Miami Vice (Michael Mann, 2006)

[David Ehrenstein]

Saw it last night. Fitfully interesting for the first half then devolves into tedium. No characters of any depth, not plot of any consequence. But Colin Farrell and Gong Lee dancing the merengue together are sex on a stick.

The use of video produces a supple but sometimes distractingly blurry image.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

L.A. Daily News interview with Mann: http://www.dailynews.com/film/ci_4080949

AP interview: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060724/ap_ ... ael_mann_1

[John Cope]

I really couldn't ask for a better review than this

Here's a pertinent excerpt:

Mann has done something transformative with Farrell: The Irish actor has never had this much charisma and natural authority in a role, and as he navigates that gray area between Crockett's real identity and his fabricated one, revealing subtle fissures in the character's cocksure facade, he's fascinating to watch. But it's not often enough noted that Mann is the creator of many strong female characters, and Gong's Isabella may be the most complex he has dreamt up since Tuesday Weld's tragic Jessie in his debut feature, Thief. She is, like Crockett, undercover in a way, living a life that has been chosen for her rather than one she has chosen for herself, and in their intensely beautiful scenes together, they dream of a freedom that eludes them both. Indeed, in Mann's world, the most dangerous force isn't the threat of the heat around the corner, but the momentary flicker of true, impossible love.

[David Ehrenstein]

Oh please! Colin Farrell has charisma to burn in the grievously underrated A Home at the End of the World. He's quite a good actor, but badly used by the likes of Oliver Stone and others.

But Scott's right about Gong Li and Tuesday Weld.

[Cinesimilitude]

Oh please! Colin Farrell has charisma to burn in the grievously underrated A Home at the End of the World. He's quite a good actor, but badly used by the likes of Oliver Stone and others.

Not to mention his great performance in one of my favorite under-the-radar films in the last couple of years, "Intermission". He's the bad guy and you still love him!

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Oh please! Colin Farrell has charisma to burn in the grievously underrated A Home at the End of the World. He's quite a good actor, but badly used by the likes of Oliver Stone and others.

Not to mention his great performance in one of my favorite under-the-radar films in the last couple of years, "Intermission". He's the bad guy and you still love him!

I also thought he was quite good Tigerland which I always thought was a bit of an underrated film. But yeah, I would certainly second the recommendation for A Home at the End of the World.

L.A. Weekly review

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Entertainment Weekly has the cover article on the making of the movie posted.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

The L.A. Times ran an article on the use of digital cameras in the film:

July 27, 2006

MOVIES
`Vice' and virtues of HD
High-definition video exerts its taxing appeal on a film's makers.

By Susan King, Times Staff Writer

"MIAMI VICE" director Michael Mann and his director of photography, Dion Beebe, knew the challenges they'd be facing when they decided to shoot the feature version of the classic 1980s TV series on high-definition video.

Two years ago, Mann and Beebe used high def to shoot "Collateral," which gave the action-thriller set in nighttime Los Angeles a distinctly visceral look. Beebe and co-cinematographer Paul Cameron received an Oscar nomination for their work on that film.

Before the HD cameras rolled in Miami last year, Mann, Beebe and the technical staff spent months in pre-production.

"There's been a lot of debate about high def replacing film and being an easier choice for filmmakers," said the Australian-born cinematographer, who won the Oscar this year for "Memoirs of a Geisha." "But it's definitely not the easy choice."

The high def cameras used in the film weren't made for action-thrillers. "They were designed to be in air-conditioned TV studios mounted on these pedestal tripods run through some sort of control panels," Beebe explained. "The cameras all run off these two recording decks, and you are running cable to recording decks and dealing with heat and moisture. You need a lot of battery power not just to run your cameras, but to run your decks."

Film cameras, he said, are much more robust and can be specifically modified for scenes in speedboats or fast cars. "But these cameras aren't. You have to be determined to see it through. There were often times when we thought it would be easier for us to shoot on film, but we had come down this path and we had done a lot of testing."

