And so we continue our journey through the brilliant and varied career of the incredible director Michael Mann, with his 2001 sports biopic Ali.

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Ali (2001)

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Two things; I don’t know why I was surprised by how good this film was, nor do I really grasp why the film wasn’t received as the superior biopic to most that it so clearly is. Now following One Night in Miami, many of the facets of this story have now been seen thrice over on film. Many of the elements of the Malcolm X section of Mann’s film that somewhat surprisingly marks the first fifty minutes or so, following a rather revelatory opening sequence setting us up for where we will meet Ali in 1964, have of course been seen before portrayed so superbly by Spike Lee in his masterpiece Malcolm X. Pair that with the immense weight that naturally comes from this being the first biopic of its kind regarding one of the most pivotal figures not only in sports history, but in American history, full stop. I guess one could critically lean towards the angle that this film retreads much of Lee’s ground, depicting many of the same key moments and in fact even using the same Sam Cooke song, some critics also may lean towards the opinion that such a storied life deserves a more cradle to the grave sort of feature, however this is the exact sort of biopic that we have see at their worst fail epically and at their best follow stringently boring formulas making the whole affair rather terribly dull. Mann’s precision as a filmmaker also leads him to a precision here with his co-writers of Eric Roth and Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen J. Rivelle in their choice of depicting not an entire life but instead focussing on the most important decade for Ali between 1964 and 1974. Flitting between different film-making styles, aswell as further experimenting mixing film and digital, ultimately gives Ali the breadth it needs when delivering a story and person of this scale onto film. Although Mann’s choices in the script and in his direction are evident and brilliant, the films shining best feature is undoubtedly its plethora of stars making up its vast and sturdy ensemble, led of course by Will Smith in a performance perfectly balancing the public and private bravado of a man who we all think we know an awful lot about already, along with a genuinely completely unrecognisable Jon Voight (I had no idea until quite literally looking at the IMDB to write this segment of the article). I’m sure many say the film is an un-nesscerary slog, with a focus on Islamic politics rather than thrilling boxing, or rather instead on the politics of the man rather than his incredible talent. The boxing talent is there, but Mann knows that the story of this man is so undeniably so much more!

Collateral (2004)

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This thrilling and dynamic drama from Mann marks one of his first time in years without a writing credit on the film, now along the way there may have been under the line drafts or the like, however this directing by Mann of Stuart Beadle’s high concept action thriller script is one of Mann’s simplest and most effective films. It is quite simply a game of cat and mouse propelled by an ingenious high concept and some top class performances all playing slightly off-brand to make this film even more enthralling to a viewer. I can’t deny that personally for me the film does in its final hour (yes, Mann’s tightest and simplest film is still two hours long) begin to drag slightly, before picking up once more, it’s less a lack of tension and pace, more so the beginning of an overwhelming flood of coincidences and the like that make this all of a sudden wreak of a very un-Mann like lack of realism. However of course Mann infuses as much realism as he can into the story of Jamie Foxx’s taxi driver as he ends up being a driver for a hit-man with a list of targets in L.A. played by the always brilliant (obviously) Tom Cruise. There’s something about Foxx’s intentional subduing of charisma and the balance of that with Cruise’s heightened danger and violent charm that make this film absolutely thrilling to watch time after time after time, as I say this do eventually give way to some unfortunate plot contrivances, however for the long run bristles with pace and dynamic action filled twists and turns. The film too is filled like many Mann outings with a plethora of brilliant supporting performance roles, however the undoubted winner of the film is a character I like to call ‘Jazz Tom Cruise’, for me one of the genuine funniest extended sequences of Cruise’s entire career, whether intentional or not, is the extended sequence where Cruise as Vincent reveals himself to be an immense fan of Jazz. Now this scene also has some absolutely killer Cruise deliveries, but also on the other hand features him whispering Miles Davis facts to a corpse which I will never not find intensely hilarious. Overall of course the film is so much more than this perhaps unintentionally hilarious segment, even as the film does go on and begin to lose me, it does still feature some brilliant action thriller set pieces and is a clear critical favourite for many of the second half of Mann’s career.

