In my last article I touched upon
the 1986 film “Manhunter”, which was based upon the novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris and details the hunt for a serial
killer nicknamed “The Tooth Fairy” by FBI Special Agent Will Graham, with
assistance by the recently captured and insanely brilliant killer Dr. Hannibal
Lecter. As I said last time, this film
is an unfortunately often over-looked addition to the Lecter Universe and I
can’t say enough about William Petersen’s portrayal of Will Graham as a wounded
and brilliant profiler that assists in these investigations at great cost to
himself and his family.
“Dammit Jack, I can’t do it anymore!
I’m moving over to something called Crime Scene Investigation. It’s a new field, and I’ll never be in the spotlight
again!!”
Serendipitously
for all of us, the relationship between Graham and Lecter is the subject of the
new NBC show Hannibal, albeit with a new timeline as the show begins from the
very first moment that they meet and is continuing to detail (hopefully) the
inner workings of their professional relationship; whereas both of the films
pick up either on the night Lecter attacks Graham and ends their professional
relationship or after Graham has already retired after catching Lecter. It’s a different Lecter on the show than
we’re used to seeing (luckily Mads Mikkelsen’s accent completely nullifies any
half-baked attempts to copy Anthony Hopkins’ iconic take on the character), and
as such it’s a great opportunity to explore him being an active participant in
the police investigations as opposed to just the evil genius in the cage who’s
just screwing with everyone for his own entertainment (I give it a thumbs up).
However, it was the tie to the
Michael Mann film that apparently crawled into my brain and wouldn’t let
go. After my last article posted, I
downed my usual nightcap (three parts Irish whiskey, six parts Coors Light, a
grilled cheese sandwich, and three Tic-Tacs) and headed off to bed for the
sleep of angels; only to be woken up in the middle of the night and sit bolt up
in bed with the following two thoughts racing through my brain: first, that
Michael Mann is a freaking awesome director and that I should tell the world,
and secondly, that I needed to pee immediately.
One of these problems was easily remedied (yeah, I have indoor plumbing,
what’s up?) but the other festered long enough to motivate me to the keyboard
and get cracking on a new article, a tribute to one of my favorite directors of
all time. Ladies and Gentlemen, please
put your hands together for…
Brando’s Tribute to Michael Mann
Most every director is known for
their niche. Woody Allen and Spike Lee
make films about New York and characters from their representative
demographics, Len Wiseman is known for his over the top action spectaculars,
Wes Anderson’s best trick is making pretentious quirkiness just merely
pretentious; and Joel Schumacher can either blow the doors off a dramatic
script or take a Cleveland Steamer on Batman’s head. The best directors are the ones that transcend
this straight pigeonholing and craft entirely new and creatively separate films
while still retaining the feel of their previous work. For a variety of reasons, any Tarantino film
will always feel like a Tarantino film, Steven Spielberg will add a flair that
most cannot touch, Paul Thomas Anderson’s film will grind on for hours into unexpected
delight, and James Cameron will make you believe he is the future of the film
industry. And in this company lies
Michael Mann, one of America’s preeminent directors. Best known for his gritty
crime laden opuses (and granted, this genre is his bread and butter), Mann
originally gained notoriety for the hit eighties television show “Miami Vice”,
which he created and produced. He
directed more than a few made for television movies; however most of them were
always in the cops and robbers genre (including the acclaimed “LA Takedown”
which was marketed as not much more than LA Vice) and it was uncertain whether
or not he would ever get to turn his eye to anything else.
And then in 1992, Mann dropped one
of the greatest historical epics on us ever to grace the silver screen. Based upon the 1826 novel by James Fenimore
Cooper, “The Last of the Mohicans” is one of the most complete yet underappreciated
epics ever to come out of Hollywood. Cementing lead actor Daniel Day Lewis as a
bankable action star and vaulting indie darling Madeleine Stowe into true
leading lady status; this was the film that was a true game-changer for Mann,
as it proved he could dazzle and entertain with something other than a cops and
robbers shoot out and its box-office success paved the way for Mann to take his
rightful place as an A-List director.