So why bother? Several reasons. One is that high-definition cameras allow the image to be manipulated right on the set.

"It's like your television set," Mann said. "You can alter contrast, alter brightness." To be able to adjust those artistic variables while you are shooting "makes it into a much more painterly medium than simply recording on film," he said. "We alter things all the time."

"It's a whole new ballgame for filmmakers to have that ability [to adjust] right in front of you," Beebe agreed.

The high-definition cameras also offer an incredible depth of field, especially at night. One can almost sense the humidity and the highly charged atmosphere of nighttime Miami because the cameras capture the billowy clouds, lightning and the lights of the city.

"You wouldn't be seeing any of those lights beyond [the actors] with a normal focal length lens," Mann said. "It would all be out-of-focus dots."

Lighting with HD can be tricky. "When you light with HD, it's sort of like playing a new instrument for us cinematographers," Beebe said. "You have got to get in tune with it and really work its strengths and weaknesses."

They'd already had experience with the technology on "Collateral," but even so, Mann and Beebe spent 4 1/2 months testing the cameras in Miami in conditions similar to what they expected during production of "Miami Vice."

"We shot tests at night, out at sea with helicopters and big boats and freighters," Beebe said. "They were bigger shoot days than I ever had on a feature in Australia — and it was just a test shoot. But the reason was to put ourselves in these situations and ensure we were going to get the results we wanted — securing cameras, [determining] how we were going to power them and cable them and [experimenting with] the settings we were going to choose for them."

AFTER the test footage was shot, Mann and Beebe took it to digital colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld to help devise a formula "for how we were going to use the high definition — how we are going to light it and shoot it," Mann said.

"Miami Vice" was lighted differently than "Collateral." The latter had a "non-directional light" for a softer look, Beebe said. With "Vice," they wanted more of a chiaroscuro-type lighting. "With the shootout at the end, we used these big, hard lights and set out to create a single hard sidelight for the sequence," the cinematographer said. "The problem is maintaining [the lighting] through the sequence because people are moving around and you are changing directions."

Also daunting to film was a scene in which Miami undercover police detective Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell) takes the beautiful, mysterious Isabella (Gong Li) for a high-speed cruise in a motorboat. The vehicle had to be custom-built. "We needed to run cables through the boat to the cameras," Beebe said. And casings for the recording decks were created so that they could be strapped in the hull of the boat and withstand the impact of the waves.

"Once you take the recording deck off the camera, you can break the camera down to a very small camera," Beebe said, "and we were able to fit the camera with an operator, myself and Michael as well as Gong and Colin and head off at 70 mph across the ocean. It was quite a spectacle to see everyone crammed in the boat."

Although he has now made his last two pictures in high definition, Mann says he hasn't abandoned film. "I could very well do a movie I prefer to shoot on film," he said. "Shooting on film is simpler."

[Fletch F. Fletch]

An excellent interview with Mann in the L.A. Weekly.

New York Times review.

[flyonthewall2983]

I've been trying to formulate a review since seeing it yesterday. I should preface this with a theory I have about where Michael is going now. Before Collateral even got it's name and remained the "Untitled Stuart Beattie Project", reading the synopsis made it sound like Die Hard in a taxicab. I was intrigued when Michael, Tom and at the time maybe Adam Sandler were aboard. I figured it would be on a similar emotional plane as Michael's previous films, but it would also be a potential summer blockbuster action film. And it definitely delivered on both those fronts.

When I heard he was going to do Miami Vice as a film, I knew it wouldn't be the average TV show movie adaptation. But I also felt a bit like that maybe he's clutching on creative straws by even doing this. But as I watched it yesterday I really saw that that wasn't his intention either. The reports in the press about the film, and from Michael himself stressed that there would be no nostalgia for the old show.

Anyway, my theory is that Miami Vice is really a culmination of the style Michael developed with The Insider. It's also in fear of being too smart for it's audience. There are a few instances where it drags a bit, but I accepted it. Richard Roeper said he was confused, which I can't say I was. Then again, I've seen pretty much all but one of Michael's films (the holdout being The Keep). Maybe the catch of liking this movie is knowing his filmography well. I hope I'm wrong.

