Michael Mann analysis - part 1: Introduction

CATEGORY: MOVIES; WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS CONTAINS SPOILERS!!

Michael Mann speaking at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Black Hat", at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. [Image from the Wikipedia 'Michael Mann (director)' page; Michael Mann SDCC 2014 by Gage Skidmore, licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.]










Welcome to the analysis of filmmaker Michael Mann. Buttons at the bottom of each post enable navigation through the parts of the analysis.

Michael Kenneth Mann is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. For his work, he has received nominations from international organizations and juries.

Mann's television work includes being the executive producer on Miami Vice and Crime Story. Contrary to popular belief, he is not the creator of these shows but the executive producer and the showrunner. They were produced by his production company.

Mann is now known primarily as a feature film director and he has a very distinctive style that is reflected in his work. His trademarks include unusual musical scores, such as that by the band Tangerine Dream used in Thief.

In 1986, Mann was the first to bring Thomas Harris's character of Hannibal Lecter to the screen with Manhunter, his adaptation of the novel Red Dragon, which starred Brian Cox (shown at left) as a down-to-earth Hannibal Lecktor (note the different spelling of Hannibal's surname used in Manhunter).


Mann gained widespread recognition in 1992 for his film adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's novel into the epic film Last of the Mohicans. His biggest critical successes in the 1990s were Heat in 1995 and The Insider in 1999. The films featured Al Pacino along with Robert De Niro in Heat and Russell Crowe in The Insider. The Insider was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including a nomination for Mann's direction.

Above left and right: The deli conversation in Heat: Al Pacino (left) and Robert DeNiro (right).

Russell Crowe in The Insider.


With his next film Ali starring Will Smith in 2001, Mann started experimenting with digital cameras. The film helped catapult Smith to greater fame, and he was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance.

Will Smith in Ali.

In 2004 Mann directed Collateral starring Tom Cruise (shown at left) and Jamie Foxx. On this film, Mann shot all of the exterior scenes digitally so that he could achieve more depth and detail during the night scenes.


After Collateral, Mann directed the film adaptation of Miami Vice which he also executive produced. It stars a completely new cast with Colin Farrell as Don Johnson's character Sonny Crockett, and Jamie Foxx filling Philip Michael Thomas' shoes as Ricardo Tubbs. Public Enemies, released in 2009, was directed, co-written, and co-produced by Mann. It starred Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, with Depp playing John Dillinger in the film, and Bale played Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent in charge of capturing Dillinger.[a]


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We will begin the study of common themes and other relationships among Mann's films, in the next part of this analysis.


a. Wikipedia, 'Michael Mann (director)'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Mann_(director).

Michael Mann analysis - part 12: Miscellaneous observations

CATEGORY: MOVIES



From The Last of the Mohicans: What we see under the bridge (i.e., through the arch) is disjoint from the rest of the image - when viewing things through the arch, 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.














Above left - from Heat: Vincent kicks his TV set out of his car, while driving on a city street in Los Angeles. Above 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. Left - from The Insider: A view of a television on the back patio of a beach house, with the ocean in the background. Almost all of Mann's movies contain one or more scenes in which a television is present.

Michael Mann analysis - part 11: The relationship of 'Collateral' to 'Manhunter'

CATEGORY: MOVIES




Above left - from Collateral: Hit man Vincent (left) and taxi driver Max are together, throughout almost the entire movie. Above right - from Manhunter: Will Graham (left) and Francis Dollarhyde don't meet each other until their showdown at the end of the movie.

The first thing we'll look at in this post, are some of the similarities between the characters Will Graham (Manhunter) and Max Durocher (Collateral). One similarity is that each man is going through his own alchemical process. The four stages of alchemy were discussed earlier in this analysis; recall that we observed that the nigredo is the first stage in the process, and that in Manhunter, Will Graham's nigredo occurs during and just after his visit with Hannibal Lecktor. In part 9 of this analysis, we said that Max's second nigredo occurs when Sylvester Clarke is killed, concurrently with Max being approached by hoodlums. However, what's actually the case is that there is action that is being 'hidden' from the Collateral audience, and that in reality, Max is shot by the hoodlums, and everything we see in the movie after this is a dream that Max experiences, just before the point of his actually dying from his gunshot wound.

There are also similarities between the killers in each movie (Vincent in Collateral and Dollarhyde in Manhunter). Mann mentions in the audio commentary for Collateral that Vincent's first anomaly (i.e., his first deviation from what Mann calls his "machine-like behavior"), occurs when he experiences some amount of regret over killing the jazz club owner, Daniel Baker. The second anomaly takes place when he goes with Max to visit Max's mother in the hospital. Dollarhyde's anomaly is bound up with his meeting a coworker, Reba, and beginning to date her. Deviating from their normal procedures is one thing which ultimately leads to each man's respective downfall. Their respective deviations signify each man's loss of concentration on his 'job' as a killer.

