Arguably one of the greatest decades in modern cinema history, the 2000s produced such critically adored fare as Mulholland Drive, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, There Will Be Blood and Lost in Translation. One film, however, that was sadly overlooked when critics compiled their ‘best of’ lists at the close of the first decade of the 21st century, was director Michael Mann’s 2004 gritty Los Angeles crime thriller Collateral.
Sandwiched awkwardly in between Tom Cruise’s more high-profile blockbuster hits The Last Samurai (2003) and Spielberg collaboration War of the Worlds (2005), Michael Mann’s eighth feature following the commercial disappointment Ali (2001) was released to respectable reviews (currently sits at 86% on Rotten Tomatoes) and decent box office ($217.8 million worldwide), but its status and critical discussion has long since waned in the popular consciousness in recent years.
Originating from an idea by screenwriter Stuart Beattie (appropriately dreamed up in the back of a Australian taxi cab) that gradually developed into a spec script entitled ‘The Last Domino’, the film follows a mild-mannered but unambitious cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) who finds himself the hostage of a sadistic contract killer Vincent (Tom Cruise) as he makes his rounds from hit to hit during a single night in Los Angeles.
Sitting in the spotless back passenger seat of Max’s cab, Vincent bleakly remarks “I read about this guy, gets on the MTA here, dies. Six hours he’s riding the subway before anybody notices his corpse doing laps around L.A., people on and off sitting next to him. Nobody notices.” The film explores this existential metaphor in great depth, culminating in an ironic payoff that simultaneously challenges and reinforces the bitter nihilism of Vincent’s worldview.
Collateral almost made it to the screen in separate iterations with Russell Crowe and Adam Sandler featuring in the lead roles of Vincent and Max respectively. At one point, Robert De Niro was mooted for the role of Max (a not-so-subtle nod to Taxi Driver) but was deemed too old by the studio.
The two central performances are impressively well-matched and Foxx was deservedly awarded with an Oscar-nomination for Best Supporting Actor (he won the same year for his role in music biopic Ray). However, for me, it is the silvery-haired Cruise who stands out, turning in one of his most nuanced and austere performances, and it’s a shame that Oscar contention wasn’t more forthcoming during the awards season that year. In addition, when considering his subsequent filmography, it’s lamentable that Cruise hasn’t elected to go for more roles that utilise his talent for playing antiheroes (the critically and commercially-neglected Lions for Lambs being a forgettable exception).
The jazz club sequence in which Vincent politely intimidates the owner Daniel (Barry Shabaka Henley) in conversation gives Cruise an opportunity to indulge his talent for projecting a smooth charisma concealing a deep bubbling menace beneath and the dramatic sparring between Cruise and Shabaka is one of the film’s highlights.
As with his previous crime thriller, the operatic and neo-noir Heat, Mann revels in the neon grandeur and grit of nocturnal Los Angeles and the cinematography by Dion Beebe and Paul Cameron utilises the Viper FilmStream High-Definition Camera (making its feature film debut) to striking and hypnotic effect. Mann’s camera uses natural light hovering effortlessly above soaring skyscrapers and empty freeways, bleakly depicting the moral ambiguity of the metropolitan landscape that Max and Vincent inhabit.
One of the film’s highpoints is the gripping and propulsive nightclub sequence, in which Max and Vincent find themselves engulfed in the midst of strobed gunfire, energetically soundtracked by English DJ Paul Oakenfold’s Ready Steady Go and shot in spectacular 35mm.
One element of Mann’s films that is celebrated is his decision use real gunshot sounds in order to depict authenticity rather than employing the use of Hollywood sound. Collateral also enables Mann to indulge his gift for selecting incongruous but effective music to soundtrack his films and this is all too evident film weaves deftly through such varied artists as Bach, Miles Davis, Groove Armadaand Audioslave.
I very much doubt that Collateral will feature significantly when the career histories of Jamie Foxx, Tom Cruise and Michael Mann are written. What is undeniable, however, is that it is a solidly crafted thriller by a director interest more concerned with the bleak inner existentialism of his two central characters than the throwaway, flamboyant set pieces of contemporary multiplex fare.
