Very surprised to find a thread like this on here. I thought this film was pretty much universally reviled. I think there's a legitimate argument to be made that this could be Mann's masterpiece. It's very interesting, some of Mann's biggest fans (F.X. Feeney, Scott Foundras, A.O. Todd) all consider this one of his finest achievements. I agree completely with what the OP says. I think the only thing the film did wrong was calling itself Miami Vice. In an era when 80s TV shows were being turned into comedy spoof films, it set up all the wrong kind of expectations. Suddenly we have an ultra-serious movie that people just weren't ready for.
One of the reasons I like it so much is because it contains all Mann's major preoccupations - "time is luck", the so-called "Mann man" in Sonny letting go of Isabella at the end, the innovative use of technology (both in front of and behind the camera), the good guy/bad guy dichotomy, interagency relationships not working; the extraordinary use of music; the use of colours; the palpable environment; architecture; crowds; everything that makes Mann the auteur he is is present and accounted for in this film. It's absolutely pure-Michael Mann.
It also contains some really fine acting. Particularly from John Ortiz. The scene when Sonny is dancing with Isabella and Jose Yero is looking at them is a perfect piece of filmmaking. You see him looking at them, and he looks upset, but the audience doesn't know why. It then cuts to them dancing. It cuts back to him and he looks like he's about to start crying. It then cuts to El Tiburon, who looks at Yero and frowns. He's obviously never seen Yero this vulnerable before. It cuts back to Yero, and now he is crying. So much information is conveyed in about 20 second of screen time - Yero is in love with Isabella and will never let Sonny have her. But at the same time, we also learn about Yero's persona, because of the reaction of El Tiburon. Pitch perfect filmmaking.
I'm a Michael Mann fanatic, so I'm a bit predisposed to love his stuff (I even liked Blackhat until the utterly ludicrous last 10 minutes). But every year or so, I watch all his movies in chronological order over a couple of weeks. Every time I forget how great Miami Vice is, and every time, I come out of my session having enjoyed that the most of all his work.
For those who are interested, the Directors Cuts series of books did a book on Mann in 2013 - Michael Mann: Vice and Vindication by Jonathan Rayner, that has some very interesting stuff on Miami Vice. The Steven Rybin book, The Cinema of Michael Mann, also covers the film very well.
"Someday we'll fall down and weep...and we'll understand it all. All things."
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guigui-paul
9 years ago
"I even liked Blackhat until the utterly ludicrous last 10 minutes"
I thought the final showdown in BLACKHAT was one of the best scenes in the film!
It's masterfully directed, lit and the use of music is haunting too.
And it somewhat makes sense: it's the human recreation of the opening CGI scene...
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Bertaut
9 years ago
Oh, don't get me wrong. From an aesthetic point of view, it is the highlight of the film. The direction is perfect, the lighting, the editing, the setting in the parade, the music etc. It looked amazing.
But the problem for me is that the movie suddenly turned into a Jason Statham film (albeit a beautiful looking one). I mean, Hemsworth is supposedly the greatest hacker on planet earth and he looks like a Greek god. I can go with that. But during the course of the film, we also find out he's an expert in small arms fire and close quarter combat, and is smarter than the FBI, CIA, NSA and Chinese government combined. Then, at the end of the movie, using a few phone books as body armour and a screwdriver, he takes out an entire team of elite assassins single-handedly. Ritchie Coster's character is built up throughout the film to be virtually invincible and Hemsworth kills him without breaking a sweat. Then he kills Yorick von Wageningen without too much trouble either. It was just too much. Mann tends not to deal in absolutes - he very rarely has unsympathetic bad guys (Dollarhyde, Magua, Neil McCauley, Vincent in Collateral etc) or infallible good guys (Frank in Thief, Vincent Hanna, Ali, Sonny in Miami Vice etc). Blackhat's dénouement essentially dealt in both.
But I do agree with you that the scene looked amazing. I particularly liked the slow motion shot of von Wageningen circling around behind Hemsworth - that was masterful.
"Someday we'll fall down and weep...and we'll understand it all. All things."
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guigui-paul
9 years ago
I can agree with you, but i'm not sure that Mann is interested in "pure realism", he tends more to the lyrical mood, abstract in this finale for example, the human waves during the parade look like the opening CGI scene.
We also learn during the movie that Hemsworth built his body when he was in prison and even had boxing lessons, so the fact that he was good in close quarter combat was not too far fetched to me (he was even hurt in the finale, he was also hit by a bullet, if i remember well).
http://www.myspace.com/guillaumep
http://darioargentofr.blogspot.com/
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FabioPirovano
9 years ago
And it somewhat makes sense: it's the human recreation of the opening CGI scene.
What are you referring?
"To photograph: it is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart."HCB
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