Michael Mann’s debut holds up superbly. It pulsates with fully-evolved stylistic originality, and shows that Mann in many ways took up where Coppola left off with The Conversation. James Caan leans a bit heavily on his Sonny Corleone deliveries at first, but settles into a subtler groove balancing lean cool, pathos, and a def humour. Robert Prosky is awesomely slimy as his Mafia sponsor. Mann virtually owns the genre of modern noir, and this film is a vital work in the creation of modern cinema style, in the best sense. Pity about the rather throwaway shoot-out at the end.
