Quentin Tarantino reacts to the work of Michael Mann (Thief, The Keep, The Insider). Source: Video Archives Podcast Apple: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast... Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/1mPDGdC...
I love his constant use of blue filter in his films. After watching several Michael Mann films I realized how much of an impact he had on The Dark Knight. So many elements from his films are in that movie.
Last of the Mohicans was one of his best. He's not just a crime director. He's a historic director. Whether in the past or present. Mike treats it as if it's alive and well.
One of the greatest directorial debuts. Mann directed so skillfully you would never guess it was his first movie (not considering Jericho Mile which is TV film).
HEAT is not only Mann's best but also one of the greatest crime caper ever made. Probably has the best shootout sequence ever and that meeting between Al and Bob in the cafe is an acting masterclass.
You know Heat is a remake of La take down ( Michael Mann made that too ) , it was a tv low budget version of heat. He loved the story so much he remade it, he was in tel control of heat.
@@CaffeineAndMylanta No, they don't. It was the main selling point of the movie and the thing that people most talked about when the movie came out. Those two coming together in the same scene it was bigger than Di Caprio and Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. They were considered the best actors of all time in the 80's and 90's - better than Daniel Day Lewis, Denzel Washington or even Jack Nicholson. So it wasn't overlooked!
@@user-qe7bt9dz1l That's not the way film discussions works. If you are going to argue that Collateral is better than Heat you need to present a valid argument, otherwise just shut up and let the grown ups talk.
Yes, we do. But the Hague would protest that this violates articles of the Geneva Conventions and International Humanitarian Law and then the UN would have to censure.
Yeah, that way you don't have to actually watch any good ones (especially since 90% of the time the movies Tarantino recommends suck, or are ok at best). The guy goes out of his way NOT to watch great directors, which is great from the point of view of his own films and his influences.....but which is hilariously bone-headed when it comes to pretending to be a film authority, which he so isn't. He has major blocks in his tastes. I just saw a recent interview with him and he said he's only seen a couple of Bergman films. Now, if you're a director......or a person talking about "the history of movies"....and you don't have Bergman's work under your belt? You shouldn't be babbling. And I"m not even a big Bergman fan but.....give me a break. Bergman wipes his ass with De Palma, Leone and Michael Mann combined! Not even debatable! He puts down Kubrick and Hitchcock every chance he gets.....two directors who are superior to HIM, and whose shoulders his work MAJORLY stand on. ESPECIALLY Kubrick.
“Collateral”. What a movie. We’re talking about Cruise so much these days, I really enjoyed him playing a part like that. Unexpected. And wow, how the movie was directed.
Ah, I don't really like Collateral. The film's second half is much inferior to the first. Basically, Tom Cruise's character could have just offed Jamie Foxx after the first hit, fair n square.
@@m1lst3r89 The film is fantastic right up until Max crashes the cab, then it becomes a (still very good) chase thriller. I feel the same way about Alien. Absolutely brilliant right up until the chase/action bit starts.
@@m1lst3r89ah yes. Batman could've killed off Joker in the beginning of Dark Knight fair and square. there wouldn't even needed to be a entire movie then
This movie was made at the end of the 70s but if you watch it and listen to it it becomes immediately apparent that Michael man was ushering in the 80s film style all by himself.
@@Stream_King well Thief is shot in 1980, so I guess Mann was just setting up the style. Then again, when I was The Howling, to me was it essential early 80s film in terms of visual style.
I mean Thief and American Gigolo came out the same year, and you could argue that these films were the ones that kick started that 80s aesthetic. although still Mann was one of the main voices behind the whole 80s movement. not only Thief is a quintessential 80s film that pretty much started it, but he also went to create Miami Vice, which had this 80s aesthetic through its core
Michael Mann is incredible at setting the mood. The very first shot of the Tokyo Vice pilot with two main characters walking down the hallway and looking away just sets the tone and puts you in immediately. There's something poetic as well in how he shows masculinity in it's strengths, it's necessity, it's weaknesses and ugliness. Very inspiring
Wow, you're impressed by nothing, ain't ya! Lol. Michael Mann, ahahahahahahaha. You're jerking yourself off to a mediocrity like Michael Mann. Anything to avoid watching an actual great movie. Love Quentin, but he's such a comfort to people with lousy taste, god bless him, lol.
Every Michael Mann movie has a shot, or multiple shots, that are just breathtakingly beautiful. Regardless of the subject matter. In Manhunter it was a really simple shot of a messy bed in front of a glass door looking out over a moonrise over the ocean. Super dark, kinda gross movie. But just beautiful. Some his best shots are drenched in blue. Think that may be his favorite color.