Edit note: In the time since I posted this, I learned that Mr. Roeper said in his review of Miami Vice that he felt Heat deserved the Best Picture Oscar. Thus, my respect for him has risen.

[John Cope]

I can sympathize with flyonthewall. I, too, have been struggling with this one since I saw it last night. In all honesty, I find it to be tremendously difficult to talk about or write about or even, in some respects, to think about properly.

The main reason for this is that Mann is demanding more from us than ever before. I agree that Vice does act as the culmination of a certain aesthetic style but it is far more than that. I suspect that to understand what he has accomplished here requires a seismic shift in the kind of attitude we bring to a project like this. It is the highest irony that the only way possible to position this film in a commerce driven society is as a summer action extravaganza with all the unproductive expectations implicitly attached. The fact that Mann provides us with the standard beats associated with the form does not alter the fact that he completely overhauls the meaning and intent involved. Vice occludes easy or direct readings and this refinement of Mann's artistry ensures that any interpretive effort will be necessarily tentative, preliminary and searching.

Having said that, here are some things that struck me. It is evident from the outset that Mann wanted to distance this Vice from its TV forerunner. He does this is many ways, some of which are aesthetically obvious, some of which are not. Much has already been said about the stripped down visual quality, spare and minimalist by comparison to the florid excesses of the series. It is indebted in great measure to Mann's late lamented Robbery Homicide Division, which ran briefly on CBS a few years back. That show now looks and feels like a testing ground for the stunning strides and courageous developments on display in this feature. Certainly that was his first real extended foray into DV as a medium for expression and it was very successful in its own right. Still, I think the great contribution of RHD was as a canvas to test lighting patterns, color effects and contrast rates. If that sounds rather bloodless it is not in practice. Both then and now Mann understands well how to merge his form and content. That series also played as minimalism writ large, meaning that it was around this time that Mann began in earnest to study the effects of iconic imagery and posturing, personalized myth making if you will, as an integrated component of the fabric of his canvas rather than as a cut out, foregrounded reality. I have to admit that it took time to adjust to this approach. Even The Insider and Ali are more overt, less sophisticated attempts to work through these new ideas. I believe his craft has been in a constant state of development and reaches a kind of apex with Vice. It is unfortunate that many early reviews seem to write this movie off as Mann wasting his time and talents on a strictly conventional by the numbers genre piece. This could not be further from the truth.

Though Mann does make specific and obvious changes to force an immediate shift away from the assumptions of style associated with the series he does not do this arbitrarily. The cumulative effect of the changes he makes is a severe alienation from the casual relationships we usually form with character and narrative in films of this type. This is not true just because he starts the film in mid-stream or dials down the camaraderie between Crockett and Tubbs or fills the air with meaningless tech talk. It is because of all those things. The decisions he makes here function and only function as a unified whole. They can only be understood as a way of contributing to the distancing impact of the entire experience. If he had simply done one or some of these things it could be argued that this was a failed experiment in stylistic change for its own sake--a half assed way to demand that we take this Vice seriously. But we cannot take it seriously, not in the way the characters do because they and their work are so intentionally removed of resonance outside of their own solipsistic circle of influence. Mann eschews the iconic images and obvious posturing that cluttered the show, instead pressing everything down into the surface texture of the screen itself, the canvas as iconic object in toto, no longer framing a subjective experience or myopic self portrait.

