At his 80s/90s peak Mann was like a cross between Terrence Malick and John McTiernan, gorgeous cinematography and music, taut action and deliberate violence. Collateral is partly about the wildness and randomness of things, the will and competence and coldness needed to not merely navigate but master the world, to momentarily bend the endless flowing of desires and fears to your purpose. My favourite Mann is Manhunter, I even kind of structured my novel around it. Mann probably won't make another great film, alas.
I thought this review was brilliant. I love the how you equated the city to the ocean, but later showed the juxtaposition of the ocean swallowing the city.
And I love the vision of using technology to conquer and traverse the expanse of nature, as tools to help us move through the world rather than get lost in it.
I think pushing that vision onto the current and aspiring tech bros could do wonders in helping mold the technological future into a more optimistic one
Politics can be dangerous business, art much less so. It would be delightful to see films created by all of the goid people banned for travel by ZOG reach the masses. I hope we will one day give the enemy a taste of their own cultural poison while inspiring the best from the rest.
Keith, great piece. I saw Miami Vice opening weekend, and while my friends and I thought we were cool by laughing out loud at machismo dialogue, it left a lasting impression and has only gotten better with age. The crescendo of the trailer park rescue remains one of my favorite scenes in any movie.
You have to check out Blackhat if you haven't already. Features an arguably miscast Hemsworth, bombed even harder at the box office and with critics, and truthfully it's even more flawed than Miami Vice. But like Miami Vice, I find myself revisiting it at least once a year, and it has multiple scenes, motifs, and lines of dialogue I think about often. Touches on all the themes you mentioned too. Even more prescient now about the digital age in which we live and how much we are slaves to technology. Check it out!
I feel like the fascination with the criminal underworld is a sure sign of society losing its way. How many more ways can a society say "I hate myself and don't believe in myself" than constantly depicting low-lifes and thugs and foreigners as fascinating characters?
Maybe its the revenge of corporatism, sterilizing our creative impulses and making "normal life" in suburbia so boring and non-self-directed, that people are willing to indulge in blind self-hatred and take a desperate chance on anything. Of course I remember how rap music was marketed to white youth: with the implicit assumption that OUR culture was boring and staid, THEIR culture was awesome, exotic, unfathomable - so cool!
My younger self was very aware of the 'dark turn' that movies took in the late 90s - everything becoming "gritty", all about killing and murder, whether they glorified it or not (arguably even giving it a depiction is glorifying it, in a sense). Reservoir dogs, Fight Club, Goodfellas - suddenly you had to beat the sh1t out of people or join some criminal organization, to have an interesting life. White people becoming bored with themselves, maybe.
"I feel like the fascination with the criminal underworld is a sure sign of society losing its way." Exactly. You have to know that Michael Mann is a Russian Jew who produced mostly (bad) gangster films, the villains usually being white (or Hispanic) men. It doesn't get any more obvious than that. Keith totally misunderstood his films.
I'm sorry to say but this is a horrible misinterpretation and over-interpretation of Michael Mann's movies. Mann has really just produced a series of simple and poor gangster movies. The gangster genre also explains the many night scenes and general darkness.
Heat is a typical example. It was poorly received upon release, but they purged all the negative reviews from the English Wikipedia page. You can still find them on the German Wikipedia page. Miami Vice is also a really bad movie. It's almost a parody, really.
Why the ocean scenes? It's much simpler. The movies play in cities like LA and Miami. Beachside property signifies wealth, and the ocean provides calmness between action scenes.
The Jewish influence is also clearly visible (Mann is a Russian Jew). In Collateral, a black guy saves a black woman from a white killer working for a Colombian cartel. Sure. In Insider, the film glorifies a Jewish journalist and and a Jewish producer, and it opens with Zionist anti-Hezbollah propaganda. Same with Mann's very Jewish daughter Ami Canaan...
So what does it tell us if someone says Heat is one of the greatest movies of all time? It obviously tells us more about the guy than about the movie. It probably suggests some hidden or suppressed fascination with gangster life, urban crime, darkness, decay, violence.
Russian Jew Mann certainly didn't produce right-wing or conservative movies. Quite the opposite.
Mann's Miami Vice is really just a parody or self-parody. Acting is so bad it's painful. Some scenes are bordering on a video game. It's some kind of dark Baywatch.
