Ingo Stelte

The Professional in Michael Mann’s Movies

Ingo Stelte The Professional in Michael Mann’s Movies

Tectum Verlag

Ingo Stelte The Professional in Michael Mann’s Movies.

Tectum Verlag Marburg, 2015 ISBN 978-3-8288-6186-2 (Dieser Titel ist zugleich als gedrucktes Buch unter der ISBN 978-3-8288-3477-4 im Tectum Verlag erschienen.) Besuchen Sie uns im Internet www.tectum-verlag.de www.facebook.com/tectum.verlag

Bibliografische Informationen der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Angaben sind im Internet über http://dnb.ddb.de abrufbar.

Acknowledgments I would like to thank the following persons for helping me write this book. First of all, I am indebted to my parents for making everything possible. My thanks also go to Winfried Herget for his academic inspiration and benevolent guidance. Furthermore, I am grateful to Marc Eickhoff and Dominik Mieth for their prolific advice on content and structure. I also thank Juliane Ewert for helping me shape my ideas in numerous talks. My thanks likewise go to Christine Walde and Alfred Krovoza for their advice, and Caley Shannon McGuill for her insightful proofreading.

About the author Ingo Stelte earned a master’s degree in film studies and American studies and a master’s degree in teaching English and Latin from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. He works as a teacher in Hamburg, Germany.

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1 Introduction ............................................................................ 9

2 Professionalism: Its Historical Development and Its Literary and Cinematic Renderings .................... 15

2.1 The Historical Development of Professionalism in America 15

2.2 The Historical Development of Concepts of Masculinity in America ...................................................................................... 18

2.3 Literary Works .................................................................................... 23

2.4 Cinematic Works ................................................................................. 43

3 Analysis of Michael Mann’s Movies ................................ 49

3.1 Thief (1981) ........................................................................................... 49

3.2 Manhunter (1986/2003) ...................................................................... 72

3.3 The Last of the Mohicans (1992) .........................................................101

3.4 Heat (1995) ..........................................................................................126

3.5 Collateral (2004) ..................................................................................146

4 Conclusion ........................................................................... 163

5 Sources ................................................................................. 169

5.1 Bibliography ......................................................................................169

5.2 Filmography ......................................................................................178

6 Index ..................................................................................... 183

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1 Introduction

I vividly remember the first time I saw Heat (1995). With the blue and white banner slowly gliding down in the used car lot in the middle of an otherwise action-packed heist, this was a cop and gangster film that aesthetically deviated from anything I knew. Similarly, the brawny action, the driving beat of the music, and the robbers’ exactness during the heist were purely amazing. In this vein, all of Mann’s motion pictures feature the recurring motifs of professional men who act with expert accuracy; the women the men come across but never really understand; the visual aesthetics of neon city lights at night; music stressing certain feelings; and the melancholic mood. Despite any academic approach, Mann’s movies have not lost their emotional impact. In fact, the more I read about American history and culture, and the more generic films I watch, the more I can appreciate the manifold notions Mann has incorporated into his opus, making it a worthwhile subject of research from various angles.

Throughout his work ranging from disasters at the box office and with critics like The Keep (1983), to top-grossing audience favorites such as The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Mann has maintained his auteurist style.1 The one feature connecting all his movies is the male professional, specifically his struggle in this world, his loneliness, and the elegance with which he moves “like a dancer among the crowded dangers of the city”2. Hence, the recurring expert protagonist lent itself to becoming the focus of this paper. Although the specialist can be seen as Mann’s signature protagonist, no work exclusively dedicated to the leitmotif of professionalism has been published up to now. After a short literature review, the goal of this treatise will be stated. Monographs about Mann’s films are fairly sparse and have been published only recently. Mark Steensland’s Michael Mann (2002) is a good introductory survey that summarizes the director’s personal and vocational history and continues with short analyses of his films. Nick James’ enthusiastic Heat (2002) situates the movie within Mann’s previous oeuvre, calling to mind recurrent narrative, thematic, and visual motifs. Following the plot, it discusses concepts of masculinity and revels in Mann’s particular style.

