Lisa Gerrard - Sacrifice from The Insider

The most powerful track from Mann's movie The Insider is that of Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke's Sacrifice. It is so incredibly moving, and I admit to it bringing tears to my eyes on many occasion whilst listening to it. It is used powerfully in The Insider. The beautiful and the tragic are two themes Michael Mann seems to include in his movies, and I feel both these themes are contained in this piece of music too. The concept of sacrifice is often an alien one to our performance orientated, celebrity culture but is the ultimate demonstration of the depth of humanity. It is the concept of sacrifice that sets humanity apart from animals, and challenges the archaic notion of survival of the fittest. The Insider explores this to an extent. Sacrifice is tragic but also beautiful... beautiful because sacrifice is always in service to another but at a cost. What a meaningful end to the movie, when Wigand finally see's his children recognise their father being extolled on television. Dignity is restored after great indignity was suffered. His life finally meant something to him and his children. I would be interested to hear comments about how this track has touched your emotions. Here is Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke playing Sacrifice live for TV:

Michael Mann's The Insider - Favourite scene

It is tough to pull out favourite scenes from any of Mann's movies, as there are so many sublime moments. But the following ranks very highly: What an awesome bit of movie making this is. It is the apex of The Insider, when each character reaches the climax of their respective dilemmas and find a commonality with each other, despite their different backgrounds and personalities. The beach images and atmosphere generated between these two contrasting locations (the hotel) are just superb. Pure genius.

Lisa Gerrard Sanctuary featuring Michael Mann

Lisa Gerrard has long been a Michael Mann favourite for soundtrack composition. I haven't myself seen it yet, but here is a trailer for a documentary made about Lisa Gerrard called, Sanctuary. It features various comments from artists including I believe Michael Mann. If you watch the YouTube clip of the trailer you will understand, if you don't already, how Michael Mann's films are made so evocatively using her unique vocal creativity.



Here are some other snippets to enjoy too!

Requests about Michael Mann

I realize a lot of attention of this blog has been on Mann's movies Heat and The Insider, which are incidentally my two favourite films of Michael Mann. Although there is plenty of other content on this blog, I do intend to widen out the field of movies to write about, including some older material. For all those checking out my blog, feel free to comment on what information you are looking for and I will see what I can post.

Analysis of Heat

Here is Michael Peter's analysis of Heat, which offers some helpful perspectives for anyone interested. I include an extract, but if you want to see the full interview then click here.

By Michael Peters

Nothing sums this up more (in the film) than when Vincent has been called to the scene of a homicide. A prostitute has been murdered and Vincent seems at ease with it (as if he is used to it). It is only when the mother of the murdered girl runs onto the scene that Vincent is left speechless. He does not know how to verbally console the mother nor does he know how to assist her in any other way. He simply stares at her, lost in her cries of agony.

To put it simply; both Vincent and Neil are emotionally fragile individuals. One is a cop and one is a criminal yet they share a common bond in their lack of understanding of how to connect with someone on a personal and emotional level. That is why the coffee shop sequence (where they first meet) is so crucial to the understanding of these men as emotionally aloof human beings. According to Ian Nathan's 2001 Empire Magazine article, this scene is the foundation for the whole film: “On the surface, it is just a superficial conversation-two guys shooting the breeze-but actually it’s the delicate dance of two disparate souls finding a connection”.

Al Pacino and Robert De Niro: Heat - The Conversation

Only now have I come across this brilliant video on YouTube - a clip detailing the legendary scene in Heat, the first onscreen pairing of Pacino and De Niro. This clip features extensive cast interviews, as well as insights into the scene by Michael Mann himself.

Miami Vice Interview

Most interviews with the cast anad director of Miami Vice are similar, but there are one or two interesting snippets to be taken from this one at www.hollywood.com.

Here are my highlights:

HW: Michael, the music was such an integral part of the television show. How important was it for you to maintain that level of authenticity, in terms of the music, with this film?
Mann: Music is always key to me, whether it's Miami Vice or not Miami Vice. It's dictated by the story, about what Crockett and Tubbs and Isabella and Trudy are doing. And, since the movie tries to get into the lives of these folks as intensely as possible, I wanted music that, hopefully, had the power to do that, consequently, the Mogwai and some of the Audioslave. So that's what informed most of those choices.


HW: And he shares some pretty steamy scenes with Gong Li as a woman on the other side of the law – sexy even though not much dialogue between them.
Farrell: Isabella and Crockett are two people who find each other, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, though they're the right people. That's the unfortunate thing about what transpires between the two of them. To quote good ol’ Jerry Maguire, they do kind of complete each other. They are two people that live in very volatile environments. He's on one side of the law and this woman, Isabella, is on the other side of the law, and they come together in what is a very dangerous idea and a very bad idea. The scene they have in Havana, they say at the bar, "You know, this is never going to last. It's never going to work," but they find in each other, in that act of making love, that it's almost overwhelming. It's almost too much to take. Crockett's someone that would have had one night stands, over the years, prolifically, and never be emotionally attached to anyone, and one of the primary reasons would be the work that he involves himself in. But, he finds, with this woman, someone that seems to make complete sense, perfect sense. And so, doing our scene together was just about emotional investment, or emotional realization, in seeing some of yourself--maybe the best of yourself, and none of the worst--in the other person, but there is something quite tragic too it, as well, I suppose.