{"id":119974,"date":"2020-11-25T11:25:11","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T08:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/31-things-we-learned-from-michael-manns-collateral-commentary\/"},"modified":"2020-11-25T11:25:11","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T08:25:11","slug":"31-things-we-learned-from-michael-manns-collateral-commentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/31-things-we-learned-from-michael-manns-collateral-commentary\/","title":{"rendered":"#31 Things We Learned from Michael Mann&#8217;s &#8216;Collateral&#8217; Commentary"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2d7e362fc1f\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2d7e362fc1f\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/31-things-we-learned-from-michael-manns-collateral-commentary\/#Collateral_2004\" >Collateral (2004)<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/31-things-we-learned-from-michael-manns-collateral-commentary\/#Best_in_Context-Free_Commentary\" >Best in Context-Free Commentary<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/31-things-we-learned-from-michael-manns-collateral-commentary\/#Final_Thoughts_on_%E2%80%98Collateral\" >Final Thoughts on \u2018Collateral\u2019<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#31 Things We Learned from Michael Mann&#8217;s &#8216;Collateral&#8217; Commentary<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\">\n                <\/aside>\n<p><!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 3.7.8--><i data-stringify-type=\"italic\">Welcome to\u00a0<\/i><b data-stringify-type=\"bold\"><i data-stringify-type=\"italic\">Commentary Commentary,<\/i><\/b><i data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> where we sit and listen to filmmakers talk about their work, then share the most interesting parts. In this edition, Rob Hunter finally gets off his ass and watches Michael Mann\u2019s Collateral..<\/i><em>. and then rewatching it im<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>tely after with the commentary track on<\/em>.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p>I\u2019m not sure why I\u2019ve taken sixteen years to watch Michael Mann\u2019s <em>Collateral<\/em>, but I assume it has something to do with how ridiculous and\/or ugly <em>Miami Vice<\/em> (2006), <em>Public Enemies<\/em> (2009),and <em>Blackhat<\/em> (2015) are. You know it\u2019s true. Anyway, it took the arrival of Mann\u2019s hitman drama on 4K UltraHD to get me to give it a spin, and good goddamn is <em>Collateral<\/em> a fantastic film. It\u2019s a gorgeous exploration of Los Angeles at night with arguably Tom Cruise\u2019s finest performance, and it\u2019s easily among Mann\u2019s best films.<\/p>\n<p>The new disc also includes a commentary by Mann, so keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary track for <em>Collateral<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"graf graf--h3\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Collateral_2004\"><\/span>Collateral (2004)<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"graf graf--p\">Commentator: Michael Mann (director)<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf graf--p\"><strong>1.<\/strong> One of the big reasons why he chose to make <em>Collateral<\/em> was the way Stuart Beattie\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">script<\/a> captures an entire story in a very short period of time. The whole movie is \u201clike the third act of a traditional drama.\u201d He likes how it doesn\u2019t go backward to offer more detail into these characters\u2019 lives, and instead we\u2019re just catching them at this moment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2.<\/strong> Cab drivers described their back seats like a radio station with a randomized tuner in that you never know what\u2019s gonna end up playing out back there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3.<\/strong> He intended the opening montage with Max (Jamie Foxx) to show off Los Angeles\u2019 specific diversity in \u2014 \u201ca Pac-Rim, Hispanic, Los Angeles way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>4.<\/strong> One of the brief faces we see early on belongs to Manny Urrego who, as an ex limo driver himself, helped Mann by providing spreadsheets and a complete business plan for Max\u2019s limousine company.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5.<\/strong> The sequence with Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith) in the cab was shot with a Sony F900 high-definition video camera. \u201c\u201dIf we were shooting film, you wouldn\u2019t see any definition of the images behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>6.<\/strong> The script for <em>Collateral<\/em> was originally written to take place in New York City, but he had been wanting to shoot an LA-set film taking place at night. The original also featured the Russian mob.<\/p>\n<p><strong>7.<\/strong> It\u2019s not explicitly spelled out in the film, but Mann says it\u2019s intended that Vincent (Tom Cruise) has been contacted and hired through a tangled network of ex-KGB, ex-Stasi, and cartels who \u201chave the best of computer technicians, signal-intercept capabilities, to run sophisticated counter intel\u201d to discover any pending investigations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>8.