1 Cf. the discussion of Mann’s status as auteur in Sanders 2014, 2–4. 2 Warshow 1962, 106.

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Mark E. Wildermuth’s study Blood in the Moonlight (2005) goes an altogether different way. Similar to recent scholarly interest in Mann, the author assesses the director’s movies in the light of the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard’s postmodernist, poststructuralist theories, focusing on symbolic exchange between human beings in our supposedly (post)human world. In collaboration with the director, F. X. Feeney and Paul Duncan published a beautiful book called Michael Mann (2006) featuring many film stills, production sketches, and behind-the-scenes material. Despite some illuminating observations, the book rather focuses on film aesthetics. Steven Rybin’s elaboration of his master’s thesis called The Cinema of Michael Mann (2007; revised and expanded as Michael Mann: Crime Auteur in 2013) is an advanced exploration of Mann’s movies. Combining the findings of the aforementioned monographs with interviews, newspaper articles, scholarly essays, and film reviews, Rybin manages an astute approach to Mann. His conclusions tend to vary between different scholarly approaches with a slight inclination towards Wildermuth’s research. These two works are indicative of a trend in recent scholarship that mostly manifests itself in the blogosphere, that is, internet sites offering texts written by university researchers about Michael Mann’s motion pictures. Within the spectrum of reviews, articles, and essays on the filmmaker’s works, Jean-Baptiste Thoret’s essay The Aquarium Syndrome (2000) still proves most influential. Using Baudrillard’s vocabulary and singling out masculine isolation from Mann’s many key concepts, he argues that the films’ steel and glass aesthetics represent a postmodern world that hinders human relations. As one example of this reading, Omar Ahmed’s essay The Films of Michael Mann (2009) connects Mann’s movies with earlier genre films, yet draws conclusions harking back to Baudrillard’s theories. In the same vein, Ivo Ritzer’s article “Kino-Auge/Video-Bilder” (2011) refers to both Thoret and Baudrillard in the analysis of high definition cinema in Mann’s movies. Indicative of this latest doctrine, Wildermuth even goes so far as to assert that his “method… is the best way to do justice to these films.”3 Vincent M. Gaine chooses a different and thought provoking approach in his Existentialism and Social Engagement in the Films of Michael Mann (2011). His main concern lies with the difficulties Mann’s

3 Wildermuth 2005, 10.

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protagonists face in aligning their “existential guiding ethic, …a personally decided code of conduct”, with their “social roles within the world of the film”.4 Gaine bases his assessment on existential philosophy and crime fiction that was developed during the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.5 Assuming that “it is likely [that Mann] encountered these philosophies” while studying English Literature, Gaine argues that “Mann’s films are best illuminated by existentialism”.6 Interestingly enough, at a cursory glance, there appear to be similarities between Gaine’s behavioral concept of the existential guiding ethic and what this essay will call a professional work ethic. Yet his frame of reference is restricted to the existentialist philosophy of the early 20th century, while this essay will show that Mann makes use of an older and broader tradition. Jonathan Rayner’s The Cinema of Michael Mann – Vice and Vindication (2013) deals with genre, masculinity, American art cinema, Mann’s visual style, and his status as commercial auteur. Stemming from discussions with students and colleagues, it covers a variety of topics. The Philosophy of Michael Mann (2014), edited by Steven Sanders, Aeon J. Skoble, and R. Barton Palmer, offers stimulating essays by numerous authors on existentialist ideas, the aesthetics of horror, Mann’s visual style, and the critique of corporate America. However, despite some of the authors’ claim that none but their respective approach is valid, I have difficulty concurring with the postmodern or existentialist assessments. While this essay adopts many a good observation from these studies, the conclusions presented here often diverge. Therefore, this treatise would like to suggest a different angle on Mann’s movies, focusing on the recurring character: the professional.7 It will concentrate on five of Mann’s twelve movies in chronological order: Thief (1981), Manhunter (first released in 1986, the director’s cut in 2003), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Heat (1995), and Collateral (2004). This paper will attempt to show that Mann’s protagonists can be situated in a longstanding cultural tradition which is thoroughly intertwined with American history. From the hunter, over 4 Gaine 2011, 1 (emphasis in the original). 5 Cf. Gaine 2011, 4. 6 Gaine 2011, 33, 28. 7 Gaine acknowledges the protagonists’ professionalism, skill, experience, and

discipline, but regards these aspects as absorbed in their existential guiding ethic, cf. Gaine 2011, 57, 89, 100.

