Michael Mann and Death
There are two filmmakers that have influenced not just the way I write but the way I indulge in art. Those two are Michael Mann and Douglas Sirk. Very similar filmmakers I know but let that be an insight into my brain for you all. For a long time, I’ve tried to write what it is about Michael Mann that really just sticks for me, but I think it would be significantly easier if I just talk about a couple of scenes and why I think they’re so important to Mann’s style. I’ll be discussing in varying degrees of depth Mann’s films so here is your spoiler warning. One of Michael Mann’s biggest interests in his film is the loss of human life. It’s almost always violent and rather unceremonious, but a certain amount of respect must be paid to that end of life regardless of the person. Two great examples of this can be found in Collateral and Public Enemies. In the former, we follow a wave of entropy in human form with Tom Cruise’s character, Vincent, going from hit ...
