:16
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Last of the Mohicans loving owns and the final battle along the cliffs is dope.  The commentary on the Criterion release for Thief isn't too exciting but it's nice to hear James Caan joke around as much as he does and it's such a great film it's hard to complain when you've got two ridiculously talented people going back and forth over one of their favorite movies.
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Apr 6, 2016 19:32
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The theater I used to work at has a 35mm print of The Keep in the basement. The story goes that the studio was done with the movie and told them to trash it. But nobody did cause it said "Keep" on the can.
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Apr 6, 2016 21:11
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Michael Mann is starting to grow on me as a director. Thief is 80s as gently caress, but some of the scenes from that movie are beautiful like the part where he is at the park looking at the lake. Not to mention that it basically is the inspiration for Refn's Drive. Although I think my favorite out of all of them is probably Collateral. It's one of those "one long night" films but it has some really good tension throughout the movie and the club scene is easily the highlight for me. That being said, Michael Mann can shoot the hell out of a gunfight. I don't think I have seen one that I have disliked yet. He is really good at letting the viewer follow the action. I have yet to be confused by a gunfight in any of his movies.
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Apr 6, 2016 21:44
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Collateral is pretty good, Heat is alright. That's kinda it he is boring as gently caress honestly.
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Apr 6, 2016 22:12
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Mann has a knack for trying to get into how things work, or his characters, but I like that he takes time to show us the little stuff or inner workings.
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Apr 6, 2016 23:13
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I really gotta see The Insider. I'm about half and half on Mann. I love Thief and Last of the Mohicans, but don't really care for Heat or Manhunter. Collateral was decent, Ali was a bunch of great performances in search of a movie. Even at his worst, he has a very strong voice, which is admirable. I think he's one of those guys where I almost prefer the stuff he influenced to the stuff he did himself, though.
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Apr 6, 2016 23:47
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Solid OP that I mostly agree with although I will say that Miami Vice is totally like the TV show, all style and angst. Love it. Also Mohicans has an intolerable first act or so that I always forgive once they get to the fort. The climax might be my favorite sequence of all of Mann's work. It's the finest example of the best parts of any of his movies, when there's no talking.
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Apr 7, 2016 00:22
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I was really disappointed with Miami Vice. As the OP mentioned, the movie wasn't marketed very well. I watched the movie hoping it would be similar to the tv show, but it turned out to be different. It's a really well shot film, though.
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Apr 7, 2016 01:43
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I know that this is focused on movies, but everyone should really check out the Miami Vice and Crime Story TV series. They're really really good even though they do have some trappings of 80's television.
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Apr 7, 2016 01:51
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Jesus, it's so goddamn embarrassing that I haven't seen Heat. I've actually been a fan of his since I stumbled on The Insider way back when it came out and I was so impressed with how the stylish camerawork and tight direction made a thrilling film out of what probably should have been a fairly dry subject at the time, a real-world story starring people most people hadn't really heard of. Anyway, my two favorite films of his are probably Manhunter and Collateral, but again, I haven't seen Heat, and keep meaning to. I've always loved Manhunter - great score, underrated lead performance by Peterson, underrated performance by Brian Cox as "Hannibal Lektor", who of course did the first ever take on the character which still resonates through the Anthony Hopkins performances and all the way into Mads Mikkelson's. Not bad for only 2 or 3 scenes, and drat are those scenes good. Tom Noonan is just creepy on a legendary level as Francis Dolarhyde. Neither Ralph Fiennes nor Richard Armitage even approached the creepiness level that Noonan achieved, partly because both are just too attractive/charismatic. But Tom Noonan, jesus. The climax of Manhunter is also totally fantastic and shot in this crazy hyper stutter-step style that I'm not sure I've seen before or since in any other film, and set awesomely to "In Da Godda Da Vie Da" which has a hell of a contrast with the film's score. Collateral is one of those weird movies that I love almost entirely for the cinematography. I *adore* the way LA looks at night and this movie just captures the restlessness and gives you such a sense of surroundings. I really think this film is a downright photographic masterpiece. I almost could care less what the talking people are doing in this flick. kaworu fucked around with this message at 09:11 on Apr 7, 2016 |
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Apr 7, 2016 09:05
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I've only seen his pre-2000s stuff. The Last of the Mohicans is absolutely riveting and its last 10 minutes are iconic, with minimal dialogue and a rich sense of movement. If not for the fact that it's kinda sorta at least a little bit racist people would be harping on it more, I think.
