Blackhat

It’s impossible not to watch a Michael Mann film these days without the context of his previous work in mind. Because virtually each and every one of Mann’s films connect so intimately with one another in theme, character and tone. Blackhat is no exception, a crackerjack procedure crime picture about a different kind of thief, tracking a different kind of criminal essentially retelling the cat and mouse chase antics of obsessive cops and robbers on ultra-grey sides of good and evil as in Mann’s previous films.

Thief

Thief (1981) dir. Michael Mann
Starring: James Caan, James Belushi, Tuesday Weld, Robert Prosky

***½

By Alan Bacchus

Some filmmakers take years to hone their style and aesthetic tastes. Others announce their vision right out of the gate. Such is the case with Thief, which instantly established Michael Mann’s unique, unmistakable viewpoint on the world. It also features one of James Caan’s best roles (including The Godfather) as a professional thief who yearns to establish a legitimate domestic life with a wife and child, but who instinctively gets pulled back into the world of crime.

The opening scene is riveting, establishing Frank (Caan) as a crackerjack jewel thief breaking into his next score and going through the elaborate procedure of cracking the safe. Frank’s use of heavy steel drills and welding equipment feels more like a tool and dye operation than the whimsical fun of say, a Jules Dassin picture, or other heist romps of the ‘70s, like The Brink’s Job or Dollars. This is part of Mann’s modus operandi for most of his career, depicting criminals as working class men albeit on the fringe of legitimate society.

After the heist, Frank connects with a new source, Leo (Prosky), who offers him a chance at more scores and more money. Frank’s instinct is to decline, preferring to work on his own. It’s a noble stance to take, but after reconnecting with his girlfriend, Jessie (Weld), with whom he wants to start a new life, including marriage and kids. With these prospects staring at him and with little money in his pockets he needs the scores and decides to go against his judgement.

Much of the second half of the film is prep for the big score, a diamond heist in an ultra-secure high-rise building. From the casing of the joint to purchasing the supplies and hiring the team, Mann makes the details of the preparation for the job as important as the actual theft.

Of course, as one would expect, there’s a double-cross threatening both Frank and his new family, which forces him to make some tough but pragmatic decisions about his family and his career in order to escape the web of criminal deceit he’s caught in.

Mann managed to create a resolute stone cold attitude to his world not present in other crime pictures before it – not even Sydney Lumet, William Friedkin or Don Siegel achieved this kind of realism. And combined with the precise but textured cinematography – glowing street lamps reflecting off rain-soaked Chicago streets would be a hallmark of Mann's later work too – it became a style Mann could call his own. Other than his rigorous attention to detail, the other thematic hallmark established in this picture is Mann’s characterization of thieves as identifiable men with many of the same domestic problems as the audience. One of the best scenes in the film is a long dialogue between Caan and Weld, lovers and life partners who are trying to figure out how to make their relationship work.

There’s also the electronic magnificence of the Tangerine Dream score, some of which dates the picture badly, but most of which sizzles with a feeling and tone unlike most other pictures of its kind. The synthesized sounds are diametrically opposed to all other styles of movie up until that (very short) period in Hollywood. Now with films like Tron: Legacy, Drive and Contagion, the electronic score might just make a comeback. But I don’t think any modern film would attempt to recreate the extremity of Tangerine Dream’s unorthodox sounds here.

Like any auteur’s work it’s fun to connect the themes, plotting, visualizations and tone of Thief to Mann’s other work, such as Heat, Manhunter and Miami Vice. The connections to Heat are the most direct. In fact, the narrative structure and building of characters in Thief seems like a trial work for the more expansive, epic and ambitious work of Heat.

As mentioned, as much as Thief was a showcase for the new American voice of Michael Mann, so it was for James Caan, who never really fulfilled the promise of The Godfather. Sure, Sonny Corleone was an iconic character that was impossible to forget, but look no further than Thief to find arguably Caan’s best work.

Collateral

Collateral (2004) dir. Michael Mann
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo

**1/2

By Alan Bacchus

Back in '04 I remember appreciating Michael Mann’s return to crime filmmaking after the awful disaster of ‘Ali’. And now, re-watching the new Blu-Ray release, the film comes off as surprisingly dull and glorified high concept action film morphed into the Michael Mann cool styling of his other crime films.