Although in the original script, this
character’s name was “Detective Hawkeye”
In
the wake of this triumph, Mann has embarked on one of the most durable run of
hits that any director has ever seen (Spielberg had one for a while, but he
dropped the ball when he started trying to take over for Kubrick), and trust me
when I say this, there’s nothing accidental about this success. Here’s why…
HE
CAN DO IT ALL
With the possible exception of slapstick
comedy, there is literally no genre Mann could not master with ease. Great films contain elements of all the
genres in them, and great directors know that even in a tensely paced film about
something as heart-wrenching as the death of a loved one, there are
light-hearted moments of genuine laughter that can be included and still
service the film. As a movie fan one of
my favorite moments are when a comedy allows its characters poignancy and
gravitas, or vice versa with a dramatic character, because it proves that you
don’t have to keep lambasting your audience with the same thing over and over,
and that if your characters are well-drawn enough, they can be something other
than a one note player. This
cross-hatching of genres is one of the things that Mann does best, and perhaps
it because he knows his characters so well.
Action
In
the interest of a purely alphabetical criteria, let’s start with action
first. Sure, everyone knows about the
iconic Bank Robbery scene in “Heat” (so good is this sequence, that it is even
shown to US Marines as a proper example of a military technique known as retreating
under fire) but that’s not the only action sequence under his belt; I submit
that the shootout in the night club in “Collateral” or the scene when the team
rescues Trudy from the trailer in “Miami Vice” (on the whole, one of Mann’s
lesser films, but still packed with great stuff) are both superior action
sequences in their own right. What makes
these sequences so compelling is that Mann wisely gives us time to catch our
breath during the melee (take note Michael Bay, there is no need to have a car
chase last twenty minutes on film) and then returns to the pulse pounding pace.
The concept of “less is more” sometimes applies to action films Hollywood, and
this is a lesson that is more than a little overdue.
Even
rarer in this day and age, Mann takes the time to focus tightly in on the
shooters in these scenes, Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx respectively, and puts us
right into their situation and then allows us to look through their crosshairs.
Mann’s intense attention to detail is also worth a mention here; as it is in
scenes like these that the director’s infamous commitment to realism pays off
so well. To prepare Cruise for the
aforementioned scene, he had the actor train with former British Special Forces
members in order for him to not only know the proper firing positions that a
quick firing assassin would use, but also so that Cruise would be familiar
enough with the weapons he was using as to look completely believable and
relaxed during the scenes. In addition,
Mann is known for prepping his films so intently so that the weapons involved
in them perform only as they would in the real world (guns actually run out of
bullets). Action done as well as this raises the genre to new heights and is
still pulse pounding and intense.
Honorable
mentions for Mann’s action chops include the Little Bohemia Lodge sequence in
“Public Enemies” and the finale of “The Last of the Mohicans”.
Drama
While
action films may often times be overlooked as pure popcorn fluff, great drama
is the stuff of accolades and attention in today’s film industry, and as good
as Mann is at action, drama is the area where he really knocks it out of the
park. One of my favorite things about Mann’s films is that he allows the film
to be slow at times and draws out the story in a way that services the plot, he
doesn’t shove it down the audiences’ collective throat.
Anyone
who’s listened to SpoilerAlert Podcast before knows that I am a dialogue nut,
and that often times I find the most drama in a spoken performance rather than
in quiet action. My favorite scenes in
most films are when the good guy and the bad guy finally talk to one another,
and I am a confessed sucker for the plot device of adversaries being polite to
each other. Once again, Mann’s masterpiece “Heat” is the showcase for this
concept; and how better to illustrate it than with two of acting’s best sitting
across the table from each other, chewing scenery left and right, and basically
telling each other that this is the last time that they will ever see each
other alive. So good is this scene that it became the primary marketing ploy
from the studio during the promotion of the film, hailing the “clash of the
titans of cinema on film for the first time!!” (their previous shared film “The
Godfather Part 2” obviously couldn’t let them be on film together given the
nature of their story lines).
But
just as in the world of action, Mann has other tricks up his sleeve in the
world of drama. His direction has
yielded some of the tensest exchanges of dialogue this author has ever seen,
most notably Mann’s tour de force acting juggernaut “The Insider” which is
actually my favorite of his work. So
good is this film that Pacino and an almost unrecognizable Russell Crowe’s most
dramatic exchanges are done on the telephone with both actors looking off into
the distance and having absolutely no eye contact during the
conversations. I’m sorry but that is
absolutely incredible to have such intense interaction, and now even having the
participants in the same room. Mann pulls a variation of this trick off again
in the film “Collateral” because of the nature of the story (for those that
don’t know, Cruise gets into Foxx’s cab about ten minutes into the film and
then the madness starts) Foxx spends most of the movie talking to the rear-view
mirror while Cruise stares at the back of his head; all the while the dialogue
is flowing between them and getting you deeper and deeper into the film. Once
again, such good drama for such an unorthodox situation is incredible.