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Apr 7, 2016 13:06
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I didn't like Miami Vice when I first saw it. But since people have been raving about Mann a bit more lately and 'rediscovering' that one in particular, I decided to rewatch it some months ago. Still didn't like it at all. It's just terribly uninteresting in basically every way: the characters, the story, the dilemmas, everything. I also find a lot of the raves for his digital cinematography to amount to little more than 'it looks different and it's pretty, I like it' which is not exactly convincing.
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Apr 7, 2016 13:11
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Pedro De Heredia posted:I also find a lot of the raves for his digital cinematography to amount to little more than 'it looks different and it's pretty, I like it' which is not exactly convincing. Sometimes good cinematography is marked as much by technical prowess as it is the emotions or feelings that it might evoke, sometimes by way of nostalgia via visual memory. For instance, the cinematography in Collateral is good (to me) because it captures that feeling of being driven around LA at night in a cab - the lights, the sounds, the tone of the colors, etc. It's extremely evocative. Or the radical cinematography at the end of Manhunter (which isn't digital) is fantastic and original and really makes the entire experience far scarier and more visceral and sudden than it would otherwise be, with these tiny jump cuts underscoring the unreality of everything. It really feels like you're there.
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Apr 7, 2016 14:11
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if folks itt haven't seen nightcrawler yet they absolutely should. dan gilroy is very much in the debt of michael mann when it comes to the "clean filth" visual style, and every element of that movie is firing on all cylinders. very very good politics, too, a rarity for a wide release film in the united states
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Apr 7, 2016 18:18
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Vegetable posted:I've only seen his pre-2000s stuff. The Last of the Mohicans is absolutely riveting and its last 10 minutes are iconic, with minimal dialogue and a rich sense of movement. If not for the fact that it's kinda sorta at least a little bit racist people would be harping on it more, I think. To be fair they were starting with the work of a terrible writer. http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/rissetto/offense.html
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Apr 7, 2016 18:29
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kaworu posted:Sometimes good cinematography is marked as much by technical prowess as it is the emotions or feelings that it might evoke, sometimes by way of nostalgia via visual memory. For instance, the cinematography in Collateral is good (to me) because it captures that feeling of being driven around LA at night in a cab - the lights, the sounds, the tone of the colors, etc. It's extremely evocative. The unscripted, serendipitous coyote scene really hammers this home. It's really like you, and the actors, and the camera, are just there. (Edit: in Collateral, obviously) Also his music choices are not questionable, even when they aren't good. He picks songs that are intensely of the moment of their filming. Like, what could work better for thrillers about assholes set in Bush era Florida and Southern Cal than fucken Audioslave and Linkin Park?
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Apr 7, 2016 18:35
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sean10mm posted:To be fair they were starting with the work of a terrible writer. This is so vicious I'm surprised it never hurt Twain's reputation.
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Apr 7, 2016 19:42
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:This is so vicious I'm surprised it never hurt Twain's reputation. Keep in mind who you're talking about here. Mark Twain could have practically eaten a baby and it wouldn't have hurt his reputation much, to my understanding.
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Apr 7, 2016 19:50
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sean10mm posted:To be fair they were starting with the work of a terrible writer. God drat
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Apr 7, 2016 22:20
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LORD OF BUTT posted:Keep in mind who you're talking about here. Mark Twain could have practically eaten a baby and it wouldn't have hurt his reputation much, to my understanding. Also Twain was often super abrasive and gave no fucks, and that was part of his popularity in the first place. There probably needs to be a  using Mark Twain's face.
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Apr 7, 2016 22:20
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JFC got ethered.
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Apr 7, 2016 22:22
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:JFC got ethered. Last Twain derail post: he said Jane Austen's writing made him want to dig up her corpse and beat her over the skull with her own shin bone. 
