Entering the American entertainment industry as a TV cop show writer in the 1970s, Michael Mann went on to become one of Hollywood's leading stylists of the 80s and 90s, enjoying success on the small and large screens alike. Despite not helming any episodes of "Miami Vice" (NBC, 1984-89), he was (as executive producer) the man responsible for the proliferation of pastel colors in men's clothing that series heralded. ("It was somewhat annoying to find myself an arbiter of taste," Mann remarked to The New York Times December 24, 1995.) As for his features, he had the rare distinction of being nearly equally lauded for his richly textured screenplays, strong female characters and skillful handling of performers as for his complex camera movements, meticulous compositions and slick, shadowy imagery. Though he has worked his atmospheric magic on an oddball WWII-era supernatural tale ("The Keep" 1983), a classic pre-Revolutionary War costume drama ("The Last of the Mohicans" 1992) and the best film about investigative journalism since "All the President's Men" ("The Insider" 1999), Mann remains best known as a crime specialist and a major practitioner of the contemporary film noir, with the critically-lauded "Thief" (1981), "Manhunter" (1986) and "Heat" (1995) complementing his TV work.
The Chicago-born Mann became interested in filmmaking after taking a film history course while working toward an undergraduate degree in English literature at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. In England he earned an MA at the London Film School in 1967, found work in an advertising agency and became a director of commercials and documentaries. Returning to the USA in 1971, he moved to Los Angeles where he eventually began writing teleplays for "Police Story" (NBC), "Starsky and Hutch" and "Vega$" (both ABC) and later worked uncredited on the screenplay for "Straight Time" (1978) before graduating to the director's chair with "The Jericho Mile" (ABC, 1979), an Emmy-winning TV-movie released theatrically abroad. Inspirational yet gritty, this thoughtful story (co-scripted by Mann) starred Peter Strauss as a convicted killer under a life sentence who, determined to become the world's fastest runner, aims for a spot on the US Olympic team. Mann then made his feature film debut as an executive producer-writer-director with "Thief", described by Brit culture magazine Time Out as "a philosophical thriller filled with modernist cool". The film featured an outstanding central performance by James Caan as a professional thief who initially believes that he can control his own destiny, a superb supporting cast, hi-tech visuals and a classic electronic score by Tangerine Dream.
After the commercial and critical failure of "The Keep," a wildly uneven exercise that attempted to graft German Expressionist techniques on a bizarre story that straddled the horror and war genres, Mann returned to TV, overseeing the cultural phenomenon of "Miami Vice". Legend has it that Mann developed the series based on a brief memo by a network exec requesting "MTV cops." He filled the bill by crafting a terminally hip show featuring slick action sequences, driving musical scores (courtesy of Jan Hammer) and detectives dressed in expensive designer clothes. Once deemed cutting edge, "Miami Vice" did not age well and failed in syndication where it looked as hopelessly dated as "Dragnet". Some critics greatly preferred his less successful effort "Crime Story" (NBC, 1986-88), a would-be epic initially set in 1960s Chicago but concluding its run in the awesomely glitzy environment of "Casino"-era Las Vegas. After "Miami Vice" petered out, Mann executive produced, scripted and directed "L.A. Takedown" (NBC, 1989), a TV-movie pilot which failed to get picked up but provided the foundation for his 1995 feature "Heat." He returned to TV briefly in the early 90s, executive producing two popular docudrama miniseries, the Emmy-winning "Drug Wars: The Camarena Story" (NBC, 1990) and it sequel "Drug Wars: The Cocaine Cartel" (NBC, 1992).
Returning to the big screen, Mann took a more hands-on approach with his subsequent features, opting to produce rather than executive produce "Manhunter", a grim and disturbing psychological thriller that marked the screen debut of the celebrated cannibalistic psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Though quite violent, the carnage was more implied than shown, and the picture remains unfairly neglected, largely because its Lecter (Brian Cox) is less spectacular than Anthony Hopkins in "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991). The movie focused on a FBI agent (William Petersen) with a useful but troubling knack for getting inside the heads of the serial killers he hunts and was Mann's first collaboration with director of photography Dante Spinotti, responsible for the lush cinematography of all the director's subsequent features. He followed with a thoughtfully revisionist adaptation (which he co-wrote) of James Fenimore Cooper's novel "The Last of the Mohicans", oscillating between the sweep of historical fiction and the smaller canvass of its love story. This epic romantic adventure featured galvanizing battle scenes, a typically rousing score (by Randy Edelman) and a charismatic central performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, proving he could be a Hollywood action star.