@@modernpeasants7 So, so pretty. Instant nostalgia. Was born in '85 and only saw the movie for the first time ten years ago...but just reminds me of the best moments from my earliest years. Didn't even grow up on the coast. Lol.
What I like about Michael Mann (not so much Manhunter) are dazzling zoom-ins on characters usually where something critical is going on. Like when Molasar declares he'll destroy the Nazis or when Graham is starting to figure out who Dollarhyde is. Small, but priceless filmmaking.
@@m1lst3r89 Yeah he has some good zooms for sure. Was going to say something about Snake Eyes...but just now realized I've been getting Mann and DePalma mixed up. Lol. Always think of them as the same person for some reason.
I'm surprised there was no mention of Manhunter. One of my favorite movies from one of my favorite directors. I have all of the versions of it lol. He also didn't mention how important soundtracks are to Mann.
Better yet, why don't you go watch some movies, from some good directors. I love listening to Quentin talk about directors and movies all day.....but I've actually seen those movies and can take what he says with a grain of salt. Whereas, anyone who listens to him and think they're getting any kind of education in film history, or who's good, what's important, what's groundbreaking.....it's laughing time! I understand why he's this way.....but most of his braindead fans do not. (I got into Quentin the week Reservoir Dogs opened so I'm not one of these morons who grew up listening to Quentin hilariously pretend to be a film professor). If I hear Tarantino say the word "genre" again, I'll scream, lol.
@@TTM9691 i do watch the movies, but I love his analysis on them all and he really is so intelligent and brilliant with a high IQ, and he can get into things that I never would have thought of after e watching the movie
The Keep was a troubled shoot, torrential rain kept delaying production, it was filmed in a quarry in Wales. Much money was spent by Mann on how Molasar the monster should appear, even constructing a full size animatronic version was created. Eventually Mann settled on a bloke in a suit. A ton of money was being spent on reshoots and Paramount eventually got cold feet, especially when special effects co-ordinator Wally Veevers died leaving a ton of work to be done and Mann not knowing what Veevers had planned post production. Paramount took the movie off Mann chopped it down to 96 minutes from the original 210 minute cut and basically wrote it off. Sadly Mann has said he won't revisit The Keep for restoration as he says it is pretty much unworkable.
I remember reading up on the production of the movie and how much got cut. Amusingly, the author of the novel the film was based on said he loved the film's visual style but hated how Mann visualized Molasar , saying he looked like the bastard child of Darth Vader and The Hulk. He apparently didn't like Mann very much, even wrote a short story about an author putting a curse on an egomaniac director who butchered the author's work as a middle finger to Mann.
Totally agree. Tarantino knows his shit, when it comes to certain genres, but Last of the Mohicans is just not in his range. He also should have mentioned Manhunter. Another brilliant movie.
Found Thief years ago on late nite cable w/ no expectations and no real knowledge of the kind of film it was - and could not have hit me better. It’s not the same when something is hyped up - we can miss the magic of it and I’m grateful this found me
Fun Fact: James Caan went to Gunsite back in the day and trained with Jeff Cooper to get his gun manipulations down for movies. You can absolutely see this in Thief, which has probably the most distilled version of Jeff Cooper's teachings ever brought to the big screen. Jeff Cooper was originally hesitant because he didn't want his training to be associated with a criminal, but after the movie came out and he saw the reception to it Cooper was fully on board with it.
I saw Thief in the cinema and immediately was excited, because I love movies and in that moment knew I could look forward to a whole lifetime of great Michael Mann movies. Was I ever right about that! There's a superb tribute video "The Cinema of Michael Mann" that is a true labor of love, sadly missing from RU-vid. If anyone can find it please do!
I like hand-held style of Michael Mann especially in Collateral the night club shootout scene was fantastic. Every his crime thriller movies includes great shootout scenes and it look real even the gun sound. I like Theif, The Insider, The Last Of The Mohicans, Collatetal but his masterpiece work I would say Heat.
There must be some documentary or something where someone babbled about the gun sounds in "Heat" because I've noticed now that all the monkey-see-monkey-do morons always invoke that. As if THEY noticed the gun sounds. (Which are nothing. I've seen those movies, I never was like "wow....the gun sounds, maaaaan!" lol). Yeah, the hand held style that every director started using to save money (and in imitation of Woody Allen, as usual, everyone cops his shots, and "Husbands And Wives" kicked off EVERYONE going hand-held. Seemed like a good idea at the time! I prefer composed shots WAY better).
