Michael Mann’s ‘Miami Vice’ Doesn’t Look Like Most Movies — and That’s Good

The big picture

• Miami Vice
  directed by Michael Mann, is a critically re-evaluated cult masterpiece with a unique visual style and great performances.
• The film's use of digital cinematography creates a hyperreal quality and stunning depth of field that film cameras cannot easily capture.
• Michael Mann's later films, incl
  Public enemies
  i
  Blackhat
  they also use digital filmmaking to reflect the evolving criminal landscape and embrace efficiency and innovation in production.

In 2006, audiences were thrown into the finale when the film adaptation of the hit series Miami Vice was an esoteric and disorienting crime thriller that departed from the tone and style of the source material. Michael Mannthe efforts at the time were divisive, however Miami Vice it has since been critically re-evaluated as a cult masterpiece by the auteur director. Movie stars Colin Farrell i Jamie Foxx as Crockett and Tubbs, two undercover detectives involved in an investigation into a drug cartel between Miami and Cuba. Miami Vice has a lot going for it: the great performances of the protagonists, the soundtrack infused with father rock and the legend of the Chinese screen Gong Li portrays one of the most nuanced and dynamic female characters in any of Michael Mann's films, a cartel financial advisor named Isabelle which sparks a relationship with Crockett. However, one of the film's most divisive trademarks is its unusual visual style.

Filmed with digital cameras by the cinematographer Dion Beebe, Miami Vice it has an exceptionally clear, almost high-speed look. Watching it now for the first time, you might think that your TV settings aren't right, because it doesn't look like most movies. This is not a bug or malfunction, but a feature Miami Vice which consolidates it as a visionary and dynamic film that deserves a second look by those who could have dismissed it at the time.

Michael Mann's use of digital cinematography made him a pioneer

Michael Mann has shot primarily in digital since he began experimenting with the format for some sequences there starring Will Smith. Mann and Beebe worked together for the first time Lateral collarwho starred Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx and also used digital cinematography to capture an ethereal nighttime view of LA. What's interesting about Mann's use of digital cinematography, especially in the films he later released there, is that Mann embraced the new form rather than trying to make it look like the old ways of filmmaking. Beebe has continued to do this as well, pushing the boundaries of digital filmmaking as a cinematographer a Ang Lee's Gemini Man which was presented at an unusual 120 frames per second compared to the standard 24 frames per second.

Film shooting is increasingly rare among major productions due to the relative ease and lower financial burden of using digital cameras. Fortunately, some directors, however, continue to defend the medium by taking advantage of their place in the industry to do something like The Hateful Eight's 70mm roadshow or Oppenheimerpossible the historic IMAX run. Cinema cameras offer an aesthetic quality that many filmmakers and viewers value for good reason. However, that doesn't mean digital doesn't have merit when used correctly.

Michael Mann was not the first to use digital techniques in a conventional film, such as previous examples Danny Boyle's 28 days laterwhich has sequences shot on early digital equipment at a fairly low quality compared to what we expect today, or Attack of the clones which was the first major blockbuster shot entirely with digital cameras. What sets Mann apart from the early adopters of digital cinematography is how he used the technology to create images unlike anything audiences were used to seeing on a movie screen.

Why does the digital cinematography of Miami Vice work?

Miami Vice It's probably not the kind of movie that can be paused to create a dazzling desktop background, because the use of the shape is entirely in the look of the movie while it's playing in motion. The fluidity of movement and impressive depth of field create a hyper-real quality that film cameras can't capture as easily, which can be disorienting at first, but becomes one of the film's strengths.

When Crocket and Tubbs meet on a rooftop as the horizon creates a purple haze behind them, or Crocket and Isabelle take a boat trip to Cuba as their romance begins to blossom, these scenes that would normally be fairly standard take on a quality of 'another world. Just as it is difficult to quantify why film cameras have such great aesthetic value, the power of Miami ViceThe beautiful and innovative visual style of 's must be seen to its fullest to be appreciated.

Lateral collar i Miami Vice they were a clear departure from Michael Mann's stylistic approach to films like these Thief or heatbut no director has lovingly and passionately embraced digital cinema as successfully and deservedly so as Mann with his latest films.

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Michael Mann's later films mesh well with digital filmmaking

After Miami Viceby Michael Mann Public enemiesa period crime film about the FBI's manhunt John Dillinger it was shot unconventionally in a similar digital style, a jarring thing to see in a film that otherwise tries to evoke a long-gone time period. However, this is important thematically, as the film deals heavily with the way modern technology renders the criminal procedures of old-school bank robbers like Dillinger obsolete. Mann follows this film Blackhat, a modern thriller set squarely in the world of cybercrime. Hacking has replaced the bank robberies and jewel thieves that Mann used to focus his stories on.

Just as Michael Mann's crime stories have evolved to expand the scope of the modern criminal world, his films have evolved in how they are produced. Everything is procedural, sleek, and professional in a Michael Mann film, so it makes sense that he values ​​efficiency and innovation in how movies are made.

Michael Mann's latest work, Heat 2, a sequel novel to the 1995 masterpiece he saw Robert de Niro i Al Pacino face to face, split into two different timelines. One is from the late 1980s, while the other delves into the early 2000s, and the latter treads the same thematic territory of modern technology changing the criminal landscape that began with Miami Vice. Mann's work is consistently advanced in his understanding of how his stories reflect or even predict these changes in society.

The obsession with modernity that has bled into Michael Mann's stories has also changed the way he tells them, and while the debate over film and digital remains strong as fewer filmmakers choose to shoot in the older format, Mann is at least doing something. to give digital cinematography its own aesthetic quality that can be appreciated alongside cinema rather than trying to take its place. Besides being a thrilling crime story with great performances, Miami Vice it should be celebrated for pushing the limits of what digital cinema can offer.

Miami Vice is currently available to stream on Starz in the US

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