Time is Luck

Time is Luck: The Cinema of Michael Mann approaches director Michael Mann’s work through the lens of transformations in labour practices, technologies of seeing, and strategies of dissent over the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Applying extensive textual analysis to each of Mann’s features, this study explores how these transformations are reflected in the filmmaker’s output, formally and thematically. As much as Mann expresses anguish at the pervasive nature of technologically advanced systems which exist to exploit the common man, curtail civil liberties, and prop up corrupt regimes, there always remains space for protest and resistance in his cinema. This aspect of Mann’s art is essential to keep in mind and is too often ignored: the filmmaker being accused of nihilism or anti-humanism.

This book covers all of Mann’s major films, with extensive critical commentaries, while comparing and contrasting the styles, the characters and the themes. An essential read for all fans of Mann’s work, and those interested in the textual and visual history of the very best that cinema can offer.

Includes analyis of: The Jericho Mile (1979); Thief (1981); The Keep (1983); Manhunter (1986); The Last of the Mohicans (1992); Heat (1995); The Insider (1999); Ali (2001); Collateral (2004); Miami Vice (2006); Public Enemies (2009); Blackhat (2015).