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the Westerner, to the gangster, genuinely American archetypes and their mythical variants are still traceable in the main characters of Mann’s films.8 Tapping historical, aesthetic, and generic traditions, his motion pictures feature rich layers of meaning. The different levels of reception, repetition, and variation should be laid bare to achieve a thorough understanding of Mann’s oeuvre. Focusing on the professional, this essay takes a first step in this direction.

Still, the assessment of Mann’s experts requires certain preliminaries. While the notion of professionalism has an official quality to it, many of Mann’s protagonists are criminals. Nevertheless, secondary literature frequently labels them professionals.9 Hence, this notion does not seem to be limited to formal schooling. Rather, there appears to be an underlying consent about what constitutes professionalism. Thus, one may ask what its core meaning is, and how it manifests itself in Mann’s works. To this end, it will be necessary to point out typical features of professionalism that are consistent over time. Such a list can be obtained by analyzing factual and fictional persons from literature and film, since they can be regarded as indicators of cultural currents. These hallmarks will provide a backdrop against which Mann’s characters will later be put into perspective. Hence, this treatise will follow a tripartite structure. The first main part develops characteristics of professionalism in the American cultural context from colonial times to the present. The second main part applies these findings to Mann’s oeuvre, allowing for a thorough analysis of his protagonists. As the third main part, the conclusion will summarize the findings. Within the first main part, consulting the Oxford English Dictionary, the first chapter will show professionalism in its historical development and demonstrate that the term ‘professional’ is not sufficiently defined. Since Mann’s protagonists are exclusively male, the second chapter will address the relation of gender and vocational status in the United States of America. To create a list of professional features, the third chapter will deal with factual and fictional people in American literature. Starting with Cotton Mather and Benjamin Franklin as representatives of colonial and early republican America, we can identify their methodology as a first hallmark of professionalism. After 8 Cf. Rayner 2013, 4. 9 Cf., in chronological order, Kiefer 1997, 118–120; Seeßlen 1999, 260, 262; Borri

2000, 31; Davies 2001, 3; Steensland 2002, 51; James 2002, 30; Wildermuth 2005, 65; Duncan/Feeney 2006, 81, 99; Rybin 2007, 172; Rayner 2013, 1; Arnett 2014, 26; Skrodzka 2014, 212; Sternitt 2014, 79.

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a brief assessment at the cult of the self-made man in the fourth chapter and its literary critique in The Great Gatsby (1925) and Abasalom, Absalom! (1936) in the fifth chapter, the bulk of the first main part will focus on fictional renderings of professionalism in literature. The analysis of Owen Wister’s The Virginian (1902), Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) and Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (1939) will concentrate on the protagonist’s method, their particular skill, their work ethic, and their relation to people, especially women.

Besides literature, movies can also be regarded as an indicator of cultural sentiments. Hence, the final chapter of the first main part briefly portrays and analyzes the professionals in Westerns and films about cops and killers, since these genres are relevant for the five motion pictures of Mann’s that were chosen for this essay. The analysis will address the same considerations as in the study of the literary persons. These findings will serve as a backdrop for the analysis of Michael Mann’s films. A common criticism regarding the filmmaker’s opus aims at his supposed favoring of style over content. Given that we are dealing with a visual work of art, the objection never ceases to be astounding. Partly in defense of Mann’s style, partly to stress the argumentation, this paper will therefore also address the film aesthetics whenever it benefits the given analysis. The second main part begins with Thief (1981), portraying in detail Mann’s first cinematic professional named Frank. Harking back to film noir, gangster and heist movies, and the archetypal American loner hero, the motion picture places the main character in a series of cultural and cinematic traditions. Within the filmmaker’s oeuvre, Frank is the generic forefather to McCauley in Heat and Vincent in Collateral. Similar to the literary and cinematic professionals, Frank has difficulty aligning his vocational credo with his private life. After a brief portrayal of Mann’s first establishment of his future signature antagonism in The Keep (1983), the second chapter will show this narrative model at work in Manhunter (1986) in which the FBI profiler Graham pursues the sociopathic serial killer Dolarhyde. A range of aesthetic strategies visualizing their respective mental process reveals them as doppelgangers and lays bare the detrimental effects Graham’s empathetic investigative method has on his family. The third chapter on The Last of the Mohicans (1992) portrays Hawkeye, the spiritual forefather to all of Mann’s individualistic protagonists. Stressing rather social than racial issues, the cinematic adaption of James Fenimore Cooper’s novel depicts the hunter hero as the decisive factor in a period of time that was crucial for America’s self-awareness as an independent