"he's lost outside the 20th century" no I think Last of Mohicans worked, if it's a little disjointed it is because of studio mandated runtime cuts but this gives it a kind of frenetic hyper reality quality
I'm in the minority but I really like the "The Keep". I hope beyond hope that Mann's original 210 minute version would be found and released. The studio took over the film after seeing his original cut and effed it all up. After losing control, Mann washed his hands of that film and won't even speak of it.
I love The Keep also. Even with all its "faults"- I like the overly stylised thing that it has. Great Tangerine Dream score, loadsa dry ice, and that dreamlike quality. I`d love to see an official release/special edition but i think their is "rights issues" which is a shame.
I love The Keep. You can see the diamond in the rough and what Mann was going for. The camera work on the film was really good. It is an example of how the parts are better than the whole film. That Tangerine Dream soundtrack is fantastic!!
Michael Mann overall has this awesome balance of pulp and realism. Like there’s grit but there’s also style. And while I like pretty much all of his works, I do appreciate his crime movies most.
He has no style, he's a hack. He makes ok movies, that's it. Tarantino loves to champion hacks and put down actually great directors. I love Tarantino but anyone who gets their movie education from him might as well hang a sign around their neck saying "I don't know ANYTHING about movies" lol
It's not "rare gem", it's an ok movie. I saw "Thief" in the theatre, it was ok, it was actually a disappointment from what I remember. It wasn't a "new teaching" in cinema. It wasn't a "rare gem". We had just come out of the 70s where every month something groundbreaking came out, believe me, no one was thinking "Wow, now THIS is moviemaking" when they saw " Thief". I remember it getting three stars from Joseph Gelmis, which is the highest rating I'd give to ANY Michael Mann movie, the guy has never made a great movie, EVER. He's made some GOOD ones. And that's worth celebrating! But he's not even in my top HUNDRED of directors, give me a break. People have been sucking their thumbs in suburbia with three-digit cables bill for forty years now, it's turned their brains (and tastes) to mush.
With you at the beginning there; especially since Thief co-star Tuesday Weld was so aged out and the rest of the supporting cast may as well have been extras. But, HEAT was made great by great acting and cinematography. You have a predictable storyline chock full of violence and crime that is guaranteed to get stopped by law enforcement in short order, and yet, it was a thrill to watch. There are memorable one-liners every 2 minutes, that actually feel natural even though you would need a screenwriter to come up with "2 turbos and a 9-1-1 slope". The dialog and the investment in the characters was so strong, it sells you on a sympathy for the people on both sides of the law. I could make 4 movies worth of movie about how great HEAT was. @@TTM9691
The Keep was a fiasco in parts, but a great cult film. Something about the uniqueness of the setting that set it apart. No one had made films about the east in WW2 - still haven't. Or films about WW2 without the allies. Also a nice juxtaposition between the Nazis, vampire country, and medieval Europe.
Yes exactly. Quentin is coming at this as a pure filmmaker so he is stripping down the narrative and film language and revealing the obvious flaws. But as both a film lover and a history nerd I was so drawn in by the incredibly unique set up (for Hollywood's standards anyways) I respect the hell out of Mann for even giving that a try.
@@sergeantbigmac The camera work was really good in The Keep. The parts of the movie are better than the sum of the whole movie. The studio screwed it up, but you can see the diamond in the rough and what he was going for. I love the Tangerine Dream soundtrack! Probably my favorite one of theirs.
@@WilliamTheMovieFan Its been a very long time since ive seen it but I remember clearly the beautifully backlit long tracking shots of the creature with smoke pouring out. I agree its an example of its parts being much better than its whole.
Were this entire interview or podcast? Anytime Mann and Thief get love from anyone I soak it up! Thief, Man Hunter, Heat are incredible films! Thief and Heat being in my top 5!
I watched Manhunter in a theater when I was 14 years old and I knew I would have to follow this newbie on the movie scene. I waited until 1992 to be startled with The last of the Mohicans. Heat was the pinnacle and the beginning of the end because until then movie critics didn’t bother about his craft. And all of a sudden he became the new darling of the critics. He made a historical and a thriller milestones. He should have quit there
Mann continues to influence filmmaking techniques to this day with his innovations. I look forward to every film he releases, even 'Blackhat', which I believe is his worst yet.
he made The Insider, while having no commercial prospects, is very good film about tobacco industry. I am looking forward to his upcoming Ferrari film.
