Left Field Cinema

WARNING: Contains Spoilers

Writer Director Michael Mann, perhaps more than any other creative figure in the brief history of film – suffers from the music he chooses for his films. Music can often make or break a production, some directors like Richard Donner go so far as to claim that the music is the only production element that keeps the film together (this is with reference to his 1976 film The Omen); likewise George Lucas often credits John Williams as the saving grace of the first Star Wars movie, and that without his score the film would not be remembered the way it is today. The Omen and Star Wars are examples of films that are saved by music, but what of films that are killed by their soundtracks. Mann in the past has been well known for some of the ill-conceived music choices he made in his 1980’s films Manhunter and The Keep, in the case of the former in particular the soundtrack was the biggest issue the film has to contend with, although both of these films are far from perfect and would still not obtain masterpiece status if the music was replaced; by contrast Miami Vice with a few tweaks is far closer to perfect.

Subjectively the issues I have with Miami Vice are not universal, far from it, in fact the criticisms I level at this film are usually completely unimportant to the majority of viewers. As usual, the majority of criticism that this film receives comes from a place of misunderstanding, of poor marketing and attracting the wrong audience to a film.

Based on the TV series Miami Vice which Michael Mann produced, the show ran from 1984 – 1989 in a decade where cop dramas where far from the grittier rawer beasts we know today, Miami Vice the series is a country mile away from HBO’s The Wire for example, however the film Miami Vice is far closer to The Wire than it is to its origins.

The plot follows Sonny Crockett played by Colin Farrell, and Ricardo Tubbs played by Jamie Foxx as they attempt to infiltrate a drug smuggling organisation to find a leak within an interagency operation which lead to the death of two FBI agents, an informer and his entire family. Along the way Sonny becomes romantically involved with the mistress of the chief smuggler, Issabela played by Li Gong and their whirlwind fling looks set to unravel the entire operation.

There have been many updates of 1970’s shows during the past ten years, the likes of Starsky and Hutch, or Charlies Angels, or The Dukes of Hazzard for example, so it’s only natural that 1980’s TV shows should get the same treatment, but where previously the majority of updates and remakes have had their tongues firmly in their cheeks and refuse to take the content seriously, Mann choose to take Miami Vice in the opposite direction, which could be argued was the first mistake of the film. The series of Miami Vice invokes images of Don Johnson (an actor who is impossible to take seriously in the same pocket of actors as Chuck Norris, Steven Segal, David Hasselfhof or William Shatner), it also conjures vivid 80’s crimes against fashion, pastel suit jackets with the sleeves rolled up, bad hair cuts and laughable TV cop jargon like “we’re going to take you down town”, even if these images are unfair to the show it is none the less the sort of 80’s silliness which the title brings to mind, even the films star Colin Farrel in an interview with Empire magazine said that the worst thing about the film was its title. It is in fairness a stupid title and the main characters have stupid names, Mann cunningly gets around both of these problems within the self contained realm of the film by not giving us the films title until the very end, and also rarely attributing a name to either of the leading men, when they are mentioned by name it is mumbled or passed over quickly. Of course the baggage of the old show is also what would help sell it which is why Michael Mann didn’t just take the concept and call it something else and simply say the film was inspired by his old show; the problem is trying to take a film called Miami Vice with characters named Tubbs and Crockett seriously is no easy feat but this is what the audience is asked to do when what it probably was expecting was some sort of camp half parody of the time and the show.

The films marketing again betrays the films confusion over tone, a near dialogueless first trailer for the film bombarded us with images or speeding cars, helicopters, speed boats, airplanes, guns, explosions, shootouts and two of Hollywood’s most bankable stars appearing cool walking in slow motion and wearing shades. What does all this bring to mind? A summer block buster, a big budget, CGI augmented action packed, crowd pleasing, pop corn munching two hours of escapist non-sense. Of course those of us with more knowledge of film knew that it was highly unlikely that Michael Mann would ever make such a film, but you must remember that the majority of cinema audiences only know the names of about two directors Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Speilberg, and whilst Michael Mann and his reputation is well known to even the most tentative of cinephiles, this does not extend to the general public. So with expectations set up, the ticket paid for, and the popcorn slowly digesting, what has our summer blockbuster audience actually come to see? Mann’s Miami Vice is the closest thing to an art-house action thriller. No wonder they were disappointed.