Above left - from Collateral: Vincent and Max visit Max's mother in the hospital. Above right - from Manhunter: Francis Dollarhyde (on left) meets Reba.


We'll wrap up this post with some miscellaneous observations about the two movies. First, note that in each movie, the audience is effectively 'dropped' into a pre-existing situation, a set of circumstances and relationships which already exists before the film begins. In the sepearate analysis of Manhunter on this blog, the prior relationships among some of the characters are discussed, for example, the fact that Molly and Dr. Bloom had been married and divorced prior to the movie's beginning. There is also a pre-existing situation that applies to Collateral, in that when Vincent is shown in the airport at the beginning of the movie, he already has his 'assignment' (the hit list); and, related to this, there is the issue of the case to be brought by Annie. The basic scenario whereby the hits are to be performed, who is to be killed, and the reason for killing them, already exists prior to the start of the movie.

Another thing to note is that in both movies, much of the action occurs at night.

Finally, in the audio commentary for Collateral, Mann notes that Vincent and Max are "oppositional." This is obviously true of Graham and Dollarhyde.


   

Michael Mann analysis - part 10: Prisons create career criminals

CATEGORY: MOVIES

From Thief: Shown at left is the diner conversation scene, during which Jessie asks Frank about the first time he went to prison. Frank's response: "I stole forty dollars. It started out with a two-year bit, paroled in six months...right away, I got into this problem with these two guys - they tried to turn me out. So I picked up nine more on a manslaughter beef, some other things. I was twenty when I went in, thirty-one when I come out..." Recall that Frank learned how to break into safes from Okla while he was in prison: "[Okla is] a master thief, a master, and a great man. He was like a father. He taught me everything I know about what I do."



From Public Enemies: John Dillinger in the process of robbing a bank. Michael Mann, from the audio commentary to the movie: "Dillinger, in a way, became the poster boy for the notion that criminals are made, not born...that criminality may have to do with personal characteristics, but also with circumstances, with environment, with things that happen to you in your life. In Dillinger's case, this is a young guy who's wild, who gets drunk, who holds up a grocery store and steals fifty dollars, and is sent to ten years in a state penitentiary. And...prison made him a criminal."


   

Michael Mann analysis - part 9: More on alchemy in 'Collateral'

CATEGORY: MOVIES

In part 6 of the analysis we observed that the first stage of alchemy's Great Work, the nigredo ("the blackening"), is characterized by chaos. It is also associated with the encounter with one's psychological shadow, melancholia, and putrefaction and decomposition. The scenario in Mann's Collateral is that cab driver Max Durocher experiences four nigredos. The first occurs when hit man Vincent's first victim, Ramone Ayala, falls out of a window down several stories and lands, dead, on the top of Max's cab. This is a chaotic scene, and thus represents a nigredo. Max's second nigredo occurs while Vincent is performing his hit on Sylvester Clarke. While Vincent is in Clarke's condo, Max is sitting outside in his cab waiting, with his hands tied (by Vincent) to the steering wheel. When Max shouts for help, two young hoodlums respond, and one of them steals Vincent's briefcase from the back seat. When Vincent shows up, he shoots the two men dead. There is chaos during the entire sequence of events. Max suffers a panic attack after Vincent's third hit, jazz club owner Daniel Baker, is shot point blank in the head. This scene, too, is chaotic. Finally, there is complete chaos and pandemonium in the nightclub, Club Fever, before, during, and after the execution of gangster Peter Lim.

From Collateral - Max's four nigredos: Top left: Ramone Alaya falls onto the top of Max's taxi after being shot by Vincent. Top right: Max is harangued by some armed hoodlums, who end up being shot by Vincent. Above left: Vincent shoots jazz club owner Daniel Baker, immediately after which Max has a panic attack. Above right: Pandemonium in Club Fever.


Since Max defeats Vincent before Vincent can kill Annie Farrell, his intended fifth and final hit, there are four nigredos being depicted in the movie corresponding to Vincent's four hits.


   

Michael Mann analysis - part 8: Hidden plots

CATEGORY: MOVIES





From Thief: It's evident from the surface action in the film that Leo, Frank's 'boss' (left) provides Frank (right) and his partner, Jessie, with a baby boy, but as discussed in the separate analysis of Thief on this blog, a component of the 'hidden' plot is that Leo has also provided Frank with Jessie herself; or more correctly, he has provided Jessie with Frank, so that she and the child will have a means of support.