"Miami Vice has little more to recommend itself. The general outlines of the story are familiar, the characters largely stereotyped. The psychopathic Yero smiles, and then snarls, in a sinister manner to which we are well accustomed. This is how filmmakers of a certain type believe they can convey the monstrousness of the drug trade, by doubling or tripling the villainy of its representatives. It merely feels false."
"The tough-minded, matter-of-fact cops and various law enforcement officials mumble tensely to one another, knowingly using police jargon. The performers in general, with the exception perhaps of Gong Li, act in a narcissistic and self-serious fashion. There is little spontaneity or vitality in the film, nor any serious engagement with contemporary existence. The clothes, the restaurants, the technology, the music may be up-to-date, but the North or South American present is lacking for the most part. The circumstances are largely fantasized and, worse, not very intriguing."
"Assuming that a film could shed substantial light on this problem, which Miami Vice does not, would it be interesting? It seems unlikely. In fact, as his various published comments make clear, Mann begins with a mass of conformist assumptions about the police and society, of which he appears entirely oblivious."
"We would like to know: why do American filmmakers continue to be so impressed by gangsters, among the most backward and boring creatures on earth? This fascination may very well be bound up with immature notions about the alleged “freedom” of the criminal life."
"Why this film? It cost a good deal of time, effort and money, but why was it made? Mann certainly aspires to be a serious filmmaker. By all accounts, he tackles every aspect of his work obsessively. He writes, directs and produces his films. No one can doubt the ferocity of his work ethic."
It is also possible to be terribly serious about secondary, even trivial matters.
If the author were meaning to pull our leg, no one would object. This is an unintentionally satirical commentary on a certain kind of “post-modern” filmmaking (and criticism): devoid of significant content, indifferent to social life, aspiring above all to a certain look and feel.
A triumph of style over substance, ... B-level narrative ...
Unfortunately, the big-screen adaptation of the TV series “Miami Vice,” which ran for five years under Mann's tight supervision, is a high-concept (though not popcorn) movie, marred by routine storyline of drugs and guns, and characterizations that leave a lot to be desired.
Heat is a terrible film. Trivial and shallow. Mann, a Russian Jew, has produced hollow and unrealistic crime movies throughout his life. In Insider, he opened with Zionist anti-Hezbollah propaganda, then hailed two Jewish journalists, based on a script written by yet another Jew. Miami Vice is also overrated. The dark ambiance of his films appeals to desperate and frustrated people.
Collateral is another joke. Shallow, nonsensical, unrealistic, predictable. Black protagonist saving black woman from white killer, sure. No Keith, you've been fooled big time by Mann.
yes he likes to include dark ocean views, but so what? the films play in LA and Miami, it's nothing special. it's not film noir or neo noir either, too polished.
"Pacino is still doing his spasmodic overacting from Scent of a Woman – you know, that thing where he speaks quietly and then SHOUTS! a random word or two REAL LOUD! (He seems borderline insane.) De Niro gives a physically commanding performance, but here, as in Casino, he’s playing an ice-minded humanoid. Mann’s most perverse decision was to cast these two legends and then keep them apart from each other." https://www.ew.com/article/1995/12/22/heat
At his 80s/90s peak Mann was like a cross between Terrence Malick and John McTiernan, gorgeous cinematography and music, taut action and deliberate violence. Collateral is partly about the wildness and randomness of things, the will and competence and coldness needed to not merely navigate but master the world, to momentarily bend the endless flowing of desires and fears to your purpose. My favourite Mann is Manhunter, I even kind of structured my novel around it. Mann probably won't make another great film, alas.
Good examples.
Beautifully observed and described. You have a true talent in this field, and a bigger audience than in political discourse.
But still I beg, don’t leave us alone in our struggles
I thought this review was brilliant. I love the how you equated the city to the ocean, but later showed the juxtaposition of the ocean swallowing the city.
And I love the vision of using technology to conquer and traverse the expanse of nature, as tools to help us move through the world rather than get lost in it.
I think pushing that vision onto the current and aspiring tech bros could do wonders in helping mold the technological future into a more optimistic one
Damn. I always loved heat. Can’t wait to go back and watch both again. Thanks Keith. Down with apolonia! Love your work.
Great piece.
Great book if you get your hands on it;
The Philosophy of Michael Mann, Vito Adriaensens & David LaRocca
That was a great read sir!
