In Michael Manns 1995 crime epic Heat, Robert De Niros career criminal Neil McCauley sits across from Al Pacinos detective Vincent Hanna at an L.A. diner and recites for him his personal and professional mantra: Allow nothing to be in your life that you cannot walk out on in thirty seconds flat if you spot the heat coming around the corner. Its a great scene, arguably the best in the entire movie; more than that, however, its also an inadvertently perfect distillation of Manns rigorously disciplined and unhurried approach to moviemaking. To date, Mann has only directed eleven theatrical films - the latest, Blackhat, has just been released in the US. Thats a shockingly low number of films for a director as revered as Mann, but in today's pop culture scene, where quantity all too easily tends to outshine quality, there's something refreshingly old school about a guy like Mann taking his sweet old time on each project, getting each and every scene exactly as he wants it before allowing the rest of the world to lay eyes on his baby. With Blackout now out in theaters, it seems as appropriate a time as ever to take a look back over Michael Manns brief yet formidable filmography. Here are all eleven of Manns theatrical features, ranked from his absolute worst to his very best.