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Apr 8, 2016 00:55
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:This is so vicious I'm surprised it never hurt Twain's reputation. I was listening to a political podcast and John Dickerson (my political pundit idol) was talking about how, despite how we talk about the founding fathers and their political ideals, they were just as big of assholes as politicians are today. I'm pretty sure every one of the major founding fathers, at least once, wrote a >500 page letter and sent it anonymously to one newspaper or another specifically with the intent of bashing another founding father. In other words, I'm pretty sure that, just as it is now, a great burn is a great burn, no matter by who, or how they do it. And it goes double if one of America's greatest writers is doing the burning.
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Apr 8, 2016 01:55
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Ben Franklin was the Roastmaster General.
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Apr 8, 2016 02:14
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Mann is one of my favourite directors and Heat is my favourite film, but it's been diminishing returns on his films since Collateral. Miami Vice is a huge guilty pleasure of mine but I understand why it has a more negative reputation. And I think Public Enemies was hurt by the digital look, it really doesn't suit period pieces. Blackhat was just a huge disappointment from every angle, especially the score  (although it was one of the best depictions of Hong Kong I've seen in a Hollywood movie) Here's hoping the Ferrari pic goes through, I could see it being a more Insider-ish turn for him.
Cacator fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Apr 8, 2016 |
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Apr 8, 2016 03:13
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The Keep is a classic example of a movie where the director had the kernel of a good movie in his head, but between them and us the movie got so chopped up that it turned into gibberish. I didn't know it when I saw it, but the fact that its run-time was cut in HALF is the least surprising thing. It's also Mann trying to do something completely different from anything he did before or since, so it's worth checking out for that if you're bored and feel like watching some weird poo poo.
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Apr 8, 2016 12:40
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The big problem with Miami Vice is that, as I've heard, Foxx threw a tantrum and got tired of shooting the film, and they didn't do the climax yet, which was planned to a big location-set sequence - so the movie just kind of fizzles out and builds to nothing in particular.
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Apr 8, 2016 14:53
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I'm one of those people that didn't really care for the Miami Vice film. Don Johnson's Crockett was cool as gently caress. He would charm you, crack a joke, and be all smiles one minute. Then transition into deadly seriousness, anger, or shock a few minutes later. I had major hype for the movie when it came out, and just felt extremely disappointed by Farrell's Crockett. While Johnson was Miami cool, Farrell was more Florida panhandle cool. Also, the Vice pilot with Tubbs going into the NY nightclub set to The Deele's Body Talk was a hundred times better than Linkin Park. gently caress that noise forever.
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Apr 8, 2016 19:18
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DeimosRising posted:The unscripted, serendipitous coyote scene really hammers this home. It's really like you, and the actors, and the camera, are just there. (Edit: in Collateral, obviously) Yeah, there's an interview with him about Thief where he talks about why its shot the way it was (i.e. slick city streets at night, shallow focus cinematography that turns all the lights into floating orbs) which is because he thinks that it really captures what he describes as a three dimensionality to the night (presumably here meaning a heightened sense of reality/verisimilitude) and how it turns everything into a tunnel, which is interesting and I think the shift into digital only adds to this in those films. As for the music comment, it was a bad joke, but I know he has expressed some mixed feelings about choosing the Tangerine Dream score for Thief in this DGA interview, because going with that immediately dates the film, and that if he had the choice to redo it he would go with "wall-to-wall blues." I'm not a huge fan of the Audioslave cue in that scene, but I love the Numb/Encore cue in Miami Vice, especially in the theatrical cut, and I think one of the big mistakes he made was moving it from being a cold open in the director's cut. I'd hesitate to call it intensely of the moment, though, it was like 3 years after that record was released. And for as much as I love Public Enemies, which is a gratuitous-as-hell film in general, the electric guitar during the Prety Boy Floyd sequence is especially gratuitous (although coming as early on as it does in the film I think it really draws attention to the point of it, which is the contrast between the period piece setting and the digital cinematography.) I would say the rest of his choices are appropriate for the mood of his films. Also I feel bad for Atticus Ross in re: Blackhat. Radio Spiricom fucked around with this message at 19:28 on Apr 8, 2016 |