Mann staked out more familiar territory with "Heat", an absorbing crime drama promoted for its landmark teaming of two American acting titans, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. (These master thespians had previously graced 1974's "The Godfather, Part II" but had no scenes together.) The former played a driven, supremely controlled professional thief while the latter was an equally dedicated detective with a messy personal life. Much more than a cat-and-mouse outing, "Heat" boasted a wealth of novelistic detail in its screenplay, virtuosic action set pieces and a generally high level of acting in a cast of 70 speaking parts, garnering mostly good reviews for the director, though a few holdouts decried it as an overly long triumph of style over substance. Mann mined recent history for his next project, "The Insider", picking the brain of fellow Wisconsin grad Lowell Bergman (played by Pacino), an investigative journalist in the middle of the brouhaha over CBS' 1995 refusal to air a "60 Minutes" segment featuring Brown & Williamson research scientist-turned-whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe). Though "The Insider" sometimes played fast and loose with historical accuracy, its broad strokes essentially told the emotional truth of how one man's damning information presented skillfully through a free press exposed big tobacco's tissue of lies, earning Mann the best reviews yet of his distinguished career. He also picked up three Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Director.
Mann returned to the big screen two years later with "Ali" (2001), the biopic of boxer Muhammad Ali, tracing the decade between the champion's defeat of Sonny Liston in 1964 and his comeback fight in Zaire against George Foreman in 1974. Although Mann made a wise decision when he cast Will Smith, previously seen primarily as a action-comedy hero, in the title role, the film was flawed and captured only a portion of the essence of Ali's cultural importance at the height of his fame. Still, it enjoyed a profitable opening and its share of positive critical reception, including an Oscar nomination for Smith. Mann's returned to the big screen with a strong follow-up, the compelling crime drama "Collateral" (2004), in which he made three remarkable decisions: he cast Jamie Foxx-with whom he'd worked in "Ali"-as the L.A. cabbie Max, revealing Foxx's considerable dramatic acting chops for the first time; he cast movie icon Tom Cruise in a rare villainous role, using the actor's trademark intensity to incredible menacing effect; and, although not a tech-minded director, Mann shot the film digital and used his extensive knowledge of the Los Angeles landscape to create one of the most involving and attractive portraits of that city ever captured on film.
After Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for his work as producer on "The Aviator" (2004), Martin Scorcese's biopic of airline mogul Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio), Mann got his chance to actually helm "Miami Vice," albeit as a feature. He reunited with Jaime Foxx, who played the smart and urbane Ricardo Tubbs, and cast Colin Farrell as the brash and charismatic Sonny Crockett. The undercover detectives pursue an arms and drug trafficker, as identity and reality become blurred between cop, criminal and those they love. The idea of rehashing his old television series was abhorrent at first-the last years, which consisted of ludicrous storylines and cheesy cameos, were complete crap, according to the director. But when Foxx cornered him at a birthday party for Muhammad Ali in 2001 and told him he needed to make the movie, Mann began to explore the possibility. He talked to drug enforcement agents, undercover narcotics cops and other law enforcement bureaucrats, inspiring him to begin writing a script in 2004. Universal Studios, who owned the rights to the series, were not thrilled with Mann's ultra-violent retake on the pastel cultural phenomenon, but Mann negotiated and got the go-ahead to make his movie.
Almost from the star, "Miami Vice" was plagued by disaster. During preproduction, Farrell injured his back and ribs while lifting weights, pushing production back six weeks into June 2005-the height of hurricane season. One particularly strong wind blew out the windows of a skyscraper, hurtling shattered glass to the street below where Farrell and Foxx were cruising around in a convertible Ferrari-top down, of course. Then in one of the most bizarre incidents to occur while shooting in Santo Domingo, a drunken local emerged from a bar waving a gun and demanding admittance to the set. The Dominican military hired by Mann to maintain security opened fire and shot him (he lived), causing Foxx to leave immediately and demand that the ending be shot in a safer locale (the setting was relocated to Miami). The film was finally completed after a grueling 105-day shoot that saw numerous crew defections and spawned wild stories back in Hollywood about crashing planes and the director shooting people. Released in late July 2007, "Miami Vice" received warm reviews that cited Mann's ability to churn out a compelling and gritty police procedural without mimicking-or mocking-the source material. |
