What is your ALL TIME Favorite Michael Mann film?


MrsEvanFreed

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Although Heat, Thief and Collateral all deserve great mention (and the cinematography was totally "Mannessque!") I have to say the best job he ever did was to turn a true story that was so important to the 20th century into an entertaining, revealing and truthful disclosure of Americana.

I am speaking of "The Insider"

This movie has special importance to me as I lived in that era and remember how jaw dropping it was to tune into 60 Minutes to hear "we had a story on the Tobacco industry...but we can't tell it"  WTF??? That was a moment in history that still sits in my mind as I was an advocate of free speech and Journalistic Integrity. I had no idea what had REALLY transpired and years later in Mann's film he layed it out beautifully. Spoiler alert... You will get to see what "tertiary Interference "(another WTF moment) is and what the hell is wrong with the American legal system. It's absolutely jaw dropping!

Most of this stuff to the average laymen is boring, but Mann manages to made it relevant to the masses in an entertaining way. This film is not only important to educate, but is a masterpiece of drama and truth. The cinematography and music used is totally "Mann"

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5 hours ago, Stinger390X said:

Most of this stuff to the average laymen is boring, but Mann manages to made it relevant to the masses in an entertaining way.

There you've hit on what I love most about The Insider - on paper, it sounds like a really boring movie. And yet it so isn't.

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The Insider is definitely a great film and deserves more accolades than it got but there were issues in garnering an audience.  Some of that is discussed here:

https://charlierose.com/videos/26456

Part of the issue is Mann's subtle directorial style (which I love personally).  He is not an "obvious" director who tells the audience how to feel, instead he simply presents a situation and lets the audience extrapolate their own emotions from it.  This is often mistaken for being boring and casual audiences don't want to do any of the work themselves.  That can hurt you commercially as a filmmaker.

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  • 9 months later...

Thief. Mostly because it features a lot of 1911 by the late Jim Hoag. Notice in this scene how James Cann sits and listens for awhile and lets one of the bad guys come to him.

 

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