One more thing about my favorite show.
I waxed rhapsodic about Miami Vice in my last entry, and I’m about to do it again, so be warned.
The short version of the other entry is: I love Miami Vice, especially the endings, and it’s impacted my work significantly. I even coined the phrase “Miami Vice Ending” to reference a climax’s specific tone. To the point where my wife always asks, upon being given a new manuscript to read, “Does this have a Miami Vice Ending?”
It usually does, but don’t hold it against me. I am a product of my influences, as are all writers and artists.
But while my love of Miami Vice is shared by many, I also love the movie. I love the film almost as much as the show, albeit for different reasons.
People tend to hate the movie because it doesn’t ape the show. But what Michael Mann did was more brilliant than creating a nostalgia trip. Instead, he approached the material seriously. What if Miami Vice were real? What would that look like? Feel like? Like the movie, that’s what.
I also love how Mann gives the finger to the slower members of the audience by providing no traditional opening or ending. The movie starts, and if you aren’t quick enough to pick up on things as they happen, oh, well.
The director’s cut is a capitulation and should be avoided, but the theatrical cut is a masterpiece.