<\/strong> Heads up haters. Mann refers to Cruise as \u201caverage size.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>9.<\/strong> He mentions during one of the film\u2019s many overhead shots that they were \u201conly possible with high-definition video.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>10.<\/strong> Vincent is being intentionally rude upon first entering Max\u2019s cab, but it\u2019s not because he\u2019s a jerk \u2014 he\u2019s testing Max to see if he\u2019s a man with an aggressive streak. Had he been, Vincent would have quickly changed cabs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>11.<\/strong> Mann imagines that Vincent lives offshore in \u201ca domicile that\u2019s maybe inUttahorn Province in Thailand or Songkhla\u2026 a Buddhist country where people leave everybody else alone a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>12.<\/strong> Mann used Cary Grant\u2019s performance in <em>His Girl Friday<\/em> (1940) \u2014 which he refers to as <em>Front Page<\/em>, the name of the play it\u2019s based upon \u2014 \u201cin preparation for Vincent\u2019s use of irony, his droll wit, and his facile nihilism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>13.<\/strong> The apartment where Vincent kills his first target is essentially as they found it. The crew only added a big screen television, although Mann doesn\u2019t say if they left the TV as a parting gift.<\/p>\n<p><strong>14.<\/strong> He\u2019s unsure if anyone will care, but Mann points out during the long scene in the cab after Max realizes Vincent is a killer that \u201cfor myself, I have to know exactly what a scene is trying to do, and I believe that I should be able to distill that into one simple set of words called \u2018the action.&#8217;\u201d For this scene that boils down to answering \u201cwhat does Vincent want?\u201d with the answer being that he needs \u201cto manage Max.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>15.<\/strong> Cruise trained for roughly three months on the LA County Sheriff\u2019s combat shooting ranges, and it was apparently his first time with live rounds. Surprising exactly no one, Mann adds that \u201cTom is extraordinarily skilled at everything athletic that he tries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>16.<\/strong> He and Cruise worked out where exactly Vincent came from, and while nearly none of it is mentioned in the film their collaborative backstory is pretty detailed. \u201cIf he was in a foster home for part of his childhood, and he was back in public school at age 11, that would have been sometime in the 70s. He would have been dressed very awkwardly. He would\u2019ve probably been ostracized \u2019cause he\u2019d have looked odd. We postulated an alcoholic, abusive father who was culturally very progressive, he was probably part of Ed Sadlowski\u2019s Steelworkers Local, he was a Vietnam veteran, he had friends who were African-American on the South side of Chicago. The Checkerboard Lounge is thirty minutes away on the Calumet Skyway. The father was probably an aficionado of jazz. There was a great jazz scene on the South side of Chicago, but it\u2019s almost as if the father blamed the son for what happened to the mother. The father never tutored the boy in jazz\u2026\u201d And so on.<\/p>\n<p><strong>17.<\/strong> The scene in the jazz club is a metaphor of sorts for <em>Collateral<\/em>\u2018s themes with Max\u2019s inability to improvise being chief among them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>18.<\/strong> \u201cThere\u2019s a stillness to the depth of which Tom is into the moment,\u201d he says regarding the scene at 44:15 with Vincent and Max at the table with Daniel in the jazz club. He adds that he admires Cruise\u2019s acting skill here and that he\u2019s \u201cso economically. completely in the moment.\u201d That stillness fractures for the first time after he shoots Daniel. \u201cAnd there\u2019s a paroxysm of regret. That\u2019s the first anomaly to the perfect, machine-like presentation we\u2019ve had from Vincent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>19.<\/strong> Lenny the taxi company dispatcher is voiced by Michael Waxman, <em>Collateral<\/em>\u2018s First Assistant Director. He read them offscreen with the intention of having an actor perform them properly later, but \u201cwe couldn\u2019t find a voice as wonderfully kind of annoying as Michael\u2019s voice can be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>20.<\/strong> Max\u2019s mom is played by Irma P. Hall who they discovered was from a small Texas town very near to Foxx\u2019s own home town. They compared notes and realized they knew some of the same people.<\/p>\n<p><strong>21.<\/strong> \u201cThis night we had elaborate security precautions,\u201d he says regarding the filming of the sequence on the footbridge outside the hospital. Apparently the whole area is \u201chotly contested\u201d by opposing gangs on either side of the freeway.<\/p>\n<p><strong>22.<\/strong> \u201cI view music as telling different parts of the story,\u201d he says, adding that he equates it to having multiple characters with varied perspectives.