This is critical, I think. We know that Mann respects men who do a job well and that is no different here. He clearly finds something to admire in those for whom their life is their work, who have no outside lives, whose romantic relationships are even just facets of the same world vision, as they are relatable to none but themselves. The difference now is that this admiration feels tempered by more than a little presiding wisdom. The visual technique subdues and minimizes these men and their experience, it arrests their own heightened self conception by placing it on even keel with the waves and the clouds. All are part of the same purely aesthetic existence. These men are devoted but to what? The aesthetic realms of culture and being is all these men have and can invest in. The gestures toward escape or purposeful commitment outside of this self enclosed box is destined for failure from a lack of imagination and capacity for real change. Mann has admitted that he has questioned their unreflective devotion himself and that recognition is key to the leap in his consciousness. We are not meant to completely follow all that happens and all that is said because it is a coded language of interest only to its adherents. We are not meant to get a better understanding of character because what can be seen is all there is, all that ultimately matters or can be comprehended. It's fascinating to see Mann enter into Bruno Dumont anthropological territory here. The fact that Crockett's questioning of his identity and loyalties does not come across as that significant is because it is not. It would be a purely superficial shift and to his immense credit Mann knows that and is smart enough to risk much by downplaying the dramatic importance involved with it. Everything is of a piece here; the attitudes of everyone toward everything. There is little to differentiate the racing boat from the storm clouds or the automatic gun fire from the lightning in the sky. The screen absorbs it all--colors washed across a vast surface.

I expected something different I have to admit. I expected a much more clean and clear character study of men who have lost their sense of who and what they are. This would have been enough for me. It was not enough for Mann. To pursue these themes would have resulted, I realize now, in just an extension of the TV series' subtext. There is no subtext in this movie. The struggle at the boundaries of the frame is all that this is about. It is the triumph and tragedy of the form some have chosen to live in that interests Mann and exalts his vision into new territory, a new way of seeing and understanding.

It is hard to imagine a greater artistic advance by a major artist and certainly I don't expect to see one this year.

[Antoine Doinel]

The Inquirer (not the gossip rag, but the tech/sci-fi site) questions whether or not Mann slipped in a subtle argument for DRM:

RIAA/MPAA adopt new stealth tactic

Evil wrapped in Miami Vice

By Charlie Demerjian: Saturday 29 July 2006, 19:24

I HAD THE misfortune of seeing the new Miami Vice movie Thursday night, but the experience wasn't all wasted, I stumbled upon the newest stealth rights removal reeducation campaign from the people that brought you DRM. Yes, the MPAA, RIAA or BSA, I am not sure which are behind this new tact, stealth infection of modern culture.
First the movie. It was far from good, but at no time did I actively contemplate biting my tongue off and using suicide as an escape. It was a free, and almost worth the price. If you think back, most movies have a few memorable scenes, humorous, effects-ridden or just interesting. Miami Vice did not. In fact, it was focused grouped to death, non-offensive in any way, but also studiously avoided doing anything interesting.

To use the Disco Steve method of rating movies, a scale from 1 to infinity of how many miles he would walk to avoid the movie, I would give this an 8. It was a B grade drug movie with only the most tenuous ties to the original TV show. Will Ferrell was about as suave and cool as the guy running around a NASCAR infield, drunk out of his mind, rebel flag in hand, skidmarked underwear showing.

The movie did have one thing that was extremely interesting though, the next campaign from the DRM infection folk. They are now starting to equate piracy, or their version of it, with all the things that are bad in the world. Remember the 'piracy funds terrorists' laugher a few months ago? They learned, and are doing it through the back door now, the front door got them nowhere.

Now, they are slipping the message in through 'blowoff' lines, trying to infect modern culture. There was a scene in Miami Vice where they were discussing the big bad drug dealers, and how international they were. The good guys listed all the thing the bad guys were capable of bringing into the US, Cocaine, Heroin, etc etc. They listed it as coke from Coumbia, heroin from Afganistan, X from Y and A from B. Pretty normal stuff. At the end, they added 'pirated software from China'. Blink.

Now, had they listed anything other than drugs and software, it might not have been so blatant. If they had listed pirated software any other time in the movie, I might not have noticed, but this one was pretty obviously a plant. Don't go see the movie, it isn't worth it, but if you do, pay attention for this bit, you will see exactly how much it stands out. The movie makers could not afford people to do decent dialog, and it seems the DRM infectors could not either.

