Monday, February 05, 2007
DVD Roundup: Miami Vice
If Michael Mann hadn't already made Heat, then Miami Vice would be some groundbreaking shit. Instead, it's merely a really good police flick from the maker of Heat. I don't really know why Mann insisted on using the brand name "Miami Vice" for this movie, since it bears so little resemblance to the Don Johnson 80s cheese-fest. Instead, it's a gripping slice of undercover cop life that feels more like a ride-along than a structured narrative. The effect is intriguing and disorienting. That sense of disorientation is enhanced by the terse, mumbled dialogue, and is visually symbolized by the climactic shoot-out. In Heat, there's a huge gunfight that takes place in the middle of the day in the middle of a busy street in downtown Los Angeles and is shot in medium-length takes with stationary cameras. Miami Vice's shoot-out happens at night, in an industrial park, and is mostly shot with handheld cameras and is more heavily edited. Even the gunfire is unnerving: the sound design is so muted the rifles sound like paintball guns. The effect of all this is to make the audience work: they aren't presented with established relationships and plot elements crash into the movie suddenly and without fanfare. Thinking about it more, perhaps Mann needed to call this movie Miami Vice in order to give the audience SOME kind of handle on the characters and situation. Any way, I appreciate the man's balls and devotion to a visual style. His digital camera work just gets more and more intriguing, with every new Mann film exploring the contours of urban space in a way that makes the dully familiar seem alien and threatening. Score: 7.7
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Hey yo,
Here's something I've been meaning to ask you. I heard some reviewer talking the other day about looking at the three big Mexican directed films this year--Children of Men, Babel, Pan's Labyrinth--as a trilogy. Which struck me as a kind of interesting idea, as I also heard that these guys are close friends and correspond pretty frequently about their moviemaking projects.
Anyway. I don't know what you would make of this, but I wanted to share this point with you and see if it inspired anything.
Plus, your fantasy baseball team name is fantastic.
ball dip,
Weevil
Not only are the three directors friends, they actually helped each other produce the three films they all made this year. I've seen a lot of people write about the these three films. I've only seen two of the three: I'll probably watch Babel on DVD. Children of Men was phenomenal, Pan's Labyrinth disappointing, and talk of a "trilogy" seems at first blush to be sort of lazy: hey! Three Mexicans made movies in one year! They've got to be interrelated. I'll think about it, and when I see Babel it will allow me to really give it consideration, but my initial reaction is: no.
I've thought some more about this, and I'm starting to realize that there is a thread connecting the Mexican directors visions that is singular and stands in contrast to American directors. I'll be writing a post about it soon. Thanks for the inspirado.
Post a Comment