I’ve expounded on this at great length before, but Michael Mann’s switch over to high definition has not been kind to him. While filmmakers like David Fincher can retain the same look as his 35mm films and taking advantage of the freedom the digital medium allows, Mann’s newer films lose more than it gains. To start, Dion Beebe and Paul Cameron’s colour scheme is superb. The Los Angeles exteriors are lit up with an eye-pleasing hazy glow, like a permanent magic hour or a giant fluorescent lighting up everything. As a result, under the high definition format, it’s as crisp a film as Mann’s ever made. Unfortunately he also loses texture, specifically in the action scenes. Fast motion across of film has a smearing effect which our eyes are used to, under the crisp high definition image, much of the swoosh is gone resulting in what’s known as the ‘video look’. ‘Public Enemies’ and ‘Miami Vice’ suffered badly from this, mainly because well, there just more action in those films than ‘Collateral’.

The technical aside, not even Michael Mann slickness could correct some staleness of the material. The script by Stuart Beattie (subsequently polished by Mann himself) had been circulating for years and had fingerprints from a number of other directors, specifically those whose names remained on as Executive Producers, Chuck Russell and Frank Darabont. Under the direction of Michael Mann, he tries to coverts it to be his own. Vincent, for example, the lead character, a steely eyed robotic terminator like hit man with his salt and pepper hair and grey jacket looks a lot like Neil Macauley from ‘Heat’.

The film suffers most from the incongruence of Michael Mann’s aesthetic with the prefabricated action movie plotting. The strengths of all of Mann’s films have been his attention to realism of his characters and the environment. No matter if it’s a crackerjack thief, a beat cop, or a stone cold killer, within these genre characterizations Mann has always been able to draw his characters from the inside out. While none of us could identify with Robert De Niro as a lifer criminal or James Caan as a burgler, Mann crafted the world of the characters with such authenticity, they seemed more real than other crime films.

The against-type casting of Tom Cruise actually worked for me, but his character is fumbled and unnecessarily overwritten. Cruise and Foxx have some interesting conversations along the way, but conversations which never would happen if Vincent were indeed a real hit man killer. Mann at first portrays Vincent, his unhesitating trigger finger and forthright attitude, with the ruthless workmanlike intensity he’s known for. But the Michael Mann from ‘Thief’ or ‘Heat’ or ‘The Insider’ would never have Vincent confess his childhood father-issues to Max. This scene feels slapped on, to give depth to a hit man where this kind of depth is not necessary.

Jamie Foxx as Max, the cabbie, never ever feels real. From the outset he’s drawn from the outside in - a stock hero character with his personality traits stamped onto him in order to make him relatable as an everyman. The postcard on his sun visor, the pamphlet of his dream car he hopes to buy someday, his charismatic self-deprecation and his working class integrity never fit together, or least don’t seem to fit on the shoulders of Jamie Foxx the actor.

Mann also fumbles on the depiction of the police. Mark Ruffalo, as a Latino cop, is underutilized and Peter Berg is completely out of place as his partner. Berg and Ruffalo shouldn’t even be occupying the same space. It feels like Mann trying to inject a cat and mouse chase between cops and criminals a la 'Heat', or ‘Manhunter’, but just not enough time or attention is given to the cops for us to feel the pressure or suspense or attachment to these characters. As such when Ruffalo is unceremoniously killed, the jarring effect Mann intends never really hits us.

‘Collateral’ works best in its three showcase scenes. Vincent and Max’s confrontation with the Jazz musician is marvellous bit of misdirection and Max’s confrontation with Javier Bardem shows Foxx’s acting skills at its best. And of course, the taut gun fight in the club is why the film would seem to exist in the first place. The final act, which has Max rescuing the damsel in distress, again, is shamelessly engineered to close off Jamie Foxx’s stamped-on character.

“Collateral” is available on Blu-Ray from Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment

Heat

Heat (1995) dir. Michael Mann
Starring: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Diane Venora

****

By Alan Bacchus

Remember when Michael Mann made good movies? It’s been a bad decade for him - a drought which has been clouded by huge disappointments which should have been cinematic sure things. After all, a huge biopic on ‘Ali’, a big screen remake of ‘Miami Vice’ and a ‘30’s era gangster film about John Dillinger were not risky ventures for Mann’s creative sensibilities.