I regard Mann as the first director to really bring the use of accurate color cinematography into the limelight. What I mean is, he's the first to really work to capture light, especially neon light, in an ultra realistic, natural and ultimately expressive tone, where the colors become moods or characters in and of themselves. Green and blue especially become a sort of visual leitmotiv, used to represent an emotional state or character, and then appear as necessary to accentuate a given scene. Color film has of course been around for ages, but compared to the technicolor saturation of the 60s and sepia toned grittiness of the 70s, a movie like Thief, and especially Manhunter, really brings out the evolution of color film and photography, perfectly capturing the neon drenched 80s. And did he purposely shit on Mohicans or what?
Thief happened during a significant shift in film stock speed that opened up a whole new world in the early 80s, and Mann was right at the front of that, just as he was with the digital revolution with films like Collateral and Miami Vice.
That's the stupidest, most hilarious thing I've read on the internet. You need A LOT of help, and a lot of education. You really need to take your thumb out of your mouth, and you really need to watch real movies. From ALL periods. And all countries. It's so hilarious watching dumb people pretend to be cinefiles in the comment sections of You Tube. Let me explain something to you dopey: Michael Mann is a hack medicority who has never been the "first" or "greatest" at ANYTHING. You don't have to spend your life with your head up ass, Jonathan. Get some taste, for once in your life.
All gun guys love Michael Mann, he was one of the very first to give a shit about accuracy and realism in gunfights in his movies, Heat being the best example of this. He used live ammunition, no bullshit goofy fx, had his actors get real training and had the firefights be conducted in a way that would actually work and make sense in real life. In Heat, the cops used actual police tactics, the criminals were ex-military and used actual military tactics. He was years ahead of anyone else in this regard, other than a few small-time indie guys here and there. In terms of big, blockbuster movies, you never saw realistic gunfights portrayed in movies until YEARS after Mann started it.
The Keep was a favorite film in middle school for me. Yes it’s deeply flawed in its execution but had great moments. It’s now on my top 10 list for films that didn’t live up to its potential.
Both heat and collateral are in my all time favorite films! Then you take films like thief and manhunter and it just makes Mann the absolute gold standard when it comes to crime dramas! Miami vice, black hat, and public enemies are all a little weaker then some of his others but I still enjoy the hell out of them. No one quite has an eye nighttime city scapes like Mann!
*Thief* is a brilliant heist, gangster and revenge movie. *Heat* is undoubtedly his best movie, greatest heist movie and greatest cops & robbers movie. *Last of the Mohicans* is a great period piece. Those are his best three movies.
Never seen The Keep before, but just from those few shots it reminds me of 80's/90's Hong Kong fantasy martial arts/horror themed movies. Might have to check it out
Michael Mann's film typically have main characters who are professionals at their craft. They have an obsession and an art form beyond normal comprehension. It's hard to relate when the characters remove themselves from social norms and function (therein lies the beauty). They follow unscripted lives. Its almost as if they are a reflection of Mann himself (in movie directing).
Does QT not know that The Keep was set in the 20th century? Wonder what he thinks of Last of the Mohicans? Also hilarious how he says "dichonomy" instead of dichotomy.
I agree with Tarantino. If you look at Last Of The Mohicans they stare at trees at the end for the longest time. It is an old trope that a character stares at trees or a mountain as though to do this is meaningful. it is like The Last Samurai. A skinny white man must be the hero
Agreed with Q on Mann's genius style... would also discuss how he is a painter on film (Manhunter, Heat), and how atmosphere is so strong it eclipses even the characters (Miami Vice, Heat). Too much time spent on an earlier effort that may not be Michael's best, but so what. Most people go their whole lives never doing anything half as brilliant as Heat... I would focus on what's good. We all have to make our mistakes to arrive at our best work.
Mann had sort of a short reign as an all time great filmmaker but for almost a decade he was untouchable. Not sure why his films aren't as good anymore but his films in the 90's are some of my favorite.
