Top 3 Films?
Heat
The Insider
The Last of the Mohicans
Manhunter
The Insider
The Last of the Mohicans
MovieChat Forums > Michael Mann Discussion > Top 3 Films?
The Insider
Heat
Collateral
That's a solid list. I just re-watched The Insider the first time in years a little while back and it's an excellent movie. Underrated for sure and underappreciated. It's not just a great Michael Mann movie, it's one of the best journalism movies as well.
Nothing needs to be said about Heat. Everyone knows it's excellent.
For #3 though I would probably go with The Last of the Mohicans. Collateral is a solid film for sure but I think it kind of drags in the third act. But picking a third film is kind of difficult because I think he has two GREAT movies that are well ahead of everything else, and then a handful of others that solidly GOOD but don't quite reach the level of greatness.
The Last of the Mohicans
Collateral
Heat
Miami Vice
Heat
The Insider
Manhunter
Heat
Miami Vice
Not one person has mentioned Thief (1981). Wow.
Top 3:
Thief
Heat
The Insider
Agreed. Though I had seen Jericho Mile before that, I was not really aware of Michael Mann until I saw Thief.
You can see a lot of the themes that turned up in Heat, a lot of similarities.
I forgot about Jericho Mile! Amazing TV-movie he made. Thank you for reminding me. I might just have to update my list:
Thief
Heat
Jericho Mile
And yes, Thief - very true about similarities to later work. It's damn fun to watch James Caan in a role like that.
Jericho Mile was made for TV, and it was unfairly called Midnight Express Lite by some critics.
But although it's not graphic and has no swearing as per TV movie rules, it's still manages to be quite powerful. The best thing about it is an incredible performance from Peter Strauss, and an early role for Brian Dennehy.
Thief always impressed me with it's mix of slick visuals and the Tangerine Dream score. And the icing on the cake is James Caan's performance. Years later on James Liptons show, he admitted he considered that his best ever performance.
A little side note here, for a long time I considered Cann's Frank the coolest mutha on the planet. But in later years and with subsequent viewings...he's an asshole.
Still a great movie though.
Agree. Peter Strauss is amazing in Jericho Mile. the film is also an early hint of the kind of intelligent characters that Mann would examine and exhibit in his films. The silent and intelligent criminal-type. Like De Niro in Heat.
Love the Tangerine Dream score for Thief. Esecially the "Beach Theme". Another great score they did for him was for The Keep. Never seen the film, but wonderful music.
Interesting note about Caan's character. I have to see the film again now to determine what I think about him.
The Keep is considered by most as his worst. But its an interesting failure. And of course visually and aurally it's superb. Tangerine Dream again (the story of the soundtrack is a very convoluted one...there are a few versions of it out there but hardly any of the music is from the film...bizarre)
It's not all Manns fault. The main special effects guy died before the film was completed, and a lot of the effects were subsequently not fully realised. Plus many deaths happened off screen. They chose to use opticals in a lot of the scenes which do not look good.
And it was re edited by the studio and narativley it makes no sense.
The story is about a German battalion who hole up for the night in an huge stone Keep in Hungary somewhere. And something is picking off the soldiers one by one.
Mann has more or less disowned it. It was not a happy experience for him and he has never expressed a desire to revisit it. So it's unlikely we will see any sort of restored or re edited version, or special edition blu ray. Apparently there is a lot more footage around somewhere.
It was also very hard to come by on DVD. For a long time it was only on video. There are a lot of pirate dvds out there, but pic is bad and it's fullscreen.
There is an official DVD release though, a couple of years ago an Australian company got the rights to release it. And its the best it has ever looked and sounded, but it's bare bones and only 2 channel stereo.
I would say check it out. If you like Manns stuff it's definitely worth a watch. You may even find it on one of the streaming services.
Yeah, the music to the Keep is interesting. A few of the tracks works best live, like the track "Heritage Survival", and others the studio version is preferable (Canzone). I had no idea so little was used in the actual film.
I have read the same things as you have about the production problems. It's unfortunate that Mann sees no reason in fixing it. It's like he lost total faith in the film after the special effects guy died.
I read on a forum (originaltrilogy) that someone plans to scan a film print of The Keep. That will surely give us a better version than we have now, and in HD to boot. Hope it happens.
But I hope even more that Mann one day decides to revisit the film.
Thats a hard one…
1)Heat
2)Miami Vice
3)Last of the Mohicans
3)The Keep
4)Thief
5)Collateral
Or something like that.