What Did Quentin Tarantino Say About Michael Mann's Movies?

One of the things I love about the Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary podcast, The Video Archives, is that you get that unfiltered movie-geek talk. and sometimes, you get to hear what each of them thinks of a person or a movie.

Recently, a quote from Tarantino from a back episode went viral with Tarantino talking about Michael Mann.

Let's unpack it.

If you didn't read the multiple tweets, here's the full quote below:

"Michael Mann's movies only work when he is dealing with the 20th century. I think there is particularly something about Mann doing crime stories. I think there is something a little lost when he is not doing a crime story, with the exception of 'The Insider' (1999)- which they try to make as much like a crime story as they possibly can."

A lot of people took this as a slight on Mann, but I think it's another case of an out of context tweet that can be cleared up if you actually listen to Tarantino's whole thought.

I don't think he is intentionally trashing Mann movies not set in the 20th century revolving around crime—I think what he means to do is laud the crime movies and talk about how much they mean.

The reason I believe that is that Tarantino has been well-documented at praising Michael Mann.

In another episode of the podcast, Tarantino said of Mann, “When Michael Mann came out with Thief with James Caan, he blew our minds.” Tarantino continued, “It was like roll over John Carpenter, tell Walter Hill … there’s a new guy out there on the crime film scene who wrote great, gritty dialogue, he had a wonderful visual sense.”

Tarantino went on to explain: “It was the only one of the crime films that came out within a three-year period that had the same resonance of a crime novel. But also, right from the beginning, he was a stylist, there was an orchestrator involved, there was a director involved.”

Tarantino obviously has a deep connection with Mann's crime work in the way his films are shot and the elevation of the direction. I think he would probably love to see Mann make more of those kinds of movies because he loves them so much.

Again, any kind of worry about appreciation between filmmakers I think is just not understanding the lighthearted, geeky tenor of Tarantino. He's exaggerating because that's what buddies do when they talk movies.

Let me know what you think in the comments.