Terry's Reviews
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| Movies | Music | Books |
Book Reviews: |
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The Pocket Essentials – Michael Mann Written by Mark Steensland Trafalgar Square Publishing |
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| I really got a kick out of this tiny little book
that chronicles Michael Mann’s career. I leaned a lot about Mann I didn’t know
before. I liked the format Mark Steensland chose to use, breaking down each film’s
credits, describing the story of each movie, the research Michael Mann did and the
critical/audience response. Mark Steensland has obviously done his homework as he takes you back to the beginning of Michael Mann’s career and then covers every film he’s made since. I also enjoyed his ranking of every film and why he placed it where he did on the Michael Mann Rank List. It was great hearing about how Mann’s first film TV movie JERICHO MILE came about. I remember how much I loved that film when I saw it on TV as a teenager. Steensland’s keen analysis of THE KEEP has made me want to see the film again (I saw it in the theaters when it first came out) and I agree that THE INSIDER is Michael Mann’s best film. Steensland really gets into the details of THE INSIDER and how years of hard detailed work Mann put into that film paid off. HEAT of course is another masterpiece and you would be wise to read Steensland’s break down of what makes HEAT work. I didn’t realize it was Mann’s second attempt at telling the story because he had made a TV movie called LA TAKEDOWN that was based on the same story. I also didn’t realize that Michael Mann didn’t create MIAMI VICE. He served as the show’s executive producer and brought his sense of style to the show. I think the small size of the book is really neat because it allows you to carry to book virtually anywhere and doesn’t take up a lot of space to store it. |
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