Honorable
mention to Mann’s dramatic direction also include the scene from the film
“Public Enemies” where Johnny Depp goes to the coat check counter to get Marion
Cotillard and tells her his past; as well as the scene in “Ali” when Will Smith
learns that Malcom X has been murdered.
Music
A
director knows that music is just another tool in his toolbox with which to
create the film; however some directors know how to use this particular tool with
a flare that goes on to define their films and to become expected of them. Once again Tarantino comes to mind, but
Martin Scorsese is no slouch at this either (I defy you to listen to Layla and
not think about finding dead mobsters in the trash). Mann’s got some game on
this front as well, not only for his often eclectic musical choices, but more
so for how spot on these songs plug into his films. In fact, having missed most of the nineties
music craze due to an iron grip on my eighties cassette tapes and a complete
lack of need for wearing flannel in Texas; its Mann’s films that are bringing
me around to finally becoming a Moby fan.
Two of his contributions really stand out from Mann’s work, the first
being ‘God Moving Over Water’ in the final scene of “Heat” but also ‘One Of
These Mornings’ featuring Patty LaBelle that plays over Sonny and Isabella’s
impromptu trip to Cuba in “Miami Vice.” Sure, both pieces of music encompass
the mood of the scene they are attached to (that is the whole reason a director
uses any music for any scene) but these songs actually elevate the respective
scenes they are in, which is what makes them exceptional.
To
give even more kudos to the “Miami Vice” soundtrack, when the film was released
there was a collective fan base waiting with baited breath as to what the film
would sound like, as the music was a cornerstone of the television show the
film was based on. Phil Collins’ iconic
eighties anthem ‘In the Air Tonight’ actually debuted on the pilot episode of
the show, and many fans were waiting to see if and how Mann would slip the song
into the film. In the director’s cut of
the film (far superior to the original version released in theaters), when
Sonny and Rico are waiting to head to the final drug buy with the bad guys,
Mann inserts a cover version of ‘In the Air Tonight’ performed by the Miami
based band Nonpoint which lasts all the way up until the bullets starts flying.
This gives Mann points both ways, because not only is he tipping his cap to the
original iconic song placement in the original series, he’s servicing the much
grittier world of the newer film as well.
EVEN
WHEN HE’S BAD, HE’S GOOD
I’ve taken some criticism for some
of my stances on this Podcast and in these articles, and some of my opinions
have not only been argued against in the comments section, but also in person
with friends and family members. Back in an earlier Podcast, I touched upon how
much I liked Michael Mann’s films, but that I felt he had miss-stepped with
“Ali” and had actually crafted a Mohammed Ali biopic that made me less of a fan
of perhaps the greatest athlete of all time. Several friends took me to task
for this stance, insisting that I watch the film again and that I had missed
greatness. In proper Brando tradition, I
processed the essence of what they were trying to tell me and maturely accepted
this constructive criticism.
Author Receiving Criticism
In
all honesty, I haven’t seen the film from beginning to end since that
conversation, but I did watch a portion of it only to discover that while it
wasn’t changing my opinion of Will Smith’s version of Ali, I was still enjoying
the cinematography and pacing of the film.
Which lead me to realize that Mann is a good enough director that even
when he’s less than his A-game level, he’s still head and shoulders above a lot
of directors out there. Even the
mentioned “Miami Vice,” a film that has some great parts in it but a lot of bad
ones as well, is what I refer to as “one of my favorite bad flicks.” I submit
that that is the mark of a great director.
And
since I can’t get through an article without throwing a list in there, here are
my rankings of Mann’s major films, best to worst:
The
Insider - 1999
Heat
- 1995
The
Last of the Mohicans – 1992
Collateral
– 2004
Manhunter
- 1986
Public
Enemies – 2009
Miami
Vice - 2006
Ali
- 2001
Mann Crush!!!!
From
all of us here at SpoilerAlert, go watch some freaking movies!
-Brando
