The House Next Door

Fascinating series. And now for a non-substance question:

How do you rip these clips from DVDs?

I'm teaching a film-heavy lit class in the fall, and I would love to be able to do mini-commentaries with scenes as you do.

I'm surprised that you don't mention Crockett's romance with Gong Li in Miami Vice (except for a short clip), in my opinion one of the few weak spots in the film. I would have liked to hear your opinion on this.

Much as I love that scene between Kilmer and Judd in "Heat" (perhaps her finest moment in a mostly disappointing career), it's Robert De Niro and Amy Brenneman in the same film that I see as the definitive relationship in the Mann universe. She's a bookstore employee; he is, unbeknownst to her, a violent criminal. He cares for her deeply, sees her as his chance for escape to a better life. Yet his casual slip about their relationship to Pacino in the coffee scene is what alerts the latter to her presence outside the hotel room late in the film. (Was it a hotel? I can't remember.) Ultimately, despite his feelings, De Niro's survival instincts take over and he leaves her there.

This scene is inverted when Billie (Marion Cotillard) is captured by the feds in "Public Enemies." This time, it's the man (Dillinger) who is left stranded at the curb. It's one of the more interesting moments in what is for me an unsuccessful film.

In Part 3, you state - "after meeting the hunter Nathaniel Poe, an orphaned white adopted by Mohawks." However, Nathaniel was adopted by Mohicans, of which Chingachgook is the last of, and also Nathaniel's adoptive father.

Aside from this misstep, I find this series to be a careful, praise-filled, general analysis of Mann's films.

Anon The Last: I'm not sure I understand the distinction of Mohawks vs. Mohicans. Could you enlighten me with a link?

Thanks for reading & watching, and for paying such close attention that you'd point out such a detail.

This is such wonderful and enlightening commentary on the career of Michael Mann - no proper published study of his films or the director has surfaced to date but you seem to doing an exemplary job by bringing to light his relevance as one of American cinema's foremost auteurs. No mention of the thematic importance of 'mirror images' in the films of Mann - in 'Public Enemies', both Dillinger and Purvis are very much alike as they crave both anonymity and acceptance. More on Mann please.

This was the best entry yet.

omar: "No mention of the thematic importance of 'mirror images' in the films of Mann - in 'Public Enemies', both Dillinger and Purvis are very much alike as they crave both anonymity and acceptance. More on Mann please."

Part 4 is all about mirrors, dopplegangers and doubles. It's supposed to go up later this week.

"Rapture." Nailed it.

Nice job, Matt. I'm catching up after being away on vacation, and this is more terrific stuff. Indeed, these relationships are sanctuaries, and I've always found it fascinating that Mann men are able to quit these indulgences as suddenly and completely as they first cave to them.

Watching Matt's piece, it struck me that Daniel Day Lewis' dramatic leap from that waterfull is a rare scene that allows a Michael Mann character to succesfully fullfill BOTH sides of their conflicting natures simultaneusly:

in making the leap, he is in that moment physically fleeing from the relationship but pledging his devotion to it at the same time.

The character is satisfying both the restless urge to live in the present moment as a free man on a mission, unbound from domesticity...and at the same time embarking on a quest that will(hopefully) lead back to the relationship and a lifetime together building a family.

What scene in a Mann film allows the hero the chance to sastisfy both needs at once?

When does a man ever get to charge off into the wild, free to fullfill his restless nature, while at the same time staying utterly true to his commitments?

Again, great piece. I missed seeing one of my favorite moments from a Mann film, though.

In the hospital when Vicent Hanna's3rd wife finally releases him from their marriage, the excited, joyful look on his face as he rushes down the hospital stairs, back on the chase, is powerful stuff. Especially compared with his final lost and unfulfilled expression later as gazes off into the distant runway lights, holding the hand of a dead man.

Perhaps Mann's most succesfull dramatization of his characters' essential dilemma.