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nation. Tapping visual strategies employed in ideology, art, and landscaping, Mann portrays an opposition between Europe and The New World in which Hawkeye emerges as the proper American hero and model professional. Dealing with Heat (1995), the fourth chapter analyzes the antagonism between detective Hanna and the safecracker McCauley whose private lives suffer from their vocational doctrine. Featuring traces of the Westerner, the gangster, and the hunter, the men take the concept of professionalism to its acme within the director’s oeuvre. In terms of its narrative, aesthetics, and characters, the neo-noir epic takes up almost any theme developed in previous movies, making it Mann’s magnum opus. The final chapter of the second main part explores the clash of a professional killer and a common cab driver in Collateral (2004). Showing an antagonism off kilter, Mann varies his signature narrative technique to achieve an unheard-of critique of his professional protagonist.

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2 Professionalism: Its Historical Development and Its Literary and Cinematic Renderings

2.1 The Historical Development of Professionalism in America

The lemma “professional” in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) starts with the original sense “1. Pertaining to or marking entrance to a religious order.” and continues with the derived meaning “2. Pertaining to, proper to, or connected with a or one’s profession or calling,” that is, it follows the historical development from religious to secular connotations. It then defines being professional as “3. Engaged in one of the learned or skilled professions, or in a calling considered socially superior to a trade or handicraft. professional (middle) class, members of the learned and skilled professions regarded collectively,” which tends to a higher education. The OED also states the opposite between a professional cricketer, musician, etc., and a pastime amateur under 4.a. These definitions mirror a historical development of the notion of professionalism in the US, which from colonial times until the beginning of the 19th century knew only three branches of gentlemanly professions: divinity, law, and medicine. From the 1830s on, however, eleven to thirteen new professions were introduced. From this point on, the middle classes encountered a business culture with the “novel possibility of gaining status through work.”10 Professionalization coincided with industrial capitalism. Centralization in urban areas after the American Revolution further increased the public acceptance of professions as a fulltime means of earning a livelihood.11 New markets called for new services which in turn created new professions.12 In the American meritocratic society, no arbitrary distinctions such as birthright or legacy could be upheld.13 Moreover, President Andrew Jackson’s doctrine of a ‘natural’ and uncontrolled economy struck a blow at the traditional authority.14 Such a liberal society assists the idea of experts because a person’s skill, not his background, is the decisive factor in obtaining a job. Here, the basic paradox lies in the difference between the granted political

10 Larson 1977, 5, her emphasis. 11 Cf. Larson 1977, 4–13; Haskell 1984, 6. 12 Cf. Larson 1977, 57–58. 13 Cf. Cawelti 1965, 12. 14 Cf. Weiss 1969, 29–30.

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and legal equality on the one hand, and an economic or social inequality on the other.15 Since mass education had become both available and necessary to facilitate success, any social differences were explained with a person’s respective ability and motivation or lack thereof.16 By applying Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution to human affairs, Herbert Spencer seemingly justified these inequalities with the idea of ‘Social Darwinism’.17 Hence, in Owen Wister’s The Virginian (1902), one of the eponymous hero’s main arguments with Molly is about his belief in the equality of any given situation, and his own quality in confronting it. Molly’s Eastern egalitarian attitude still showing traces of a European “cut-and-dried aristocracy” finally yields to the Virginian’s “true aristocracy” that has been shaped by real American circumstances.18 In fact, the stated paradox between political equality and social inequality had two consequences: First, average people were secluded from seats of power or authority. In this manner, the majority of Mann’s characters cannot be called average since their actions are exceptional. Second, chief importance was placed on education as a guarantee of a standard of expertise. These educational credentials, however, still come in the form of university degrees, since word-of-mouth testimonials or trial employments are out of the question.19 From the time when “professionalism first took on consciousness after the Civil War,…more than three hundred occupations” had been created, wrote Jethro K. Lieberman in 1970 before the advent of personal computers and the internet, which has spawned some more professions such as the web designer, the system administrator, and so forth.20 Today, the notion and necessity of professionals has been accepted and it shapes Western culture.21 In this essay, the terms professional, expert, and specialist will be used synonymously. However, this concept of experts does not apply to all of Michael Mann’s or the literary and cinematic protagonists. Although they are labeled professionals, many of them cannot be called so according to the definitions just given because they either never attended university, or

15 Cf. Haskell 1984, 32. 16 Cf. Haskell 1984, 37; Cawelti 1965, 173. 17 Cf. Conlin 1991, 369. 18 Slotkin 1992, 176–179. 19 Cf. Haskell 1984, 16, 39, 53–54. 20 Lieberman 1970, 7. 21 Cf. Lieberman 1970, 54.