From Heat: Neil, Chris's 'boss', confronts Charlene about her cheating on her husband (Chris). Neil demands that she give Chris one more chance to make a big score and then not blow the money by gambling it away. (Chris lost most of his 'earnings' from the previous robbery due to debts from a visit to Las Vegas.) This conversation 'points to' the hidden plot in Thief, in that there must have been one or more 'behind-the-scenes' conversations between Leo and Jessie; these two characters are never shown in one another's presence, nor are they heard speaking with each other (such as over the phone), at any point during the movie (Thief). Thus, their conversations constitute action in the film that is 'hidden' from Thief's audience. This audience must deduce the fact that these conversations took place, based on the surface action in the film.



   

Michael Mann analysis - part 7: The relationship of 'Heat' to 'Thief'

CATEGORY: MOVIES

From Thief: Frank's montage-like photograph depicts people, places, and events from his past, present, and (desired) future life, all together pictorially as if they all exist 'here and now'. Frank desires to retire and settle down with a family, but he also desires to escape ordinary space-time (speaking metaphorically, of course); this can be accomplished, so he believes, by moving his newly-acquired family to Calfornia, which the movie suggests is, in some sense, outside the bounds of ordinary space and time (the specific idea of Calfornia existing outside the bounds of ordinary space/time, is covered in part 8 of the separate analysis of Thief on this blog).








From Heat: Vincent's view while driving. The song playing in this scene is called Always Forever Now, a title which is reminiscent of what was said about Frank's montage above.


From Heat: Vincent (far right) is located in California and is somewhat settled, with his own family of sorts, so in a sense he represents the achievement of Frank's goal. However, he soon 'discovers' that he can't hold a family together while devoting himself to chasing down criminals. This is the tension Mann is depicting, an internal tension that each of us lives with at some level or another: We want to be free of restraints, and yet at the same time we want stability in our lives; and within the context of these two competing desires, in no scenario are we ever wholly satisfied.



   

Michael Mann analysis - part 6: Depiction of alchemical processes

CATEGORY: MOVIES









From Manhunter: Will Graham catches his breath as his surroundings come back into focus, after his encounter with his psychological shadow, Hannibal Lecktor. The encounter with the shadow is associated with the alchemical stage known as the nigredo.



In early Greek alchemy, the nigredo stage was identified with chaos (below is a basic description of alchemy and the nigredo). Chaos is associated with creation in Genesis, where "[T]he earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." [Gen. 1:2, New International Version]

Alchemy is an ancient tradition, the primary objective of which was the creation of the mythical "philosopher's stone," which was said to be capable of turning base metals into gold or silver, and also act as an elixir of life that would confer youth and immortality upon its user. The philosopher's stone is created by the alchemical method known as The Magnum Opus or The Great Work. Often expressed as a series of color changes or chemical processes, the instructions for creating the philosopher's stone are varied.[a] The Great Work originally had four stages:

1) nigredo, a blackening or melanosis
2) albedo, a whitening or leucosis
3) citrinitas, a yellowing or xanthosis
4) rubedo, a reddening, purpling, or iosis


After the 15th century, many writers tended to compress citrinitas into rubedo and consider only three stages. However, it is in citrinitas that the chemical wedding takes place, generating the Philosophical Mercury without which the philosopher's stone, triumph of the Work, could never be accomplished.

In the framework of psychological development, and especially within the context of Jungian psychology, these four alchemical steps are taken as analogous to the process of attaining individuation.[b] Let us examine the four steps in greater detail.

1. Nigredo, or blackness, in alchemy means putrefaction or decomposition. The alchemists believed that as a first step in the pathway to the philosopher's stone all alchemical ingredients had to be cleansed and cooked extensively to a uniform black matter. In psychology, Carl Jung (a student of alchemy) interpreted nigredo as a moment of maximum despair, that is a prerequisite to personal development.[c]

Mann's depiction of the Holy Spirit moving over the waters in some of his movies, is connected with the nigredo, insofar as they both have to do with chaos. Also, the nigredo is associated with the encounter with the psychological shadow; Hannibal Lecktor represents Graham's shadow, and as indicated above (next to the screencap), Will's encounter with Lecktor and the events immediately following it, comprise a nigredo for Will.

