The professional in Michael Mann’s movies

Michael Mann has been making movies for almost four decades. His signature protagonist is usually a male professional on either side of the law. From solitary experts, over doppelgangers, to antagonists off kilter, Mann explores the topos of professionalism in different genres and epochs. To achieve a thorough understanding of Mann’s professional, Ingo Stelte analyzes the recurring specialist in the five movies Thief, Manhunter, The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, and Collateral and combines cultural and cinematic readings. He lays bare the underlying hallmarks of professionalism in the US that have never been clearly defined. Starting with the Puritan work ethic, over Benjamin Franklin’s virtues, to professionals in American literary and cinematic classics, this treatise reveals characteristics of professionalism that are consistent over time. Against the backdrop of these notions of professionalism, Stelte discovers Mann’s protagonists to follow enduring historical, cultural, and generic traditions. His astute analyses of the five films achieve an in-depth look into Mann’s filmic cosmos that is rounded off with detailed assessments of the movies’ aesthetics. Focusing on Mann’s signature protagonist, Stelte grants illuminating insight into the filmmaker’s oeuvre.