comment #1

alynch says ...

It's very well done, but I was already getting sick of it by the end of Sunday. They better cut down on the number of times they play this ad.

comment #2

JoeGreenia says ...

A good commercial. Mann reuses The Last of the Mohican score here.

comment #3

Rothchild says ...

That's the music! I accidentally unpaused my DVR and caught this commercial. I was very impressed, but I didn't recognize the music, which is odd for me.

comment #4

GKLondon says ...

Interesting game American Football. It's like rugby for people with over protective parents.

comment #5

jackkerouac says ...

"Interesting game American Football. It's like rugby for people with over protective parents."

GKLondon: Tell that to the parents of Buffalo Bills' Kevin Everett who is likely paralzyed for life after Sunday's game.

Great commercial. I prefer this to Mann's 'Miami Vice'. The music used from my favorite move, 'Last of the Mohicans', is perfect.
Too bad, though, that the hero reaching the ball over at the end happens to be the Ram's Steven Jackson who was actually made to look less so by my Carolina Panther's on Sunday.

comment #6

GKLondon says ...

I don't know Buffalo Bills' Kevin Everett's parents.

Jeez, try to be glib and get a smackdown.

But obviously, condolences.

comment #7

Dave says ...

Heh. I watched that commercial and I actually thought to myself, "I wonder if Wells is going to write it up at all."

Although, here's the funny-- I caught the Last of the Mohicans music immediately (still a fantastic movie, IMHO), but had NO IDEA that was directed by Michael Mann until I just read that here. Whaddya know!

BTW, watching that clip yesterday I joked to my friends, "It's Last of the Mohican Boy Scouts." You're just waiting for one of the ball carriers to pull out a tomahawk and lodge it into a defender's helmet. . .

comment #8

Dave says ...

Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't highlight the "Sopranos" ending to the commercial.

So, c'mon Jeff-- does he score the touchdown or not? ;-)

comment #9

jackkerouac says ...

He does score the touchdown. Pause it right at the end and you see that the ball is over the line.

comment #10

actionman says ...

TV....film....commercials....anything Mann touches is pure brilliance.

comment #11

MiraJeffAICN says ...

This commercial was better than any of the actual football played yesterday, and I'm talking as a Pats fan who should be ecstatic about Brady-Moss and dominating the Jets. If only real games looked and sounded that way. Best commercial of the year as far as I'm concerned and I sat through a 4 and a half hour Creative Emmys ceremony that showcased the top commercials of the year.

comment #12

christian says ...

we got a bunch of MANNly men here...

comment #13

Mr. Muckle says ...

NO HE DOES NOT SCORE! Does he score in the next moment? No way to tell. But the ref looks like the brother of the guy in the second season who . . . oh, you know.

comment #14

corey3rd says ...

another ad praising a steriod user.

comment #15

Kristopher Tapley says ...

Did Mann actually direct this commercial, or are you just commenting on the score?

Regardless, it's fucking badass and I didn't see it all day yesterday. Weird.

comment #16

christian says ...

i wish mann had done a commercial for this film about nike:

http://www.sweatthefilm.org/

comment #17

Josh Massey says ...

Yeah, do we actually know Mann did that commercial? I recognized the music immediately, though - it's my favorite commercial in quite a long time.

comment #18

travis b says ...

yes..mann did direct the commercial. and he raised the ire of that idiot jay marriotti while doing it..

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/mariotti/544704,CST-SPT-jay06.article

comment #19

Stephe96 says ...

GO PATS! Even if they....er, cheat a little, I guess...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3012989

comment #20

christian says ...

nerds.

comment #21

Wrecktum says ...

The NFL and Nike reward Shawne Merriman for his steroid usage last season by casting him in this commercial. Very nice.

comment #22

DarthCorleone says ...

I thought everything I had to say and ask had already been addressed, but then I went to the Mariotti link above and noticed that he is commenting on the Tomlinson commercial (which is not nearly as interesting) - not this one. Obviously that is Mohicans score in this one, but diid Mann direct both commercials?

I'll probably have Googled the answer by the time anyone responds, but I just felt like participating.

Oh, yeah, and with all the appropriate sarcasm, I agree. Way to go, NFL, on featuring a known and publicized cheater.

comment #23

Mr. Gittes says ...

http://www.bizoffootball.com/?view=article&id=114%3Anike-launches-qleave-nothingq-ad-campaign&Itemid=1&option=com_content

" Michael Mann directed the spots which were produced by Nike in cooperation with advertising agency Wieden & Kennedy."

Just an awesome commercial. Showing 100 yards of defense and 100 yards of offense. Cool.

comment #24

Midwest Doug says ...

The commercial is awesome, but still nothing like that sequence in Last of the Mohicans. Damn, that thing always gives me goosebumps.

comment #25

BurmaShave says ...