You're right. With Mann, atmosphere was always a key element to his movies, which involved composition, CELLULOID, and the perfect music cues at just the right moments. Heat is a prime example. The story taken on it's own is nuts and bolts cops and robbers. The only twist is they are in many ways interchangeable in their personalities and ways of moving through the world. If you take that story and make it in a straightforward way, you get a fairly normal crime drama. In this particular case, this was actually done by Mann himself, with LA Takedown, the tv movie he made using Heat's script before it was Heat. It was released in 1989 on tv and couldn't be more different than Heat. The atmosphere and gravitas is completely missing. But the skeleton of the script was good and the production probably didn't have a lot of money to spend. Heat had great actors, a great cinematographer (Dante Spinotti shooting in anamorphic), amazing music not just from the composer himself, Elliot Goldenthal, but also source music with eclectic, ambient cues from Brian Eno, Michael Brook, etc. It's all of these elements together that made it what it was. With just the story alone, you get LA Takedown. With the combination of script, acting, directing, cinematography, music, you get Heat. Great cinema is about those elements all coming together. Digital is becoming better all the time, but in no way does it have the gravitas of film. That's fine, it's another tool and I get it. It's cheap and affordable to people like us and is getting better (The Creator shows this well, using the Sony FX3 and looking great doing it). But it still lacks the same gravitas that film has, although some day maybe it will be more on par. It's no accident that Nolan, PT Anderson, and Spielberg still shoot film. It's not a money or nostalgia thing. Digital is easier to work with for sure. It's because film creates another world, a movie world, while digital is simply a window into our own. Collateral was good but would have been better on film. Once again, we are given a contrast of the two in the film itself. When Vincent goes to see the jazz musician, that whole sequence in the jazz club was shot on film. Also, the later scene in the dance club just before Vincent saves Max's life was shot on film. The contrast between those scenes and the rest of the movie is palpable. The rest of the movie looks like a behind the scenes video for the actual movie, except it's for the actual movie. Public Enemies looked horrible for this reason as well. He starts to get messy around this time, going almost strictly handheld on digital video, making movies that look like the student films from my time in college. It's crazy, because it's so opposite from say Mohicans, which was like a Remington painting. He even had moments with just music and the actors framed like a painting, like the one with Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe. This latter messiness was an attempt at making it more real and immediate, but it just makes it look like the kid who's shooting the "making of" footage from the film was recruited to shoot the actual film. Ditto Miami Vice, which looks horrible and even has a guy doing a somersault at the end while the villain shoots over the top of him like he's six years old playing nintendo's Duck Hunt. On video, it looks like amateurs made a Miami Vice fan film. It's so disappointing, because I saw Mohicans, Heat, and The Insider upon release in theaters, projected on film. I own all three and consider them among the best movies ever made. I know I'm writing too much, but this is so prevalent among artists when they get older. Their work really suffers. U2, Bob Dylan, Stones, Ridley Scott (although Martian was pretty good), etc. are some examples of this. Where is Frank Darabont, John Mctiernan, John Landis, and Phil Alden Robinson? These are great directors who are still capable of making great movies. If I had a streaming service, I would have an arm devoted to these guys using the wisdom they've accrued to make great films.
@@maxjax1417 totally agree with all of this. I don’t know why Mann embraced digital. I wonder if his new film was shot on film? Collateral was his last high quality film but it wasn’t on the level of his 90’s films. Luck was pretty good before it got canceled. I think a lot of directors burn out when they start having a family. Seems to take three years of full attention to make a great film. Maybe Mann will have a rebirth late in life like Ridley Scott has.
It’s crazy how insecure movie fans and fanbases can be. Tarantino, a highly acclaimed and one of the most accomplished directors of this century let alone all time gave a largely glowing review of Mann’s filmography-- with slight caveat. All you see is hate comments and bashing as if they’ve ever accomplished anything😂. Tarantino is one o the only artists openly giving his opinions on others work, that’s how much he loves film. Dude’s saying no “ deep scenes” as if the purpose of film is to be deep. OUATIH was a very pensive, theme rich work of art and it came out in 2019. Tarantino has made a lot more then Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.
I like The Keep a lot. It's not Mann's fault that the movie came out this way, there was a lot of studio interference and unnecessary cuts. Still even as it this this movie is beautiful and captivating, a great take on 80s dark fantasy genre. Too bad he doesn't want to have anything to do with it now and we are unlikely to see the Director's Bluray Cut.
Sorry, but the seventies were the last golden age of filmmaking. the nineties were the beginning of the end with CGI taking over and blockbusters destroying the independent scene.
No doubt. It's the period when CGI was being experimented with and the films were well-made, enjoyable even if they weren't prefect. I just saw a video revisiting 'Hudson Hawk'. Film makers took risks during that period, and they had something of value to say.
now reading these comments, I just have to say that 1990s were the years of... T2, Alien 3 (which on the all ffy reviews managed to be quite unique film), Die Hard With Vengeance, Heat, Independence Day, Fight Club, Se7en (quite of Fincher on the list), American Beauty, Bad Boys, The Rock, Broken Arrow, Hard Boiled, Face Off (John Woo), Casino, The Sixth Sense, Jurassic Park. So, there were plenty of movies worthwhile from the 1990s