So what do I mean by art-house action thriller? This seeming oxymoronic description I feel is rather valid. Is it an action movie? Yes and no, it doesn’t quite have enough in the way of action set pieces to strictly cast it as an action movie in the vain of Die Hard or The Rock for example, it does however have too many action set-pieces to be seen as a police procedural, if we compare this to the series The Wire again and we notice how the films naturalism, and authentic approach to covert operations is similar to that esteemed television show, however set pieces like the opening night club sequence, the high speed boat ride to Cuba, the test run low flying air craft sequence and the final shoot out, are all events which would never be included in an episode of David Simon’s masterpiece. They’re too heightened, too stylised, too unrealistic to be part of a Serpico-esque police drama, the final shootout in particular is telling with the vindictive and vengeful manner that two of Miami Vice’s chief villains are killed by our two heroes in the middle of this chaotic multi-shooter set piece. Although the action is handled with the usual Mann SAS influenced authenticity it still frequently breaks for the more satisfying Hollywood style death scenes we’ve come to expect for our villains. The fact that the mind behind the operation gets away in the end brings Miami Vice back to reality and steers it clear of the deeper crime film clichés, and its low key almost innocuous final shot of Sonny entering a hospital to tend to two of his friends is something we’d expect from a more down beat and realistic film. The violence is slick, the final shootout reminds of the bank shoot out from Mann’s previous film Heat (although no where near as accomplished), Jamie Foxx looks incredibly professional disarming a neo-Nazi character in a trailer park and then mercilessly executing the man as part of his professional attitude (he doesn’t have time to tie him up and so he has to put him out of action otherwise he might still pose a threat, the entire time Foxx doesn’t take his eyes off a hostage taker on the other side of the room who is holding his girlfriend) this isn’t John McClaine, but likewise it’s not Jimmy McNulty either – it’s somewhere in the middle.

So it is a crime thriller with action set pieces, but where does the art-house come into it? Miami Vice is a rare example of an intelligent entry in its genre, a frequent complaint about the film is the complexity of its plot line, the simple truth is that the plot is not actually that complicated, but it is presented in a manner and through a series of devices which make it difficult to follow unless you’re paying complete attention. At no point does the film pander to the lowest common denominator within its audience, at no point does it spoon feed you its through line. Pay attention, listen to what the characters say, and watch carefully, then the story makes one-hundred percent sense, one-hundred percent of the time. You’re dealing with professionals in a world of professional criminals and police officers, they are not going to explain their business to each other, because they already know it. They are not going to clarify plot points through contrived dialogue because they already know the points, another misleading bump in the films trailer comes when Tubbs states rather dramatically “Take it to the limit one last time” this sort of line and more importantly this sort of delivery set us up for a film of larger than life dramatic crescendos, when in fact within the film a different take is used and the line is delivered rather matter-of-factly as part of a larger sentence. The opening fifteen minutes of the film throws the audience into the deep end, in the middle of a night club set covert operation, where an average writer director would take the time to establish the who’s, why’s and how’s of this scene, Mann forgoes any of this in favour of chaotic confusion which doesn’t let up for about twenty-five minutes until the films plot begins to take hold, this is an effective is someone abrasive method of introducing the audience to the world of the story.

This approach to character and action is key to what makes Mann’s films unique in the breadth of Hollywood productions, his ability to take heightened situations and inject believability. An example of this is in the audio of Miami Vice, the film sounds unique, John Murphy’s brooding score, and the dynamic sound scope contribute to a reinforcement of the films dark mood, lines of dialogue are often next to inaudible, deliberately, as in reality not all spoke word is crystal clear, this creative decision simply exacerbated the complaint that the films plot line was incoherent and impossible to follow, as characters mumble or speak away from one and other, they also cunningly rarely place dramatic emphasis on any particular sentence, often a cue for the lazier members of the audience who do not devote their full attention to a film to perk up their ears. But no such major plot point signifiers are present here, no cuddling the audience and steering them in the right direction, you’re on a speedy ride and if a reaction is missed or a line unheard then too bad.

Another area where the film excels, and in fact arguably its greatest success is its visual splendour. Personally I’m not a fan of HDV Video productions, until recently it’s seemed like a poor man’s method of making a film, obviously the cost of film stock is beyond most low budget productions, hence for independent film makers it is a blessing; but I’ve never understood why so many more seasoned film makers have been turning to the format to make their films in recent years when they can afford the infinitely superior 35mm film stock. Sidney Lumet’s Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Ingmar Bergman’s Saraband, George Luca’s latest Star Wars movies, and Michael Haneke’s Hidden are all shot digitally in varying HD formats.

