How Every Michael Mann Character Is Secretly The Same

this is Vincent Hannah because I spend all my time chasing guys like you around the block that's my life this is Hawkeye so if we don't go in that there's no chance none you understand and this is Muhammad Ali you want the title you want to wear the heavyweight Crown you ready for that is that you you face a man who will die before he let you win these iconic characters were all brought to the Silver Screen by director Michael man on the surface these characters might all seem wildly desperate however if we dig a little deeper perhaps they're all bonded by a common pseudo autobiographical trait having enough time enough time to do what you want to do that's right before we get too deep into today's episode please be sure to like And subscribe to nerdstalgic to stay up todate with everything we've got going on Michael man usually builds his stories to display a rigid architecture of characters displaying hyper competency while making their way through genre settings he takes what could be two diens itional people who serve no greater Point than to push the plot forward and develops them into the realm of living breathing icons by adding a simple component emotional vulnerability take for example man's theatrical feature debut thief the film follows an expert safe cracker Frank as he takes on one final job before leaving a life of crime behind in a now iconic scene he gives an impassioned speech revealing that he's a criminal to the woman he loves I'm a thief I've been in prison all right so what I don't care what don't tell me so what I never even told my wife that I don't who is now gone what transpires is a deeply personal back and forth where the two lovers sit at a late night Diner bearing their souls to one another you're back and off you're hiding out you're waiting for a bus that you hope never comes because you don't want to get on it anyway because you don't want to go anywhere all right Frank in many ways will serve as a prototypical man protagonist he's rought with inner conflict skilled in a very specific craft lives outside of societal norms and yet has a St L moral philosophy this archetype would be expanded upon in the television program Miami Vice this was supposed to be a lightweight deal yeah it's what we thought till the fireworks started first airing in 1984 the impact that this police procedural television program had on culture cannot be overstated I hear you're going to have your bachelor party Friday night before the wedding you might miss Miami Vice the show which follows two Metro Police Department detectives on the vice beat in Miami Florida could have easily been a rote tropy police show however when the pilot 2hour movie aired it was a near instant success man was an executive producer on the show and was intimately involved with the production and the writing of the series despite only taking a writing credit on one episode while they would quickly move away from this status quo after the first season James Sunny Crockett was initially written to be a brilliant cop in the middle of a crumbling marriage now you just have to accept that I have my own life now yeah well I have my own life too and a big part of that includes being a father so forget it Caroline this Trope of male protagonists whose primary attribute is a hyper competency shows up in just about all of man's films Hawkeye and last of the micans is basically a one-man War Machine embroiled in a sweeping romance Al depicts the greatest boxer to ever live and how a lesser man would have taken the easier path instead of standing up for what he believed in during one of the darkest times in American history even The Insider which is a fictionalized account of Dr Jeffrey wiggin's Life as a whistleblower on the tobacco industry fits into this mold interestingly the exceptions of the tropes still somehow fit Tak man's 2004 stripped down high concept Thriller collateral the two halves of the stock protagonist are divided into the two main characters Vincent has all of the skills but none of the Interior life while Max is the character that experiences the moral conflict almost as if man is saying that Vincent's absence of emotions negate his exceedingly impressive skill set like what were you one of those institutionalized raised guys anybody home standard parts that are supposed to be there in people in you AR perhaps the apotheosis of man's hyper competent yet emotionally turbulent male protagonist is his Neo Noir magnum opus heat released in 1995 the film follows a group of Thieves led by the notoriously Cutthroat burglar named Neil mccaulay these criminals are doggedly hunted by an eccentric LAPD Lieutenant named Vincent Hannah Hannah and mcau are both prototypical Man characters mcau is a solitary individual ual who has next to no life outside of his criminal Enterprises Who falls in love with a woman which upends just about everything in his world Hannah is a dedicated officer in the middle of you guessed it a crumbling marriage family life is the central Core theme of heat it's examined from just about every angle both with the diet of Hannah and mcau but also with The Supporting Cast as well and it's this film that truly proves to be the skeleton key to unlocking the emergent theme that man has been dealing with his entire career don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around a corner how do you balance having a family and dedicating yourself to a craft completely he obviously is someone who does not deal in compromises or half measures he's someone who wants Perfection and dealing with other people having relationships and dedicating time to things other than your craft is the defining trial of his life and that's what all his films are ostensibly about this regular type life that your life my life no my life my life's a disaster so when evaluated in the cold light of day it's almost a simple math equation all of the films have these stand-ins for man's own personal struggles it's readily apparent that he is obsessed with the inner lives of these highly skilled men but once you realize that these stock protagonists are ostensibly him it recontextualizes both them and their creator man's true medium is not film making but autobiography the struggles that man's film films deal with are a direct reflection of his own obvious guilt over being pulled away from his family or his inability to balance a personal life and professional accomplishments yes obviously he's very interested in crime politics socioeconomic brackets and the Aesthetics of neon and city lights but underneath that there's something deeper a personal statement his mind is obviously consumed with the task of attempting to justify his obsession with film making to himself man's body of work at its most Primal asks a simple question if you make art that is great enough will the love of an adoring public or the self-satisfaction of seeing your vision captured on the screen find in equilibrium with a neglected or brutalized personal life the most frustrating aspect to all of this is that there is no clear-cut answer for either him or us which is exactly why man is constantly preoccupied with this theme he's always attempting to give the audience the same feeling of being caught between a rock and a hard place because that unwinable scenario is where he constantly L lives Michael man's work is A Treatise on just exactly what it takes to be a great artist and whether or not that pursuit in and of itself is even worthwhile how far would you really go to achieve your potential how much of yourself would you stifle in order to succeed what is the Fallout in your family and Social Circle because of your choices so you never wanted a regular type life the is that barbecues and ball games yeah you can even see these tropes in his newest film Ferrari which follows one of the most well-respected race car drivers in history during a turbulent time in his personal life while his auto manufacturing Empire is crumbling so what do I do win the Mia or you are out of business the dark secret behind every Micha man protagonist is that they represent a primal howl into a void of existential nothingness a coarse whisper that says was it all worth it and well that's all we have for this video what do you think are there other directors who are making autobiography in this style let us know in the comments below and as always please be sure to like comment and subscribe for more videos just like [Music] this

Channel: Nerdstalgic

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Keywords: Michael Mann Director, Michael Mann Movies, Michael Mann Characters, Michael Mann Legacy, Nerdstalgic, Michael Mann Collateral, Michael Mann Heat, Michael Mann Ali, Michael Mann Miami Vice, Michael Mann Ferrari, Michael Mann Thief, Michael Mann Last of the Mohicans, Tom Cruise Collateral, Jamie Foxx Collateral, Al Pacino Heat, Robert DeNiro Heat, Miami Vice TV Show, Miami Vice Movie, Muhammad Ali Will Smith, Crime Movies, New Rockstars, Screen Crush, IGN, Corridor Crew, Nerd

Id: LmvBaJvZWz4

Length: 8min 13sec (493 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 03 2024