Make no mistake about it, this is the first, or at least an early attempt to infect popular culture with the themes the content mafia wants you to believe are reality. They have lost the online war, and are starting to lose in the courts. The overt attempts at bending conversations have failed, mainly because they are wrong, so now they are trying the back door.

As I said, this is the first time I have seen it myself, but it has probably been around for a bit. Have you seen it? Can you send me other times that it happened, or is there a web site that cataloguess it? If so, send the links this way so I can publicize it, or if you are bored, start a site yourself. Keep an eye open for more of this evil folks, we can't let the bad guys win.

[The Invunche]

What a shitty article. Software is being pirated and most certainly in China. Whether or not that pirated software is actually exported to the West I don't know, but it's just a fucking sentence in a movie. Movies have always taken huge liberties with the truth, in fact all fiction has.

It all sounds paranoid to me.

[flyonthewall2983]

Ditto.

[Zumpano]

I saw the movie this weekend and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. I think John Cope brings up a very interesting read of this film that I am going to chew on as I keep thinking about it. I loved the film and how it fits into the Michael Mann picture, but I'm still trying to think about it and what it means. I just have a few comments (possible spoilers):

a) The constantly brewing storm (yes, the weather) that can be seen and heard is a great atmospheric piece of the story. The storm never starts and rains, it just brews and flickers and stays in the background. But, Havana has great weather and for different reasons. The digital photography really captures what weather looks like and I loved it. I especially love how night in this film looks like..., well, night!

b) Who'd think that I would like Colin Farrel in two films this year (this and New World)? For all the talk of his rushing off to rehab after the shoot of film; I'm not sure you can pick it up onscreen. He seemed in total control except near the end: when he got called on the walkie-talkie phone by the drug dealer, and then at the final shootout. He looked like he was subtley shaking in an uncontrollable way. Was this his lifestyle sneaking in, or was this just his way of acting "shaken"? Any which way, I thought it was effective and believable.

c) Michael Mann sure loves Audioslave, doesn't he?

d) I also thought there were alot of shots of people watching other people through cameras. Security cameras, all sorts of hidden cameras, the little camera the female vice cop drills into the trailer, etc. I've never quite noticed all this "watching/gazing" in Mann's work before, but maybe I've never actively looked for it before. Did anyone else notice this?

[flyonthewall2983]

Woohoo, Vice slayed Pirates at the Box Office!

[flyonthewall2983]

I saw the movie this weekend and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. I think John Cope brings up a very interesting read of this film that I am going to chew on as I keep thinking about it. I loved the film and how it fits into the Michael Mann picture, but I'm still trying to think about it and what it means. I just have a few comments (possible spoilers):

a) The constantly brewing storm (yes, the weather) that can be seen and heard is a great atmospheric piece of the story. The storm never starts and rains, it just brews and flickers and stays in the background. But, Havana has great weather and for different reasons. The digital photography really captures what weather looks like and I loved it. I especially love how night in this film looks like..., well, night!

b) Who'd think that I would like Colin Farrel in two films this year (this and New World)? For all the talk of his rushing off to rehab after the shoot of film; I'm not sure you can pick it up onscreen. He seemed in total control except near the end: when he got called on the walkie-talkie phone by the drug dealer, and then at the final shootout. He looked like he was subtley shaking in an uncontrollable way. Was this his lifestyle sneaking in, or was this just his way of acting "shaken"? Any which way, I thought it was effective and believable.

c) Michael Mann sure loves Audioslave, doesn't he?

d) I also thought there were alot of shots of people watching other people through cameras. Security cameras, all sorts of hidden cameras, the little camera the female vice cop drills into the trailer, etc. I've never quite noticed all this "watching/gazing" in Mann's work before, but maybe I've never actively looked for it before. Did anyone else notice this?

A. Yes, I agree that it helped with the Miami scenes. One of those "happy accidents" that happen often with films.

B. If it was his problems catching up with him, again it was probably an aforementioned "happy accident". But I'm sure the character's state of mind in that point of the film would have called for that kind of rage expressed in the final product.