Prior to this drought Mann, over the 80’s and 90’s, honed a unique muscular yet elegant cinematic style, which arguably hit its zenith with 1995’s tour de force ‘Heat’ – finally available on Blu-Ray from Warner Bros Home Video.

In 1995, Michael Mann’s name was absent in the marketing lead-up to this picture. Of course, it was the event casting of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, who, until then, had not yet appeared on screen together. But the film turned out to be bigger and better than the casting, a second career renaissance for the director really, who before then was largely known as the creator of Miami Vice. This near-three hour crime epic, action picture and naturalistic character study, anchored by it’s phenomenal ‘shoot out’ scene instantly announced itself as one of the greatest ever crime pictures with Michael Mann now an A-List director staking his own claim next to the best work of Martin Scorsese, Francis Coppola, Howard Hawks, Sidney Lumet, Brian De Palma.

It’s now been 14 years, and with the new Blu-Ray release, it’s a good time to revisit and look at the picture critically again.

The dual protagonist plotting creates a marvelously structured narrative, an evenly matched cat and mouse chase between cop and criminal – two individuals on two different sides of the law but identical in character and motivation.

Robert De Niro is the burglar extraordinaire, Neil McCauley, a career criminal who approaches his job with the same kind of integrity and honour as any legitimate working class joe. He adheres to a philosophy of ‘Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner’. As such McCauley lives a spartan life unattached while his colleagues on the other hand have wives, girlfriends, children – regular lives.

Al Pacino as the cop, Vincent Hanna, lives to work. In the opening, he’s having some morning sex with his wife Justine (Diane Venora), showers, then leaves without taking her to breakfast. The look on Justine’s face suggests this is a frequent occurrence and signals the eventual demise of their relationship. Mann shows Vincent approaching his job with the same workmanlike procedural detail as McCauley. The aftermath of McCauley’s armoured truck robbery is dissected and broken down under Hanna’s confident command to his minions.

Mann continues this paralleling of the two characters by dramatizing the family lives of both their teams. Mann’s not afraid to take a careful timeout of the muscular action to show the male camaraderie and their family life like regular domestic people. While it’s an honest approach for Mann to focus on character, at times the naturalism of the domestic scenes don’t quite match the cinematically crafted set-pieces of the robberies. The dinner scene for example showing the cops dancing with their wives feels like a different film. Same with Natalie’s Portman’s character, the suicidal step-daughter of Vincent, is given a huge emotional arc, but with too few scenes to execute.

The glue which binds these gentle moments with the hardcore bullet-ridden action scenes is Mann’s blanket of music and sound – a pop culture tonal sensibility which has been a hallmark throughout his career. Elliot Goldenthal’s atmospheric score blends in well with Mann’s chosen pop tracks which includes Moby, Brian Eno, Lisa Gerrard and William Orbit.

Dante Spinotti’s cinematography compliments the musical tones perfectly. His visual palette includes shades of blue, grey and white which appear consistently throughout. His anamorphic lenses open up the frame with a true widescreen spectacle which an epic film like this demands. His frames are so precise, we can imagine the care he took to carefully place the traffic and car lights out of focus in the background of his longlensed shots.

But it’s Mann’s set pieces which will be the film’s lasting legacy. Action pictures tend to be anchored with 2 or 3 key scenes. In this case, there’s four - the armoured truck robbery, the drive-in money-exchange double-cross, the bank heist, and the final running chase between McCauley and Hanna. But Mann’s concertedly peppers in as much aggressive male-on-male conflict in order to keep our boners up in between these action scenes. Characters like William Fichtner’ shady white collar minion played by Henry Rollins, or Jon Voight’s cold and blotchy-faced father figure character, or Kevin Gage who resembles perfectly the irresponsible lifer criminal Waingro. Badasses like these exist in almost every scene.

And so, “Heat” admirably loses little over time, and considering that Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” played a big creative influence on the tone of that film, it’s still arguably the high bar and close to becoming the final word on crime action on film.