<\/p>\n<p><strong>23.<\/strong> He knew immediately upon hearing Audioslave\u2019s \u201cShadow on the Sun\u201d with Chris Cornell\u2019s vocals that he wanted it for the scene in the cab where Vincent and Max see the coyotes trotting through the downtown intersection.<\/p>\n<p><strong>24.<\/strong> Fever, the club in the film, is a real club actually named Bliss. The characters enter at the real location, but the interior was filmed on a set built to handle the large number of extras and facilitate the impending action.<\/p>\n<p><strong>25.<\/strong> Foxx was supposed to drive forward at 1:25:24 with his door open and have it hit the parked cars, but the door closed so he just swerved the cab itself into the cars instead.<\/p>\n<p><strong>26.<\/strong> Mann views the cab ride after the club shooting as <em>Collateral<\/em>\u2018s pivotal scene. \u201cMax, for the first time, is seeing beyond the end of the gun, and is seeing Vincent for who Vincent is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>27.<\/strong> The cab stunt when Max rams it into the concrete wall and flips the car was captured in a single take with the car coming to a stop exactly where they planned. He thought it looked \u201ctoo violent\u201d though and did two more takes, but they ended up using the first take footage anyway.<\/p>\n<p><strong>28.<\/strong> He points out several shots in <em>Collateral<\/em> that wouldn\u2019t have been possible on 35mm film including the one at 1:38:37 \u2014 a closeup of Vincent in the office that shifts focus to reveal Max on the parking garage rooftop across the street. \u201cMax would either be not exposed at all, and\/or he would not be able to carry the focus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>29.<\/strong> That parking garage rooftop belongs to the Secret Service, and it was a long haul convincing them to let the film shoot up there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>30.<\/strong> As meticulous of a filmmaker as he is, Mann loves unplanned beats including the one where Vincent throws the chair into the glass and tries to jump over it \u2014 only to fall on it instead.<\/p>\n<p><strong>31.<\/strong> When Vincent repeats the bit about a man dying on the MTA and no one noticing, he\u2019s actually asking \u201c\u2018Will anybody note that once upon a time I was here?\u2019, and he\u2019s sincere.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"graf graf--h3\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Best_in_Context-Free_Commentary\"><\/span>Best in Context-Free Commentary<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"graf graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote\">\u201cI start with a question as a storyteller and filmmaker, how should this story tell itself?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the hardest things for an actor to play is indecision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe local gang, which is the 18th Street gang, provided the graffiti on the walls here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnderstanding Vincent doesn\u2019t let him off the hook.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA couple other of these guys playing security guards are some folks we got on a work-release program from LA County jail.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"graf graf--h3\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Final_Thoughts_on_%E2%80%98Collateral\"><\/span>Final Thoughts on \u2018Collateral\u2019<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"graf graf--p\"><em>Collateral<\/em> is a brilliant thriller, and Mann\u2019s commentary is informative to the extreme. It sounds almost as if the track is actually spliced together from two sources \u2014 the volume and tenor of his voice change on occasion \u2014 but he speaks throughout the film on all aspects of its production. Mann occasionally dips into technical jargon regarding his camera choices and such, and he offers praise for his performers, but the bulk of his commentary sees him exploring the story and character motivations. It\u2019s a fantastic listen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf graf--p\">Read more Commentary Commentary from the archives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/michael-mann-collateral-commentary\/#utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=michael-mann-collateral-commentary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#31 Things We Learned from Michael Mann&#8217;s &#8216;Collateral&#8217; Commentary&#8221; Welcome to\u00a0Commentary Commentary, where we sit and listen to filmmakers talk about their work, then share the most interesting parts. In this edition, Rob Hunter finally gets off his ass and watches Michael Mann\u2019s Collateral&#8230; and then rewatching it immediately after with the commentary track on&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/collateral.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[81699,22447,25718],"class_list":["post-119974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-collateral","tag-commentary-commentary","tag-michael-mann"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}