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Apr 8, 2016 19:24
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Radio Spiricom posted:Yeah, there's an interview with him about Thief where he talks about why its shot the way it was (i.e. slick city streets at night, shallow focus cinematography that turns all the lights into floating orbs) which is because he thinks that it really captures what he describes as a three dimensionality to the night (presumably here meaning a heightened sense of reality/verisimilitude) and how it turns everything into a tunnel, which is interesting and I think the shift into digital only adds to this in those films. Public Enemies is clearly a whole different thing, but I don't think it matters that whatever record the Audioslave song was on was a few years old at that point. Even people who were alive for it won't be able to distinguish 2002 from 2004 in fifty years (or now, for the most part). The time setting of fiction that doesn't revolve around an historical event just isn't that precise. That cue feels very early 2000s, post 9/11 and is extremely appropriate to Vincent's quasi-meaningful philosophizing. He says he's all about jazz, but this evocative moment makes him think of radio rock. The song choice is characterization, not curation. If Vincent had survived, he'd have been listening to the same stuff while executing Iraqis for Blackwater a couple of years later.
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Apr 8, 2016 19:42
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Michael Mann is one of my favorite directors purely on the merits of: 1) I have seen a very high percentage of his work and 2) liked it all. I still haven't gotten around to seeing The Insider though, with the runtime it has and the fact that I have to watch movies after the kids go to bed, I'm afraid I won't make it through. I love his devotion to authenticity, at least in terms of mechanics/tools of the trade. His characters always handle firearms well and his sound editing at least appears to use actual gunfire rather than foley effects. Thief is a particularly good example of him prizing authenticity as there's no use of stethoscopes or other safe cracking nonsense in it. Last thing: the soundtracks for The Keep and Last of the Mohicans are amazing. Check them out on Youtube.
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Apr 8, 2016 19:52
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from Wikipedia: "In January 2015, it was reported in The New Yorker that Mann is developing a film about Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari.[16]Christian Bale was originally cast to play the title character, but later dropped out citing health concerns over the weight gain required to play the role" Christian BALE?  Like, that just makes NO sense. How bad is this loving script really?
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Apr 9, 2016 06:38
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The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, and Collateral are my go to Mann films. Mochicans' loving rad as hell soundtrack is too good during the last action sequence, culminating in the duel between Chingachgook and Magua. I had just turned 7 around that time when I saw it, so that was pretty much my initial exposure to truly epic cinema in the theater. [edit] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRRG_PNOQmA That entire sequence leading up to that fight is a straight up heart-pounding, thrilling experience. No dialogue for the whole duration of the set piece. It's just two trappers racing to save one of their own, the last of their kin, but its too late and they just loving rage. teagone fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Apr 9, 2016 |
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Apr 9, 2016 06:50
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It's definitely not a good film but I really like The Keep. I'm kind of annoyed it's so difficult to find as I'd love to give it another watch. The production design and photography are stunningly beautiful in places. The interior of the castle it's set in is really haunting. And I love the score. Ian McKellen's sick old man make up is dreadful though. Plus it's a drag in parts even with the cuts. God knows what Mann's version would be like to sit through.
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Apr 9, 2016 12:16
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OrthoTrot posted:It's definitely not a good film but I really like The Keep. I'm kind of annoyed it's so difficult to find as I'd love to give it another watch. it's up on Amazon Prime right now, pops up on Netflix on occasion too. maybe this thread will finally inspire me to give it a watch.
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Apr 9, 2016 13:48
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Loved the Tangerine Dream music from Thief and The Keep (and while not a Mann flick, Risky Business as well). I think I actually remember more of the soundtrack to The Keep than the movie itself. I saw bits of LA Takedown on YouTube, Mann always gives his characters cool cars. I think Hanna drove a Buick Gran National. Also, looking on IMDb now, I did not realize that Michael Rooker and Xander Berkeley were in that (as Bosko and Waingro respectively).
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Apr 9, 2016 14:10
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