“Heat” is available on Blu-Ray from Warner Bros Home Video

Manhunter

Manhunter (1986) dir. Michael Mann
Starring: William Petersen, Dennis Farina, Joan Allen, Tom Noonan

***1/2


By Alan Bacchus

In many ways “Manhunter” is the ultimate modern police procedural. Historically there had been a few antecedents, specifically Fritz Lang’s “M”, and Akira Kurosawa’s “High and Low”, but Manhunter seems to serve as a modern template for the rash of 2000’s procedural TV shows - namely CSI, which of course stars Manhunter’s own William Petersen.

Based on Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon we get to see Hannibal Lector for the first time helping his captor Will Graham (Petersen) track down a killer known as the tooth fairy for his penchant for biting his victims. The story begins with a grizzly crime scene of a murdered family in their home. Graham is a working class ‘method’ cop, with an ability to get inside the killer’s head, and psychologically predict his moves. When he hits a wall in the investigation he’s is forced to take drastic steps and enlist his former nemesis, the recently imprisoned Hannibal Lector for help. It’s a cat & mouse game between Graham, Lector and the killer. With Graham is on the verge of having a mental breakdown, but not before he figures out the crucial piece of the puzzle which enables him to track the killer.

‘Manhunter’ is icy cool as they come, a continuation of the style Mann had been developing since ‘Thief’, ‘The Keep’ (Paramount: please Blu-Ray-ify this one please!) and ‘Miami Vice’. Precise control of his colour scheme and compositions compliment the formalism of the professional of police investigation. We also get to see Mann at his best showing the workmanlike aspects of the job.

Emotions are kept in check as the men go about their business. Back in the day, the details of fingerprint analysis, and other forensic aspects were the stuff of laboratories and scientific details which only served the story. Mann creates lengthy sequences out of these moments. Part of the thrill is watching Graham and his team confidently goes through each step of the investigation. The three way telephone conversation between Graham, Dr. Chilton, and Jack Crawford (also characters in “Silence of the Lambs) jumpstarts the second act when the Tooth Fairy’s message is found on a piece of toilet paper in Lector’s cell. Crawford’ quick but authoritative instinctual instructions to his secretary is quintessential Michael Mann.

His auteur desires are embellished with a number of dream sequences, and tonal detours which explore Will’s mind and the duality of his idyllic Floridian domestic life. And watch for Mann’s cinematic fetish for the telephones. Screenwriting courses will tell you telephone conversations don’t make for good drama, but much of ‘Manhunter’s dialogue occurs over the phone between Graham and Crawford. Perhaps it serves the needs of the story, keeping Graham isolated and alone in his investigation, but watch “The Insider” and you’ll see most of that film’s best scenes are played over telephone conversations.

Hannibal Lector doesn’t get the dramatic build up or even an elaborate and grandiose production set as in ‘Silence of the Lambs’, but his effect on the story is important and influential. Brian Cox chews the scenery less than Hopkins, and of course, it’s not Hannibel’s picture, but Cox gets one magnificent sequence creatively using (of course) a telephone to get Graham’s address.

The final sequence doesn’t do the film justice. Although the use of Iron Butterfly’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vita creates an intense rhythm, Mann’s experimental freeze frames and camera speeds changes are sloppy and distracting. As well Mann’s depiction of the photographer subplot is the weakest element, hammed up as more a clichéd slime ball paparazzi than real world character like Graham or Crawford. Of course Jonathan Demme’s “Silence of the Lambs’ would get everything right the second go around with essentially the same material.

“Manhunter” is available on Blu-Ray in MGM Home Entertainment’s ‘Hannibal Lector Collection” also containing “Silence of the Lambs” and “Hannibal”

Public Enemies

Public Enemies (2009) dir. Michael Mann
Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Stephen Dorff, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup

***

Nobody plays cops and robbers better than Michael Mann, and his new opus allows the director to venture back to the golden era of sensationalized crime — the Depression Era of John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson et al. But after the disaster of Miami Vice, it's not quite the return to form we all desperately hoped for. While Mann sets the same unique tone of stone cold procedural action mixed with elegant melodramatic melancholy, surprisingly it's the technical elements that let him down.

