This post consists of a running list of miscellaneous observations about Mann's movies - items will be added to the list over a period of time. At least some of the items to be posted here will have to do with topics we've discussed earlier in the analysis, such as the connection between Mann and Stanley Kubrick, etc.
A bridge at the beginning of Mann's The Last of the Mohicans. Note that what we see under the bridge (through the upper half of the opening) is disjoint from the rest of the image - it appears that we're looking at the far shore of a lake (or reservoir); but, if someone was going to build a bridge across a lake, they wouldn't build it so close to a parallel bank, since anyone wishing to cross the body of water at this location could simply go around it instead.
From Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey: The excavation in the ground around the monolith, at Clavius on the Moon. Note that in this view, the excavation looks somewhat like a reservoir full of clear liquid, as if it's reflecting objects that we could imagine being above its surface along the edges, such as tall gold-colored buildings. Perhaps what is being suggested is the legendary "Lost City of Gold", El Dorado, that has fascinated – and so far eluded – explorers since the days of the Spanish Conquistadors. 'El Dorado' is also sometimes used as a metaphor to represent an ultimate prize or "Holy Grail" that one might spend one's life seeking. It could represent true love, heaven, happiness, or success.[10] (Or in 2001, enlightenment.)
Above left: The Bank of California building from Mann's Thief. Recall from my analysis of the movie that the third level down from the top, on which lies the vault to be robbed by Frank and his crew, represents the fourth circle of Dante's Hell, if we consider the first circle (Limbo) to be the world occupied by Frank, Leo (Frank's boss), and the others. The disillusionment side of the 'El Dorado' ideal quest metaphor may be represented by Helldorado, a satirical nickname given to Tombstone by a tardy miner who complained that many of his profession had traveled far to find El Dorado, only to wind up washing dishes in restaurants. Above right: From Heat: One of Neil's men accesses an electrical panel that is located on the bottom floor of a building, from below at garage level. Contrast this with Frank's entry into the Bank of California building from roof level in Thief.
Above left: From Collateral: Cab driver Max Durocher sees this 'Wild West'-themed mural each morning he leaves the taxi terminal.
Above right: From Public Enemies: John Dillinger, who is compared to Jesse James in the commentary accompanying my edition of the
movie DVD, sings Git Along Little Doggies while driving. The song is a staple of Western music.
Top left: Electronic tubes inside Francis Dollarhyde's house in Manhunter. In the audio commentary for the movie, Mann says that real-life serial killer Dennis Wayne Wallace, on whom Mann based the Dollarhyde character, believed not only that the spark in the tube contained a clue to his identity, but that contained in each tube was his own little Empire State Building. Top right: From Manhunter: Note the skyscraper outside the window of Will Graham's building in Atlanta. Also note that Graham putting his hand on the window in this scene, is reminiscent of the astronaut in 2001 putting his hand on the monolith, if we take the skyscraper building to represent the monolith. Above left: Also from Manhunter: Graham's supervisor, Jack Crawford, who is on the other end of a walkie-talkie conversation with Graham near the end of the movie, tells Graham to listen - he is having trouble getting Will to listen to him. Above right: From Collateral: Max looks up at Annie's office in a towering downtown building, during their cellphone conversation near the end of the movie. During the conversation, Max has to keep telling Annie to listen.
In the audio commentary for Collateral, Mann says that there can be "different kinds of narrative all in the same picture". What he's saying is that the characters in at least some of his movies, can be talking about more than one thing in a given conversation - there can be a 'hidden' meaning as well as a surface meaning to what the characters are saying to each other. Above left: From Public Enemies: Melvin Purvis speaks to J. Edgar Hoover over the phone. At one point in the conversation, Purvis repeats three times in a row, "Our type cannot get the job done." The surface meaning is that the existing, typical FBI agents Hoover has been hiring will not be able to capture John Dillinger - it is too difficult a task. (Purvis is requesting to bring in some specially trained men from Oklahoma and Texas.) The hidden meaning of Purvis's phrase, however, is a reference to Kubrick's A Space Odyssey: The aliens know they won't be able to perform the 'bank robbery' (see my analysis of 2001) unless they have special help, e.g., this might be a reference to the fact that they need to inhabit human bodies in order to pull off the robbery. Above right: From Heat: Neil McCauley tells Roger Van Zant, "There is a dead man on the other end of this line." The surface meaning of the statement is, of course, that Neil is going to have Van Zant killed. However, it too is also a reference to something in Kubrick's movie, probably to the fact that Heywood Floyd is to be killed.