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because they pursue criminal activities for which no certified education exists. Rather, it adheres to the underlying assumption that the protagonists follow a certain routine that marks them as specialist. This idea finds its traces in the OED under the entry as late as 4.d. which reads “Reaching a standard or having the quality expected of a professional person in his work; competent in the manner of a professional.” This notion is somewhat extended under the lemma “professionalism” saying “1. Professional quality, character, method, or conduct; the stamp of a particular profession.” This is one of the crucial criteria common to all of the literary or filmic characters presented in this essay: They live their private and occupational lives in pursuance of a method to which they subordinate anything else. Therefore, the university teacher turned dynamiter named Robert Jordan in Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), a diligent cowpuncher such as the Virginian, and a thief like McCauley in Mann’s Heat can all be called professionals because they adhere to a discipline for a living.22

In summary, from colonial times to the present, the term ‘professionalism’ has developed from the initial three upper-class fields of divinity, law, and medicine into several hundred areas of expertise today. With the American Revolution and a liberal economic system, the US has evolved into a society that features social inequality and thus favors specialists. Professionalism, however, is not so much limited to official schooling or a legal job, but it is rather based on an experienced behavior that gives away the person’s methodical approach to life. As Mann’s criminal protagonists are also labeled professionals, a common sense seems to exist about the nature of a professional. However, that idea is not perfectly expressed in the OED. This observation is backed up by Thomas L. Haskell, who asserts that “there is no general consensus on what the word ‘profession’ refers to, what occupations and types of occupation it addresses.”23 Since it appears that, today, the formerly highly specific term professional has been expanded to a blur by means of colloquialization, it will be fruitful to create a list of features professional people have in common. For such a list, we will have a look at historical and fictional persons from literature and film in the chapters after the next. But first, another issue needs attention.

22 Cf. Rayner 2013, 9. 23 Haskell 1984, 5.

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2.2 The Historical Development of Concepts of Masculinity in America

In Mann’s oeuvre, all of the main characters are male, while women only have supporting roles.24 These men are also working males.25 Moreover, given the assumption that the protagonists are predominantly also professionals26�and the women are not�the subject at hand raises questions about the coincidence of gender and vocational status. In addition, Mann’s movies are set in different epochs, yet certain similarities in the characters’ behavior are consistent. Thus, an examination of the intertwined concepts of masculinity and professionalism in American cultural history should reveal a background against which Mann’s protagonists can be put into perspective. The following chapter will treat notions of masculinity and professionalism from colonial days to the present.

In 17th century New England, church, state, and family were governed by men. The nuclear family was seen as the heart of every household.27 Yet women also had some power. They “were in charge of work in the house, barn, and garden, including the making of food and clothing. Women also did charitable work and played roles in their communities.” However, “[m]ale household heads managed the family’s crops and livestock, conducted most of its business transactions, and represented it in town government.”28 The family members obeyed the father who in turn owed them benevolent rule. However, this altruistic ideal of mutual duty was threatened by the actual male practice of self-assertion in terms of laying claim to land further west, founding new settlements, or warfare with the native peoples.29 Moreover, fewer Puritan children joined the elect because they were reluctant to publicly speak about the conversion experience.30 Hence, the end of the 17th century saw the New England Way

24 Without scrutinizing the reasons, Gaine just states that “Mann simply does

not make films about women“: 2011, 40. Cf. Rayner 2013, 6. 25 Cf. Skrodzka 2014, 201. 26 Cf. Rayner 2013, 65. 27 Cf. Boyer et al. 2004, 60. 28 Boyer et al. 2004, 61. 29 Cf. Rotundo 1993, 10–15. 30 Cf. Boyer et al. 2004, 61.