2. Albedo - following the harrowing, chaotic nigredo, it is necessary for purification provided by the albedo which is literally referred to as ablutio; the washing away of impurities by aqua vitae. Jung equated the albedo with unconscious contrasexual soul images; the anima in men and animus in women. It is a phase where insight into shadow projections are realized, and inflated ego and unneeded conceptualizations are removed from the psyche.[d]

3. Citrinitas literally referred to "transmutation of silver into gold" or "yellowing of the lunar consciousness", and in alchemical philosophy stood for the dawning of the "solar light" inherent in one's being, and that the reflective "lunar or soul light" was no longer necessary. In Jungian terms, citrinitas is the wise old man (or woman) archetype.[e]

4. Rubedo is a Latin word meaning "redness." In an archetypal schema, rubedo would represent the Self archetype, and would be the culmination of the four stages. The Self manifests itself in "wholeness," a point in which a person discovers his or her true nature.[f]

Later in this analysis, we will see more on the topic of Mann's depiction of alchemical stages in some of his films.


a. Wikipedia, 'Philosopher's stone'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher%27s_stone.
b. Wikipedia, 'Magnum opus (alchemy)'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnum_opus_(alchemy).
c. Wikipedia, 'Nigredo'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigredo.
d. Wikipedia, 'Albedo (alchemy)'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo_(alchemy).
e. Wikipedia, 'Citrinitas'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citrinitas.
f. Wikipedia, 'Rubedo'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubedo.


   

Michael Mann analysis - part 5: Depiction of timelessness

CATEGORY: MOVIES





From Thief: There is a 'contraction' in time while Frank and his men are breaking into the Bank of California vault. This contraction is indicated by the fact that it takes the men much less time to work their way into the vault, than was earlier predicted by Frank. Metaphorically speaking, the men are here in a realm in which time is not experienced in its ordinary sense.



   

Michael Mann analysis - part 4: Breath and the Holy Spirit

CATEGORY: MOVIES

In part 3, depictions of movement of the Holy Spirit in some of Michael Mann's movies were discussed. In the bible's Gospel of John, chapter 20, verses 20-23, a correspondence is drawn between breath, and the Holy Spirit:

20. [T]hen the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
21. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
22. When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
23. "If you received the sins of any, they are forgiven them. ..."
[New Revised Standard Version; emphasis not in original.]

The topic of breathing, and/or things related to it, come up in at least two of Mann's movies:

One of the characters in Thief, Okla, develops angina while he is in prison. The full name for angina is angina pectoris, which, translated from the Latin, means "a strangling feeling in the chest." Later, Okla dies from the disease.

From Thief: Okla in his hospital bed.


In Heat, Waingro gasps for breath just before he dies. In Mann's audio commentary to the movie, he says that when Waingro escapes from Neil early in the movie, he (Waingro) "is like a contagion in the air."

From Heat: Waingro.



Also in Heat, Neil tells Vincent, during their conversation in the deli, about a recurring dream he has in which he is drowning. Neil says, "I have to wake myself up and start breathing again, or else I'll die in my sleep."


   

Michael Mann analysis - part 3: Depiction of the Holy Spirit moving

CATEGORY: MOVIES












Above left - from The Keep: Glaeken Trismegistus travels by boat toward Romania. We note that there's no engine noise in this scene, and the sails are not raised, but the ship is still moving through the water at a good speed. Above right - from Heat: Neil looks out the large window of his Malibu beach house. Left - from Thief: Frank (left) sits with a fisherman on a jetty in a lake.





We are to interpret each of the above three scenes, as depictions of the Holy Spirit moving over the waters as told at the beginning of the biblical book of Genesis. For the majority of Christians, the Holy Spirit (prior English language usage: the Holy Ghost from Old English gast, "spirit") is the third person of the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.[a]

Genesis 1:1-8 read as follows [New International Version]:

1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day. 6. And God said, "Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water." 7. So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8. God called the vault "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning--the second day.


a. Wikipedia, 'Holy Spirit in Christianity'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Spirit_in_Christianity.


   

Michael Mann analysis - part 2: Manipulating one's own state of mind

CATEGORY: MOVIES

From Manhunter: FBI investigator Will Graham calls his wife, Molly, from his hotel room in Atlanta. To 'set himself up' for getting inside a killer's head (in this case, that of the 'Tooth Fairy'), Graham uses the people in his environment to manipulate his own state of mind. This is effectively what he's doing in this brief conversation with Molly. Immediately after the call, he enters the killer's mind while viewing the victims' home movies, and he then has an important insight which may help solve the killings. The basic idea is that Graham's using Molly to get himself 'wound up', so that he can be productive at his job.


From Collateral: Annie Farrell, an attorney, describes her courtroom routine to cab driver Max Durocher: "I represent the Department of Justice, and my opening statement is gonna fall flat at the most important point, and the jury's gonna laugh at me. And then I cry. I don't throw up. A lot of people throw up, I have a strong stomach. And then I pull myself together, I rewrite my opening statement, work my exhibits, and that's what I do for the rest of the night. That's my routine. And in the morning when [the trial] starts, I'm fine."



Will Graham and Annie Farrell are doing something we all do, whether we realize it or not: Each of us periodically uses his or her own situation or surroundings to 'spin himself/herself up', thus creating an internal emotional tension which provides a form of energy within our psyches; one which is necessary to lead a productive life. Without periodically invoking this tension, we would grow complacent, and would become less active.