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Top left: From Heat: Vincent kicks his TV set out of his car, while driving on a city street in Los Angeles. Top right: From Miami Vice: Trudy, who is being held hostage in a mobile home, is tied to a chair and has had a television set placed in her lap. There is an explosive device wired around her neck that will go off, if her captor presses the attached detonator button. The television set is being used by her captors to convey to her fellow police officers, who are on the other end of a phone conversation with the captors, something about her identity: The TV is just now broadcasting a hurricane warning on a live news progam, and the officers will hear the program while Trudy speaks on the phone; and thus, they will realize that she is speaking in real-time, i.e., they'll know her voice hasn't been pre-recorded. Above left: From The Insider: This view of a television on the back patio of a beach house, with ocean in the background, links Mann's 'television' theme (most or all of Mann's movies depict at least one instance of someone watching TV) with his Holy Spirit theme (discussed in part 3). Recall that the biblical movement of the Spirit over the waters, is linked with the alchemical nigredo. Also, recall Mann's theme of breath and the Holy Spirit, as discussed in part 4. Maybe Mann's using breath as a reference to the breathing of astronaut David Bowman, which the audience of 2001 hears very distinctly at several points during the movie. Above right: Note the dead bird in the swimming pool (at lower left of photo) in this scene from Heat. Certain birds, such as doves, are sometimes considered to represent the Holy Spirit. In the audio commentary for Heat, Mann says that when his crew first went to this location to film this scene, there happened to be a dead bird in the pool; then when they went back the next day to finish filming, the bird was gone, so Mann had a (presumably fake) bird placed in the same pool - he says he wanted to make sure there was a bird in the pool in this scene. Taking the dead bird in the water together with Mann's use of breath (Waingro gasping just before he dies in Heat, and Okla dying of angina in Thief), and with what I said about Bowman's breathing, perhaps what Mann's saying is that the death of the Holy Spirit is being depicted in A Space Odyssey.
Top left: From Manhunter: Will and Molly Graham together in Will's hotel room in Washington, D.C. (This scene was deleted from the theatrical release, but is on the 'Restored Director's Cut' DVD.) Molly reminds Will that when the two of them first met, she saw something flicker across his face "like a shadow". (Recall from the Manhunter analysis that this represents movement of the Holy Spirit.) A few moments later, she says, "Time is luck, Will. I know the value of every single day." The 'time is luck' theme also appears in Miami Vice, Public Enemies, and Heat, as evidenced by the fact that statements similar to Molly's statement, are made by certain characters in these other movies. Top right: From Heat: Vincent, holding gun at left, sees Neil's shadow flicker across the ground (lower right of photo) during the chase scene at the end of the movie. The scenario is that the two men are near the runway of an airport, at night, and the area they are in is lit up by runway lights each time a plane passes overhead. The point is that at any given moment, there is a certain probability that a plane will pass over, and thus that one of the two men will see the other. Above left: From Collateral: Vincent pauses while deciding which of two stopped subway trains to hop onto. The scenario here is that he is chasing Max and Annie near the end of the movie. There is a 50-50 chance that he will pick the correct train, i.e., the one that Annie and Max are on. Above right: From Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey: While on the mission to Jupiter, the HAL-9000 computer informs astronaut David Bowman that he "just picked up a fault in the AE-35 unit. It's going to go to one hundred percent failure within seventy-two hours." [The unit is pictured on the blue screen to the left (from our perspective) of HAL's camera eye.] HAL also tells Bowman that the unit will stay within operational limits until it fails, and that the 72 hours is a "completely reliable figure". Later during the mission, when the AE-35 unit data is checked remotely by a twin HAL-9000 back on Earth, it turns out that the on-board HAL was wrong and that there's nothing wrong with the unit.
[UPDATE 12/25/11: In Mann's Miami Vice movie, Sonny Crockett at one point says to Isabella, "Things go wrong. The odds catch up. Probability is like gravity: you cannot negotiate with gravity. One day...one day you should just cash out, you know? Just cash out and get out." The Wikipedia page for A Space Odyssey says, "Although the astronauts are wearing zero-G 'grip shoes' in order to walk normally, they are oddly leaning on the table while testing the AE-35 unit as if held down by gravity."[11] To me at least, this seems to indicate that the unit has something to do with simulating weightlessness, since while the unit is disengaged, maybe Poole and Bowman are in fact being held down by gravity. Of course, this idea would appear to conflict with the periodic indications we're given that Bowman and Poole are in (weightless) space, such as exterior shots of their spacecraft, Discovery One. Also, it appears that Bowman is ready to replace the supposedly faulty unit with a new one immediately after he removes it.
According to the AE-35 Unit Replication Project web page (here), "[B]ased on descriptions in the [2001] novel and on references in the [2001] film, the AE-35 Unit was a control unit which kept the radio antennae pointed where it was supposed to be pointed. The term AE-35 most likely stood for Azimuth & Elevation with the -35 being some sort of model or version number designator. Since the AE-35 unit kept the antennae stabilized in azimuth and elevation, it most likely was a gyro control system. (Note that the term AE-35 referred to the black box that was removed from the antenna structure and not the antennae structure itself, as was erroneously used in the sequel 2010)." Since the unit has something to do with stabilizing the communications antenna, maybe the purpose of Mann's 'communication problems' theme (discussed above) is to give us one or more hints about something to do with the unit, and/or with communications on board Discovery One.]
