Michael Mann is certainly a very tactical film-maker, with a focus on details that makes his work in action, drama and thriller exactly the excellent works that so many of them are. Once again I feel we are dealing with that dreaded thing of genre snobbery, that even plagued Mann as he branched out into the sort of dramas and epics that would normally garner such critical acclaim that others received so frequently. The landscape of modern film simply wouldn’t be the same without Mann, a prime example is our first film Thief.

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Thief (1981)

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There are periods where Thief is almost unanimously in my mind my favourite Mann film and by far one of the most accomplished and masterful theatrical cinematic debuts a filmmaker has ever had - it's just one of those perfect films. One of those rare gems where the infrequent imperfections come off as entirely justifiable and charming, rather than movie damaging. The clunkiness at times of the expositional dialogue just as a passing example is entirely justified by the distinct professionalism of the character we are following. Mann's dialogue is distinct and thorough, just as economic and direct in the personal scenes as it is in the business ones, making this character study of a brilliant safe cracker all that more enthralling. The film, written by Mann, adapted loosely from Frank Hohimer "The Home Invaders", follows James Caan's Frank as he continues through life like all the best Mann figures balancing his personal life and criminal business life - a struggle and ferociously violent world is conveyed as Frank navigates it. Aspects of this world are  conveyed mainly through the many characters Frank comes up against as the film goes about its slowly crumbling tale of interior implosion. One of the first figures we find ourselves with is in a surprisingly well-acted turn, none other than Willie Nelson, as one of Frank's ex-associates now in prison coming to terms with his inherent fear around possibly dying inside those walls. The other chief figure of course in the tale is Robert Prosky, who would go on to play some of the most charming, lovable and delightful father figures and warm characters of the 80's and 90's, here instead plays one of the most manipulative, despicable and deeply evil villains in the cannon of 70's/early 80's crime films. These figures are archetypes that we now and have seen many times over, the world of safe-cracking however and Mann's impeccable perfectionist attitude to depicting the world leads to the film feeling wholly different from others in it's field. This film too boats a very natural and believable romance and chemistry between Caan's Frank and Tuesday Weld as Jessie, whereas with many of these films one must simply accept the romance and go down the road with the film, here it instead feels wholly believable and well-conceived. Wholly believable and well conceived of course describes all of Thief, a masterful tale masterfully told with one of the most thrillingly destructive and emotionally devastating finales of Mann's career. And also to boast the film has James Caan on the best form he ever was on when it came to his urgent and angry original film persona, this is the ultimate Caan leading role in the ultimate early Mann film. Caan really is truly masterful in this; Mann's first masterpiece. 

Manhunter (1986)

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The first filmic entry into the iconic world of Thomas Harris Hannibal Lecter novels is nowadays quite a bizarre entry, for many reasons. Lecter is barley in it. The slight gothicness of Silence of the Lambs, that would only grow over the other films and the eventual series isn’t even slightly present. The melodramatic evils of the villains is seriously subdued. And overall the vibe and aesthetic of the film bares more resemblance in its style and overall tone to an episode of the Mann produced Miami Vice, than a graphic horror thriller of the time. The greatest strength of Manhunter is that so frequently Mann focuses on the banality of the everyday goings on of those whose job it is is to deal with the most horrid terrors of the human psyche on a day to day basis. Mann with Manhunter presents the story of Red Dragon with a handling similarly both close to the book and distant. Anybody who has seen the Brett Ratner film adaptation of Dragon (which has its own benefits and qualities for a die-hard Lecter fan such as myself) will note the beefed up role that Lecter had in that pseudo-remake of this film, where Lecter merely appears for three scenes. In those scenes however Brian Cox makes enough of an impression to last a lifetime and to spark much debate amongst Harris film fans for millennia. Hopkins has to win, of course, but Cox is insanely good here choosing to instead base his role once more like everything else in Mann’s film, in a base reality, that in so many ways makes the terrors of his crimes that little bit more unsettling. Again the banality of how everything is presented allows for more horror. Some moments for me however are quite rushed, the relationship shared between Francis Dollarhyde, our deeply unnerving Tom Noonan killer, and Reba McClane, a blind employee who works with Francis (played here beautifully by Joan Allen), feels all too quick here and makes certain actions come off as slightly over-the-top and partially unjustified. However the overall sense of the film never lets go off you. Of course Mann is an exceptional director, but having one of the finest literary detectives and most complex ones at that at the centre of your picture does help enormously, with William Peterson certainly giving the best work of his career as Will Graham. Whereas other Mann protagonists have had such complexities of emotion, nowhere else has Mann depicted someone with as many mental complexities as Graham. Mann and Peterson depict these with a great depth of intelligence and power, it’s the performance and character that centre the film and its many other wildly elements. Graham is an unnerved core and makes the whole film shake on its axis.