C. I suppose so lol. I had to laugh when the soundtrack was first posted here however, because I remember someone on the imdb board on Collateral bemoaned the fact that there should be some Mogwai for the soundtrack. After seeing Vice, I was re-introduced to them in a way after having a minor obsession after hearing one of their songs, "Stanley Kubrick".

D. Watch Heat again.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

a) The constantly brewing storm (yes, the weather) that can be seen and heard is a great atmospheric piece of the story. The storm never starts and rains, it just brews and flickers and stays in the background. But, Havana has great weather and for different reasons. The digital photography really captures what weather looks like and I loved it. I especially love how night in this film looks like..., well, night!)

Yes, as he did with Collateral, shooting with digital cameras allows his a greater depth of field during night time scenes. I also thought that the constantly brewing storm might have also been metaphorical... perhaps symbolizing the building tensions and conflicts that finally boil over during the film's climatic shoot-out. Of course, it was just dumb luck that Mann was in Miami during all those crazy hurricanes and was able to capture all that turbulent weather on camera and use it in his movie.

b) Who'd think that I would like Colin Farrel in two films this year (this and New World)? For all the talk of his rushing off to rehab after the shoot of film; I'm not sure you can pick it up onscreen. He seemed in total control except near the end: when he got called on the walkie-talkie phone by the drug dealer, and then at the final shootout. He looked like he was subtley shaking in an uncontrollable way. Was this his lifestyle sneaking in, or was this just his way of acting "shaken"? Any which way, I thought it was effective and believable.)

Agreed. I felt that this was easily his strongest performance to date (not too much competition, though) thanks to the excellent material he had to work with and a veteran director like Mann to guiding him as well. His character was a nice addition to Mann's roster of protagonists who have nothing in their lives but their work. Of course, meeting Isabella changes this and he ends breaking his personal code much like Neil does when he gets romantically involved with Eady in Heat. I felt that Mann used Farrell's expressive eyes quite well to convey his character's internal struggle. It looked like Farrell really immersed himself in the role much as his character does in his undercover persona... maybe a little too well judging by his speedy exit to rehab after the film wrapped!

c) Michael Mann sure loves Audioslave, doesn't he??

Yeah! Two songs in this movie (off their new album yet to be released) and one in Collateral. Nice.

d) I also thought there were alot of shots of people watching other people through cameras. Security cameras, all sorts of hidden cameras, the little camera the female vice cop drills into the trailer, etc. I've never quite noticed all this "watching/gazing" in Mann's work before, but maybe I've never actively looked for it before. Did anyone else notice this?

Yep. As someone else pointed out, watch Heat again which features the whole notion of surveillance and watching quite prominently. At first, Hanna and his guys are watching Neil and his crew from afar, keeping them under constant surveillance but once Neil realizes that they are on to him he then puts them under surveillance.

To a lesser degree, you see this a little bit in The Insider as Jeffrey Wigand seems to almost be under surveillance or being watched by unseen forces after he blows the whistle on Big Tobacco.

Other thoughts I'd like to add about Miami Vice...

I enjoyed how Mann went to great lengths in showing how the particular international drug smuggling trade in the film worked. Mann has a real eye for detail, showing in his trademark, meticulous fashion, how a massive drug transaction is done out in the ocean at night on several boats with incredible efficiency. These big time drug dealers have seemingly unlimited resources and he shows how they use sophisticated technology and weapons that rival if not surpass anything the United States government has to conduct and protect their extremely lucrative business. Also important/fascinating is how he captures the way these guys speak – the sometimes cryptic lingo of both the cops and the criminals – it really is like a foreign language unto itself. I also thought it was kinda interesting that Crockett and Tubbs are dealing with the kinds of guys that probably hired Vincent in Collateral with Jose Yero as a mid-level drug dealer like Javier Bardem's Felix in the previous film.