Technical evolution aside, Thief remains Mann's definitive thematic compass. Good post, keith.
Jews always promote black heros and miscegenation.
Goys are in lockstep as they are willingly corrupted.
Politics can be dangerous business, art much less so. It would be delightful to see films created by all of the goid people banned for travel by ZOG reach the masses. I hope we will one day give the enemy a taste of their own cultural poison while inspiring the best from the rest.
Keith, great piece. I saw Miami Vice opening weekend, and while my friends and I thought we were cool by laughing out loud at machismo dialogue, it left a lasting impression and has only gotten better with age. The crescendo of the trailer park rescue remains one of my favorite scenes in any movie.
You have to check out Blackhat if you haven't already. Features an arguably miscast Hemsworth, bombed even harder at the box office and with critics, and truthfully it's even more flawed than Miami Vice. But like Miami Vice, I find myself revisiting it at least once a year, and it has multiple scenes, motifs, and lines of dialogue I think about often. Touches on all the themes you mentioned too. Even more prescient now about the digital age in which we live and how much we are slaves to technology. Check it out!
I feel like the fascination with the criminal underworld is a sure sign of society losing its way. How many more ways can a society say "I hate myself and don't believe in myself" than constantly depicting low-lifes and thugs and foreigners as fascinating characters?
Maybe its the revenge of corporatism, sterilizing our creative impulses and making "normal life" in suburbia so boring and non-self-directed, that people are willing to indulge in blind self-hatred and take a desperate chance on anything. Of course I remember how rap music was marketed to white youth: with the implicit assumption that OUR culture was boring and staid, THEIR culture was awesome, exotic, unfathomable - so cool!
My younger self was very aware of the 'dark turn' that movies took in the late 90s - everything becoming "gritty", all about killing and murder, whether they glorified it or not (arguably even giving it a depiction is glorifying it, in a sense). Reservoir dogs, Fight Club, Goodfellas - suddenly you had to beat the sh1t out of people or join some criminal organization, to have an interesting life. White people becoming bored with themselves, maybe.
"I feel like the fascination with the criminal underworld is a sure sign of society losing its way." Exactly. You have to know that Michael Mann is a Russian Jew who produced mostly (bad) gangster films, the villains usually being white (or Hispanic) men. It doesn't get any more obvious than that. Keith totally misunderstood his films.
I'm sorry to say but this is a horrible misinterpretation and over-interpretation of Michael Mann's movies. Mann has really just produced a series of simple and poor gangster movies. The gangster genre also explains the many night scenes and general darkness.
Heat is a typical example. It was poorly received upon release, but they purged all the negative reviews from the English Wikipedia page. You can still find them on the German Wikipedia page. Miami Vice is also a really bad movie. It's almost a parody, really.
Why the ocean scenes? It's much simpler. The movies play in cities like LA and Miami. Beachside property signifies wealth, and the ocean provides calmness between action scenes.
The Jewish influence is also clearly visible (Mann is a Russian Jew). In Collateral, a black guy saves a black woman from a white killer working for a Colombian cartel. Sure. In Insider, the film glorifies a Jewish journalist and and a Jewish producer, and it opens with Zionist anti-Hezbollah propaganda. Same with Mann's very Jewish daughter Ami Canaan...
So what does it tell us if someone says Heat is one of the greatest movies of all time? It obviously tells us more about the guy than about the movie. It probably suggests some hidden or suppressed fascination with gangster life, urban crime, darkness, decay, violence.
Russian Jew Mann certainly didn't produce right-wing or conservative movies. Quite the opposite.
Mann's daughter Ami Canaan, you cannot make this up. Keith has been fooled big time by Russian Jew Mann:
https://www.alamy.com/venice-italy-august-30-ami-canaan-manattends-the-jury-photocall-during-the-74th-venice-film-festival-on-august-30-2017-in-venice-italy-image355490624.html
https://www.alamy.com/vahid-jalilvand-receives-the-orizzonti-award-for-best-director-for-bedoone-tarikh-bedoone-emza-from-orizzonti-jury-ami-canaan-manduring-the-closing-ceremony-of-the-74th-venice-international-film-festival-mostra-di-venezia-at-the-lido-venice-italy-on-september-09-2017-photo-by-aurore-marechalabacapresscom-image389197946.html
Mann's Miami Vice is really just a parody or self-parody. Acting is so bad it's painful. Some scenes are bordering on a video game. It's some kind of dark Baywatch.