The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

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Perhaps Mann’s finest epic, at least in the traditional sense of the grand settings and sweeping vistas and romance and period drama of the thing. But then again not, for Mann has made grand sweepings epics prior to this and will after, chiefly Heat and perhaps even Miami Vice, when it comes to the drama of the piece and the manner in which he approaches L.A. And certainly Ali in its off kilter years spanning and period story-telling. But these films of course lack one key element that Mohicans has in spades, a beautiful and intense romance at the heart of it. Mohicans in its final hour becomes perhaps what one may first think off when they consider a Mann period war drama, with extended excellent battle sequences of both intense one on one combat, as well as huge ensemble ambushes, all of which are as startling and violently intense as anything Mann has ever put to screen before or after. Mann in his script, direction and production of the film employed his typical perfectionist and detail driven accuracy to bring his adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's novel to the screen, all to incredible effect with this stunningly impactful piece of adaptation. This too marks perhaps the sole time where Daniel Day Lewis played an out and out Hollywood hero role. Of course he brought his own method nature to the role, employing a variety of quote-un-qoute insane practices to get his performance just right, however when Lewis is on screen one quite simply can not deny the power of his deeply masculine and inherently powerful charisma, paired here with Madeline Stowe in a further beautiful and deeply charismatic performance to easily make the most engrossing and passionate romance featured in any Mann film. This romance is paired in its plotting with the concurrent tales of the final men of the Mohican tribe, played here by Eric Schweig and Russell Means, in a tale of legacy and pathos pitted against the immediate sensation of the sexuality  and violence of the other plots. This violence and mania is instilled and brought about by the incredible Wes Studi as Magua, a pure villain in many senses, but also featuring some surprisingly complex moments of pathos, or at least complexity, himself. A beautiful and epic tale and Mann’s finest period outing.

Heat (1995)

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What can you say about one of the most perfectly executed crime epics of all time, of course one can actually say a lot. Here I’m gonna try and keep it brief. There’s a perfection about Heat that does in some ways separate it from Mann’s other work, it’s not of course many of his films prior to this haven’t been masterpieces – as I have already proclaimed them to be, but one can’t help but feel that this is sublime amalgamation and culmination of Mann’s best work in a genre that he has mastered for multiple decades. Of course, again, Mann went on to make other great films after this, but perhaps the well known history of this script being in Mann’s pocket for multiple decades, effectively a passion project for him, does lend the film a greater sense of entitlement in Mann’s cannon. On its surface it’s a simple story that has been told many times before and after this one, but for me, never with this much panache, grandeur, tragedy or effect. Cop and criminal face each other off, but come to learn deep down that they really aren’t that dissimilar. But Heat is so much more, even marketing itself as a “Los Angeles Crime saga” – Heat is epic, Heat is expansive, Heat is many things. At its core it of course has its cop and his criminal, but it’s the many strands and characters surrounding, enveloping and informing this central collision that makes the film have the ultimate impact that it does, but of course in the end Mann ends with the simplest of actions shared by its chief and criminal. Mann writes and directs a crime classic only bolstered by it’s two leads and further wonderful ensemble cast. A cast so studded that for many the mere meshing of actors in one film was the only advertising that was needed. But this is no cheap gimmick, everybody is cast perfectly and brought in to make the ultimate world all that more impacting. Heat is one of the greatest films of all time, for so many reasons, there really just isn’t any other way to cut it. It is for certain is Mann’s greatest film, and perhaps like no other film highlights the deep bench of skills that the man can employ whenever he so wishes.

The Insider (1999)

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The Insider for me is probably Mann's most recent masterpiece. Although Collateral is a rather excellent film, for me there's just something overall about the nature, characters and payoff that The Insider contains that slightly tip it over into the realm of perfection. Chiefly for me there is the simple power in that whereas a Collateral has moments where it does let its foot of the gas, The Insider is majorly in a league of the best paranoid political thrillers of the 70's that it was attempting and achieved in recapturing much of the magic of and never lets up that pace for the entirety of it's nearly 3 hour running time.  Written by Mann and Eric Roth the film comes from the true story of the whistle blowing insider Jeffrey Weigand who through his interview for 60 Minutes and the scandal around that interview made some of the first legislature steps into attempting a blow in the structure of big tobacco. The script itself comes in the form of an adaption of Marie Brenner's article The Man Who Knew Too Much and although the film was a critical success garnering seven Academy Award nominations, the film was regrettably a commercial bomb and in so many ways does mark an early dent in the Mann commercial viability concept, more so in the sense that Mann is making the sort of adult dramas that don't make money anymore and nowadays aren’t even made anymore. As much as the film follows the story for the most part of the titular insider, with Russell Crowe portraying the deeply complex and rivetingly un-sympathetic at times Weigand, the film somewhat surprisingly is actually more so the story of that of Al Pacino's Lowell Bergman as he fights for the story as the producer of 60 Minutes and eventually retires from the program after the tumultuous events of the film and the manner which Weigand as a source was handled. Overall the film is duet between these two figures, fashioned not unlike Heat for much of its run-time, and it is understandable for the most part why Crowe received the Best Actor nomination, however Pacino almost undeniably controls the major narrative of the film and is the focus of its most central arc. Both are absolutely excellent and mark two of my favourite performances for each, especially late stage Pacino, although as we all know I have a great love for The Devil's Advocate.  Mann directs the film with a documentary aesthetic largely removed from the pristine sheen that so many of his films featured up until this point in his career (our mid-way point in fact for this two part article), which adds a journalistic grit to the events taking place. The films supporting ensemble is a murderers row of talent from both the Mann pool and the incredible general actors pool of 90's drama cinema, with two major standouts along the way; Bruce Mcgill delivering a seriously fiery deep southern droll lawyers speech, and of course the late great Christopher Plummer as Mike Wallace, balancing a little of the real imitation element with a deeply fleshed out and beautifully mature turn that marks a perfect and touch more bombastic counterpart to Pacino's Bergman's eventual arc. Overall The Insider is one of Mann's best directed and best written dramas based away from the world of crime and frankly one of his best written and best acted films of his career period. 

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One can’t exactly say that Mann’s film career shows a going from strength to strength, however it is rather clear to me the level to which a foundational quality is always achieved, or is at least strove for, time and time again. And hopefully for many times to come.

-       -   Thomas Carruthers