Here are some comments from my last viewing.
This is still an immensely enjoyable film, but one that I don’t rate as highly as other Manniacs seem to. Surely, it is the perfect marriage of the near-abstract visual style and the prevalence of smooth guys in suits that makes this film work so well, but its plot persistently tests the bounds of plausibility.
Mind you, I’m capable of superhuman suspension of disbelief and even massive self-delusion in films as well as reality, but films that hinge upon coincidence as a structuring device tend to fall flat with me. This is perhaps because they often seem to be making big, quasi-mystical stinks about fate and kismet and so. And this always annoys me, as it more often strikes me as the vain (in both senses) attemps of a filmmaker to find order in the universe through unlikely concordances of varying degrees of cleverness (hence my ardent hatred of Magnolia). Coincidence works far better in black comedy (as on television series like Curb Your Enthusiasm and One Foot in the Grave), where these fated mishaps take on the aspect of cruel, moral punishments.
Fortunately, while fate is a continuing theme of Mann’s films, coincidence is not, and one can still discern the notion that men (real men, that is) are destined to certain ends because of their characters, as they are in other Mann films, and not necessarily because of a series of wiry, wouldn’t-ya-know-it circumstances, which is the implication here.
But this minor auteuristic anomaly aside, the film falls squarely in line with Mann’s other films, almost parodying them. (Which raises the question of what Michael Mann films are not self-parody.) In particular, the film’s final sequence is essentially a retread of the matching scene in Heat, the principal difference being that having a girlfriend can be a good thing and that anal professionalism is not all it’s cracked up to be. This heartening indication of maturity (or, dare I say, “humanism”?) partly survives in Miami Vice, albeit with the parallel assertion that good guys and bad guys can’t live together.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Dreamworks SKG DVD
14 Aug 2006 2:51 PM | Comments (1)
A main difference, for me, between the finales of Heat and Collateral, is that Cruise’s character is punished for his disconnect with society by being made to die alone, presumably unnoticed. DeNiro’s McClusky seemingly shares a philosophy with Pacino’s Hannah in addition to his devotion to Eady. He is no nihilist and dies in a much more honorable fashion. I would imagine that Mann views both deaths as fateful ends for his characters.
I think somone should organize a benefit to reunite Mann with cinematographer Dante Spinotti. Things just haven’t been the same since they parted ways.
Mark
21 August 2006
7:41 AM