"Miami Vice has little more to recommend itself. The general outlines of the story are familiar, the characters largely stereotyped. The psychopathic Yero smiles, and then snarls, in a sinister manner to which we are well accustomed. This is how filmmakers of a certain type believe they can convey the monstrousness of the drug trade, by doubling or tripling the villainy of its representatives. It merely feels false."
"The tough-minded, matter-of-fact cops and various law enforcement officials mumble tensely to one another, knowingly using police jargon. The performers in general, with the exception perhaps of Gong Li, act in a narcissistic and self-serious fashion. There is little spontaneity or vitality in the film, nor any serious engagement with contemporary existence. The clothes, the restaurants, the technology, the music may be up-to-date, but the North or South American present is lacking for the most part. The circumstances are largely fantasized and, worse, not very intriguing."
"Assuming that a film could shed substantial light on this problem, which Miami Vice does not, would it be interesting? It seems unlikely. In fact, as his various published comments make clear, Mann begins with a mass of conformist assumptions about the police and society, of which he appears entirely oblivious."
"We would like to know: why do American filmmakers continue to be so impressed by gangsters, among the most backward and boring creatures on earth? This fascination may very well be bound up with immature notions about the alleged “freedom” of the criminal life."
"Why this film? It cost a good deal of time, effort and money, but why was it made? Mann certainly aspires to be a serious filmmaker. By all accounts, he tackles every aspect of his work obsessively. He writes, directs and produces his films. No one can doubt the ferocity of his work ethic."
It is also possible to be terribly serious about secondary, even trivial matters.
If the author were meaning to pull our leg, no one would object. This is an unintentionally satirical commentary on a certain kind of “post-modern” filmmaking (and criticism): devoid of significant content, indifferent to social life, aspiring above all to a certain look and feel.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2006/08/miam-a23.html
A triumph of style over substance, ... B-level narrative ...
Unfortunately, the big-screen adaptation of the TV series “Miami Vice,” which ran for five years under Mann's tight supervision, is a high-concept (though not popcorn) movie, marred by routine storyline of drugs and guns, and characterizations that leave a lot to be desired.
https://emanuellevy.com/review/miami-vice-9/
"Fashwave" is likely another Jewish hoax and inversion of actual conservative ideals.
https://gnet-research.org/2023/06/28/understanding-fashwave-the-alt-rights-ever-evolving-media-strategy/
Heat is a terrible film. Trivial and shallow. Mann, a Russian Jew, has produced hollow and unrealistic crime movies throughout his life. In Insider, he opened with Zionist anti-Hezbollah propaganda, then hailed two Jewish journalists, based on a script written by yet another Jew. Miami Vice is also overrated. The dark ambiance of his films appeals to desperate and frustrated people.
Collateral is another joke. Shallow, nonsensical, unrealistic, predictable. Black protagonist saving black woman from white killer, sure. No Keith, you've been fooled big time by Mann.
I'm watching Heat right now just to double-check, it's such a joke. Laughable.
Honestly I have to say it's one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Slow, boring, empty, just bad.
I cannot believe how bad Heat is. Even as a heist movie, it's just bad.
Heat is wasting actor talent like few other films. Unbelievable.
yes he likes to include dark ocean views, but so what? the films play in LA and Miami, it's nothing special. it's not film noir or neo noir either, too polished.
Even as a gangster film it's just bad. And let's not even talk about the shouting.
"Pacino is still doing his spasmodic overacting from Scent of a Woman – you know, that thing where he speaks quietly and then SHOUTS! a random word or two REAL LOUD! (He seems borderline insane.) De Niro gives a physically commanding performance, but here, as in Casino, he’s playing an ice-minded humanoid. Mann’s most perverse decision was to cast these two legends and then keep them apart from each other." https://www.ew.com/article/1995/12/22/heat
They totally whitewashed the Wikipedia entry of the film. Reception of the film was really negative. "A colossal disappointment.": https://preview.reelviews.net/movies/h/heat.html
Haha the dialogues are so bad and nonsensical it's almost comical.
Oh yes I forgot how he added these risible wife stories. It's a parody really.