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Michael Mann

Crime Auteur

Steven Rybin

Michael Mann first made his mark as a writer for such television programs as Starsky and Hutch, Police Story, and Vegas. In 1981 he made his feature film directing debut with the James Caan thriller Thief, and in the 1980s he served as a writer and executive producer for the groundbreaking programs Miami Vice and Crime Story. Though he has delved into other genres, Mann’s career as a writer, producer, and director has consistently focused on criminal activity, from small-time hoods and professional thieves to corporate manipulators and serial killers.

In Michael Mann: Crime Auteur, Steven Rybin looks at the television programs and films that Mann has stamped with his personal signature. This book closely examines the themes and techniques used in films such as Manhunter, Heat, The Insider, and Collateral and connects these elements to his work on the non-genre films The Last of the Mohicans and Ali. A revised and significantly expanded edition of The Cinema of Michael Mann (2007), this book includes new chapters on Public Enemies and the big screen version of Miami Vice, as well as Mann’s work on the shows Crime Story and Luck.

Covering Mann’s entire career, this book will be of interest to fans of the writer/director’s body of work as well as to scholars of both film and television.

Scarecrow Press

Pages: 318 • Trim: 6⅜ x 8½

978-0-8108-9083-1 • Hardback • April 2013 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-0-8108-9084-8 • eBook • April 2013 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

Subjects: Performing Arts / Individual Director

Michael Mann

Crime Auteur

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Michael Mann first made his mark as a writer for such television programs as Starsky and Hutch, Police Story, and Vegas. In 1981 he made his feature film directing debut with the James Caan thriller Thief, and in the 1980s he served as a writer and executive producer for the groundbreaking programs Miami Vice and Crime Story. Though he has delved into other genres, Mann’s career as a writer, producer, and director has consistently focused on criminal activity, from small-time hoods and professional thieves to corporate manipulators and serial killers.

In Michael Mann: Crime Auteur, Steven Rybin looks at the television programs and films that Mann has stamped with his personal signature. This book closely examines the themes and techniques used in films such as Manhunter, Heat, The Insider, and Collateral and connects these elements to his work on the non-genre films The Last of the Mohicans and Ali. A revised and significantly expanded edition of The Cinema of Michael Mann (2007), this book includes new chapters on Public Enemies and the big screen version of Miami Vice, as well as Mann’s work on the shows Crime Story and Luck.

Covering Mann’s entire career, this book will be of interest to fans of the writer/director’s body of work as well as to scholars of both film and television.

Details

Scarecrow Press

Pages: 318 • Trim: 6⅜ x 8½

978-0-8108-9083-1 • Hardback • April 2013 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-0-8108-9084-8 • eBook • April 2013 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

Subjects: Performing Arts / Individual Director

Author

Steven Rybin is assistant professor of film at Georgia Gwinnett College. He is the author of The Cinema of Michael Mann (2007) and Terrence Malick and the Thought of Film (2011).

Table of Contents

Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
Chapter One: Beginnings in Television and The Jericho Mile (1979)
Chapter Two: Thief (1981)
Chapter Three: The Keep (1983)
Chapter Four: Miami Vice (The Television Series) (1984-1990)
Chapter Five: Manhunter (1986)
Chapter Six: Crime Story (1986-1988)
Chapter Seven: The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
Chapter Eight: Heat (1995)
Chapter Nine: The Insider (1999)
Chapter Ten: Ali (2001)
Chapter Eleven: Collateral (2004)
Chapter Twelve: Miami Vice (2006)
Chapter Thirteen: Public Enemies (2009)
Conclusion: Luck (2011-2012) and Beyond
Michael Mann Filmography
Notes
Bibliography

Reviews

If you are a fan of any of the films from Michael Mann, or if you are a filmmaker then this book is a must have. If you are a casual movie watcher, or just slightly interested you’d be wise and enriched by reading this book. I highly endorse it.

— Terry R Wickham, Mantaray Pictures, Writer/Producer/Director

His critics have labeled him a superficial stylist; however, Michael Mann and his films are celebrated in Steven Rybin's energetic analysis of the filmmaker in Michael Mann: Crime Auteur. This book continues and expands upon what Rybin initially began with his 2007 book The Cinema of Michael Mann. . . .Rybin's approach to Mann's films is systematic and precise. . . .Furthermore, his enthusiastic approach to the films and television shows, and the care and detail he provides, adds to this optimisim. Rybin's refreshing approach to Mann places the director in the likeness of classic film director titans of past and present.
— Film Matters

His critics have labeled him a superficial stylist; however, Michael Mann and his films are celebrated in Steven Rybin's energetic analysis of the filmmaker in Michael Mann: Crime Auteur. This book continues and expands upon what Rybin initially began with his 2007 book The Cinema of Michael Mann. . . .Rybin's approach to Mann's films is systematic and precise. . . .Furthermore, his enthusiastic approach to the films and television shows, and the care and detail he provides, adds to this optimisim. Rybin's refreshing approach to Mann places the director in the likeness of classic film director titans of past and present.
— Film Matters

Steven Rybin has written an incisive, indispensable account of Michael Mann’s cinema of ideas and visuals in what promises to be the definitive study of this major film and television auteur for years to come.
— Steven Sanders, emeritus professor, department of philosophy, Bridgewater State University

Michael Mann

Crime Auteur

Steven Rybin

Michael Mann

Crime Auteur

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