Michael Mann is one of the most important American filmmakers of the
past forty years. His films exhibit the existential concerns of art
cinema, articulated through a conspicuous and recognizable visual style
and yet integrated within classical Hollywood narrative and genre
frameworks. Since his beginnings as a screenwriter in the 1970s, Mann
has become a key figure within contemporary American popular culture as
writer, director, and producer for film and television. This volume
offers a detailed study of Mann's feature films, from The Jericho Mile
(1979) to Public Enemies (2009), with consideration also being given
to parallels in the production, style, and characterization in his
television work. It explores Mann's relationship with classical genres,
his thematic concentration on issues of morality and masculinity, his
film adaptations from literature, and the development and significance
of his trademark visual style within modern American cinema.