Obviously Lucas has used it to increase ease and sophistication in his computer generated worlds, and Haneke’s Hidden had a primary theme of video surveillance so shooting on video also makes sense (he’s subsequently returned to 35mm film stock for both Funny Games U.S and his new film The White Tape) but Lumet and Bergman have both admitted to using the format solely for connivance sake. It is infinitely easier to make a film using HDV than 35mm, it’s also extremely cost effective, the only difficulty is that HDV is aesthetically inferior in almost every way, the way it captures light, the way it captures movement, the depth and dynamic range of colour and tones are all diminished by the format. Miami Vice like Mann’s previous film Collateral, was filmed in a combination of film and video, but the majority of it is shot on video; what Mann does differently to other film makers who’ve embraced the method in the past, is to forgo the standard operating procedures, he doesn’t make the mistake of shooting his film on video and pretending its film, he instead takes an unfilmic approach to his project and embraces the video for what it is with both arms. For example, early in the film Sonny and Tubbs are stood on a roof top overlooking the Miami city at night, although HDV can’t capture the range of light the way film can, it does in fact capture light as a whole far easier, it requires less to see more, hence in the background of this shot we not only have a gloriously purple nights sky but an orange luminance glow of light, beautiful and awe-inspiring that could never be captured on film in congress. This single shot is indicative of what Mann does best throughout the film, not only in terms of light, but also in terms of movement and proximity, his lens is never far from his subjects, rather than zoom into his frame from a safe distance, often the camera is right on top of his actors, giving the audience a very real sense that we’re in the room with the actors. As stated before on Left Field Cinema, video can give motion pictures a naturalistic immediacy which film can not, film is a filtered reality, you’re watching the world through a looking glass, video by contrast is reality, is what’s really there, that extra level of protection which film offers is gone which is why video is so completely embraced by the Dogma school of thought, aesthetics are abandoned in place of reality.

Miami Vice is uniquely crafted from a technical stand point; this makes up for the films plot line which not of the highest standard of originality, its characters are also familiar in terms of paring of ethnically mixed cops. Where the central characters differ from cops and robber movies of the past is again in Mann’s sense of realism. Professionals of this level don’t need to speak to each other in order to know what the other is thinking, and rarely do Sonny and Tubbs converse with one and other except in monosyllabic intervals which are so infrequent that it lead to another of the major criticism levelled at this film – that there is no chemistry between the leading men.

In the past I have agreed with this statement in principle, it was only upon my latest viewing of Miami Vice that I noticed how much of a relationship is conveyed between Sonny and Tubbs, such accomplished performers as Farrell and Foxx manage with very little to establish an unspoken trust in everything they do and it is believable. The lack of communication conversely doubles the believability of their relationship. Where this criticism ceases to have any relevance is in the next revelation about Miami Vice that every audience member must discover in their own time - the film is in fact a love story between Sonny and Issabella. Theirs is a relationship of passion and, blind lust, and then genuine affection and love, most of the films second act is dedicated to this portion of the story, of course this ties in very closely with the criminal plot line as well but the overriding focus is on this couples whirlwind romance. Again this is where the films marketing destroys itself, Miami Vice was never sold on this portion of its plot even though it is dominant. More insidiously than this is Jamie Foxx’s top billing in some of the films releases, Foxx is very much a supporting player here; the story quite clearly belongs to Farrell and Li Gong. But given Foxx’s profile the spin was that Farrell and Foxx are equals in the narrative, equal in rank, equal as friends, equal as stars, and most importantly equal as protagonists, whilst most are accurate, the latter is glaringly not.

So in conclusion the films marketing and casting was it’s own demise, this movie is designed and aimed squarely at an audience who accept a film being difficult to follow and difficult to watch rather than a mainstream audience. As with Terrence Malick’s films The Thin Red Line and The New World (also staring Farrell) the all star casts bring the wrong sort of audience to the multiplexes, attract the wrong crowds and damn the film to nonsensical condemnation.

Personally my issues with the film stem from one unnecessary (if quite funny) sex scene between Tubbs and his girlfriend which follows an equally unnecessary shower scene. This sex scene is perhaps the films biggest cinematic crime as not only is it pointless but it’s also backed by an insipid love song with the lyrics “are you ready for love”. Indeed music in Miami Vice is where the film is at its most contrasting. This brings us back to my opening point of this episode, Mann sinks or swims on his music, and where The Keep, The Last of the Mohicans and Manhunter all have music based issues, Heat, The Insider, and Ali (his three best films) have no such issues and contain flawless soundtracks. Of course a lot of this is down to personal taste, I’m not a nu metal fan so when I hear two tracks used in Collateral and two tracks used here it does tend to drag me violently out of the film, but I also feel that none of these tracks are appropriate to the scene or the content. Other music by Mogwai, Freaky Chakra, John Murphy, King Britt, Tim Motzer, and in particular the track “Sweep” by the Blue Foundation are moody and dark and fit the film tonally as well as being in my opinion good music. Film is also guilty of frequently falling on some gratuitous images of speed boats, sports cars, helicopters and small air craft, but other than this, the three music tracks and two scenes there is nothing else I would change about Miami Vice. It is a modern crime, romance, action, thriller with art house styling and audio visual innovations – now what’s not to like about that?

M.Dawson