To sort of address what John Cope mentioned in his post, not much is revealed about Crockett or Tubbs' personal lives or their backstories (as the case in most Mann films) except that they have a very tight partnership and this is conveyed in a few minutes through looks and a verbal shorthand. We do learn that Tubbs in long-term relationship with fellow undercover police officer Trudy while Crockett is a loner. I think that Mann does this on purpose (obviously) because he is interested in what these guys are doing in the present, not what they've done in their past. He may offer the occasional tantalizing detail but that's it (also, interesting Mann himself rarely divulges details about his own past) which kinda leaves it open to the viewer to imagine or create their own histories for these characters. I liked how Mann used the notions of undercover work to once again show the blurring between the law and crime as he did with Heat. The danger lies in these guys losing themselves, forgetting who they are and why they are doing this work. However, they are typical Mann professionals and so there is little doubt that this will happen. In this regard, the film seems like one of Mann's most cautiously optimistic films since Manhunter where everything pretty much turns out okay for the good guys even if some emotional damage has been done.

With Heat and Collateral, Mann has repeated shown his capacity for orchestrating elaborated staged action sequences and the shoot-out in a trailer park in Vice is particularly effective in its realism and ruthless economy (as he did with Collateral). In many respects, it is so unlike the hyper-active, hyper-kinetic action one is accustomed to in mainstream Hollywood films by the likes of Michael Bay or McG because Mann drains these sequences of any slick polish and subverts our expectations by building up incredible tension and then inserting a sudden, jarring moment of violence even ending the sequence with an unpredictable moment of tragedy that was surprising. Mann then proceeds to top this sequence with an even more impressively staged one for the film's climax. It was really funny to watch this with a filmgoing audience and how some moments during these sequences really surprised/shocked people in their brutality and jarred them out of their seats so to speak.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Andrew Sarris' two cents: http://www.nyobserver.com/20060807/2006 ... movies.asp

And this is a pretty bit if you've seen the movie: http://www.mcnblogs.com/filmfatale/2006 ... rea_1.html

[Matt]

Anyone else get the feeling that Mann's been watching a lot of Melville movies recently?

Not a criticism by any means!

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Anyone else get the feeling that Mann's been watching a lot of Melville movies recently?

Not a criticism by any means!

Definitel. Le Samourai seems like a HUGE influence on his movies going right back to Thief.

[John Cope]

In this regard, the film seems like one of Mann's most cautiously optimistic films since Manhunter where everything pretty much turns out okay for the good guys even if some emotional damage has been done.

I'm not so sure about this. The final shot of Sonny ascending the hospital stairs seems to suggest a lot about the extent of his imagination, ideals and commitment. This is not necessarily a bad thing. He is firmly devoted and loyal to what he understands best. Certainly he makes a choice at the end--one that he can be proud of and live with. Of course, Mann's intent to immerse us at the start of the picture in-media-res is no different than how he ends the film (same essential technique). Some could argue that there's little of significance than being implied by those opening and ending moments. But no one makes this kind of claim against, say, Hou.

Anyway, here's a link to Bradshaw's excellent review in The Guardian. Below I excerpt the most vital portion for me:

http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/C ... 96,00.html

Miami Vice is composed in a language of pure action; there is no psychological back-story, no calm-before-the-storm letup in which Crockett and Tubbs's private selves can be unrolled. But the awful truth is that Crockett and Tubbs have no inner selves; their friendship is subordinate to professional interdependence and their inner selves are utterly subsumed into the job, and the same goes for their romantic and sexual lives. In fact, the nearest thing they have to an inner life is the phoney identity assumed for the undercover adventure, an identity that shows a tendency to subvert what there is of the real thing.

[Polybius]

Lance Manion's interesting piece, more about the contrast between the two versions. James Wolcott, the foremost Mann aficionado among pop culture writers, shooed all of us to this, and I present the link as a service to the group.

[flyonthewall2983]

I agree that Castillo was underutilized in the film. It would have been cool if Michael cast someone with equal weight to Jamie and Colin in that role. Morgan Freeman would have fit like a glove in that role, in my opinion.

[The Invunche]

Come on. Morgan can't play every single "old black guy" role.