Miami Vice (2006)

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Written and directed by Mann, the individual who created and directed many of the best episodes of the original 80’s show it’s based on, Miami Vice is almost bizarrely an entirely different beast to the show. There are fleeting flashes of elements; extended boat montages, swooning synth music at points, however overall the film has a lot more a grit and digital grain to it, then the originals pastel pristine nature. Also beyond some fleeting synth, the film is largely scored by what I can only guess is Mann’s ‘heavy club 90’s/00’s bangers’ playlist. Throw in a deeply complicated plot not exactly well told, some overly frenetic action shot in almost complete darkness, a performance completely learned phonetically, a star going through major personal issues, aswell as a star making outrageous  demands completing upending the original conclusion of the film and you are left with a heady combination that’s best seen that discussed. Is it any good? I guess that’s a worthy question. Well of all these Mann films that have suddenly regained a cult reputation and sudden critical reappraisal, it’s by far my least favourite. Ali for instance is a movie yet to really get a go on the critical reappraisal circuit and yet I will undoubtedly watch that film twice more before I return to Miami Vice, there are moments of absurdity that I quite enjoyed and scenes and dialogues that are of course fun and enjoyable, however overall this is a case for me where the new and fresh hype is somewhat unwarranted. It’s also not really a case where I’m a die-hard devote of the original show and so have problems with the manner in which this film is a wholly different style, instead it’s rather more so that I just don’t like the film at all. Perhaps a watch of the show may bolster this dislike, or perhaps even fuel a newfound appreciation, however one unfortunately sincerely doubts it.

Public Enemies (2009)

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 Another one now, not unlike Ali where I was genuinely stunned to what extent I feverishly enjoyed the film I was watching. From the off this was billed to me critically as lesser Mann and yet it reveals itself slowly to be perhaps my favourite of the second half of his career. Focussing in specifically on the John Dillinger aspects of Bryan Burroughs’s critically lauded non-fiction novel Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the F.B.I, aswell as also taking a lot of the F.B.I history from it, Mann weaves what at first seems to be a film fashioned not unlike Heat. With Johnny Depp’s devilish charismatic and brilliant Dillinger going about robbing banks on the run with the great love he shared in the final months of his life, with Christian Bale’s ideal G-Man Melvin Purvis chasing after him. However the film ultimately reveals itself to be less of a cat and mouse tail and meeting of minds like Heat, but instead more so a muted tale of two men who never really crossed paths until the very end and even then it wasn’t Purvis who shot the final bullet in Dillinger, it was Mann alum Stephen Lang in a somewhat bizarre but brilliantly effective turn absolutely landing the final scene of the film shared between him and Marion Cotillard as Dillinger’s lover. The film is epic in its scale but doesn't perhaps have the polish of Heat, the film is far looser following of course the truth for the large part of Dillinger’s life making the whole film a lot more episodic and frantic even at times. Overall however one just can’t get away from the immense skill of Mann as he once again depicts the intensity of a different era with an absolutely startling realism that still knocks me out every time. A wonderfully off-kilter film filled with many of Mann’s best action sequences and all propelled by a matching of two great turns from Depp and Bale, aswell of course a further typically Mann ensemble filled with immense talent at all corners.

Blackhat (2015)

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It’s unfortunately a rather unfortunately dull note to end our article on here. After another extensive break between films, Mann gave us Blackhat, a hacking-drama starring Chris Hemsworth along with many other actors of immense quality, just unfortunately plodding through a rather droll, uninteresting and at times desperately confusing tale of the burgeoning dangers of the cyber-world. It’s at once a terrorist capture action film and at others a hacking cyber-mystery. There is a surface level where all of this could of come off as quite interesting, however finds out fairly quickly that that is simply not the case. Mann’s typical intense realism brings one into the world of hacking quite remarkably but also with that brings one into the remarkable doldrums of such a world. The script here too by Morgan David Foehl lacks a key quality of Mann’s own screenplays, a level of wit and charm about the proceedings. One doesn’t necessarily think of it as a key Mann trait, however time and again the characters of Mann are likable, whereas here they are more often than not rather boring. Of course there are exceptions to the rules, the always brilliant Viola Davis is brilliant as she always is. But beyond a few performance standouts this regrettably is undoubtedly Mann’s worst film. A distance between projects is not always a bad thing, however when these lesser projects are the ones we get after all this time, one can’t help but feel that the distance wasn’t only not worth it, but also  regrettably not long enough.

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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 at least strived for, time and time again. And hopefully for many times to come.

-       -  Thomas Carruthers