It's the 1930s and when we meet the film's anti-hero, John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), the charismatic bank robber extraordinaire, he's already public enemy #1 and a household name in America. The opening sequence establishes Dillinger's forthright attitude and skills with a Tommy Gun, as the moment he sets foot in the prison, he breaks out in a hail of bullets and is back robbing banks. The man on his tail, assigned by J. Edgar Hoover (a laughable impression by Billy Crudup), is another intensely focused man of action, Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), who becomes the Al Pacino to Johnny Depp's Robert De Niro. It's a cat and mouse chase from beginning to end with many bank robberies in between. Dillinger's relationship with his main squeeze Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) provides the film its heart, and in the final moments that connection of respect between the cops and robbers Mann's so eloquently explored in Heat.

The elephant in the room throughout the entire film is Mann's awful visual design. Under the high-speed movements and the rapid flashing of gunfire the high definition image breaks up revealing a dreaded "video" look. Mann's lighting is god-awful as well, in what appears to be an extreme minimalist philosophy the character's faces are often in complete darkness — a curiously uncinematic treatment from a man often accused of over stylization.

It's a shame because the film leans so heavily on the cinematic legacy of the genre, from the characters' self-awareness of their actions to the importance of cinema and public opinion of this story. Dillinger acts like a movie gangster; his courtship of Billie has the same "me take" attitude of Jimmy Cagney. Women are objects for the taking, and vulnerable to the allure of danger. In the film's best scene Dillinger even sits down to watch a gangster film in the cinema, as if watching his life lived out on the big screen.

It's all part of the Hollywood romanticism of crime, a world Mann unabashedly lives and breathes in. Mann's imposition of non-style to a genre that is entirely based on style is a contradiction that threatens to drown the film. Thankfully, it doesn't. The film gains a steady momentum increasing in intensity all the way until the end. There are mondo gunfights, and masculine tough guy bravado, satisfying all those playful boyhood urges. If only those gunfights were lit properly, then perhaps Mann would have another crime masterpiece.

This review was first published on Exclaim.ca

MANHUNTER

Manhunter (1986) dir. Michael Mann
Starring: William Peterson, Brian Cox

***1/2

On the week of the release of the 5th “Hannibal Lecter” film, let’s revisit the original film featuring Thomas Harris’ famous character. "Manhunter" is arguably the template for today’s procedure crime dramas such as “CSI”, or “Cold Case.”

“Manhunter” has Hannibal Lecter featured only in a few scenes, instead the film concentrates on Will Graham (Peterson) investigating the case of a serial murderer who kills his victims once a month on the full moon. The story begins with a grizzly crime scene of a murdered family in their home. Graham is a seasoned cop, who analyzes everything with microscopic detail. You can see where Peterson’s character from CSI comes from. Here, Mann practically invents the forensic investigation genre of film and television. Graham's strength is the ability to get inside the killer’s head, and psychologically predict his moves. But eventually he hits a wall in the investigation and is forced to take drastic steps. He enlists his former nemesis, the recently imprisoned Hannibal Lecter for help. Lecter, as we know, is sly. Take note of the terrific scene when Lecter uses his one phone call in a creative way to communicate with the killer and trap Will Graham in the process. It’s a cat & mouse game between Graham, Lecter and the killer. Graham is on the verge of having a mental breakdown, but not before he figures out the crucial piece of the puzzle which enables him to track the killer.

Brian Cox, who plays Lecter, doesn’t have the magnificent Lecter-lair to act in, instead he’s given a humble, stark white prison cell. And despite not having Anthony Hopkins’ scene-chewing dialogue, Cox is a worthy Lecter - mysterious, manipulative and confident. William Peterson is good as the obsessive cop, especially when he dictates his thoughts into a tape recorder. Tom Noonan is extra creepy as an awkward and lanky photomart employee/serial killer. Even Cabin Boy himself, Chris Elliot, gives a brooding performance.

Technically the film has Michael Mann’s stamp all over it – blue & green-tinted look, steely cold performances, slick synthesized rock score - all elements we’ll see in later films such as “Heat” and “The Insider.” Note: I must acknowledge a couple nasty 80’s pop songs which also appear in the film.

The final sequence set to Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” uses some experimental camera effects, which put plainly, look really bad, but the scene is nonetheless pulsating and hypnotic. It’s a top-notch serial killer film and a grandfather of the genre, though buffs may also want to watch Akira Kurosawa’s “High and Low” or Fritz Lang’s “M” to see other similarities. Enjoy.