Can we take this time to agree that THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS is arguably the greatest movie ever made?

comment #26

GlassFamily says ...

2 things:

1) I read somewhere that Mann also did the commercial where Ladainian Tomlinson pre-visualizes a touchdown against the Bears, also for Nike. I've seen both commercials, but didn't realize that Mann had a hand in either one. Just sound design though, no Mohicans score.

2) Remember when Wells pretty much categorized anyone that enjoyed football as rubes and idiots? No Michael Mann does a commercial and that makes it all ok. Stick to your guns man!

comment #27

GlassFamily says ...

I just realized there are errors in my post about being categorized a rube and/or an idiot. I should really preview these things. Oh well, off to hang my head in shame.

comment #28

jackkerouac says ...

BurmaShave: "Can we take this time to agree that THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS is arguably the greatest movie ever made?"

It's got my vote. I've probably watched this movie over a 100 times and it never fails to excite. Michael Mann's absolute best film.

comment #29

Midwest Doug says ...

And I'm glad for the Director's Cut DTS version, which drops a couple of Day-Lewis's Arnold-esque one-liners. The movie just crackles. It's gorgeous to look at, to listen to, to absorb. Hell, a 2 hour loop of that carriage going over the bridge would be better than most movies.

comment #30

Rich S. says ...

Mohicans is way up there for me, which is why I'm still upset that Snyder got to Thermopylae first.

comment #31

chicagodad says ...

Look, I like Mohicans a lot, but "greatest movie ever made?"

An interesting simplification and adaptation of the source material? Yes.

Somewhat overwrought in spots? Yes.

One hell of a rousing good time? Yes.

"Greatest Movie Ever Made?" Nope.

comment #32

BurmaShave says ...

Simplification of the source material? The book is terrible. Isn't that pretty much consensus amongst anyone who's ever gone past 11th grade? And yes I do make the mistake of equating my favorite with the best ever, but really, isn't that how it should be? Therefore, a compromise title from my youth: TOTAL RECALL is arguably the greatest movie ever made.

comment #33

christian says ...

"Can we take this time to agree that THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS is arguably the greatest movie ever made?"

i'll take the time to disagree: arguably no way.

comment #34

chicagodad says ...

Yes Burma, a simplification of the source material.

Have you read it? Not being snarky, genuinely curious.

The British characters are far more complex and less cartoony than the film versions. Magua has an actual character arc. It's not the wise voices of Hawkeye, Chingachgook and Uncas versus all the stupid, stupid white guys all the time.

The movie changes make things more in line with 20th century narrative sensibilities, but that's not neccessarily an improvement.

The book is dated, yes, and reflects the time in which it was written, but hardly qualifies as terrible.

As far as Total Recall, word.

comment #35

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

Just for the record, Mann's movie is actually based on a 1936 adaptation with Randolph Scott, which strips Cooper's plot down almost identically, to make it an action movie with a relatively straight through-line, as they say today.

I've seen a silent version which tries to tell the story more faithfully... it made me admire what they'd done to it in 1936...

comment #36

Admiral82 says ...

Both of the commercials are brilliant. Anymore to come?

I started reading Last of the Mohican's in high school on my own time. My english teacher saw the book, told me it was awful. "I read that book in college. After I finished it, I threw it in my fathers grill and watched it burn." Decided to take her advice after her blunt honesty. I'll never forget that.

The movie's amazing! I'd consider it one of the best. It's in my top 10.

comment #37

jackkerouac says ...

Whatever happened to Madeleine Stowe?
She was hot in 'Mohicans'.

comment #38

Rich S. says ...

The book Last of the Mohicans is tough to take seriously after reading Mark Twain's essay on the subject. I think he observes that characters are able to move silently through miles of forest, until the plot requires that they make a noise, at which time a twig obligingly shows up for someone to step on.

comment #39

chicagodad says ...

Admiral, she's still quite hot. Gonna be in that new show "Cane"

http://www.buddytv.com/articles/raines/profile/madeleine-stowe.aspx

comment #40

chicagodad says ...

My bad. She's on "Raines," not "Cane"

comment #41

Hallick says ...

"Whatever happened to Madeleine Stowe?
She was hot in 'Mohicans'."

Am I the only one that looks back at her in her heyday and wonders why nobody really got what they could have gotten out of her? She seems like one of those actors or actresses who just never got that one, pivotal, blow-the-surroundings-into-smithereens-and-crush-the-ground-into-diamond-plating part that would've made her career something so much more than a sad part on the late "Raines".

And yes - she was hot as balls in "Mohicans".

comment #42

Hallick says ...

There is no "greatest movie ever made", thank god, and there never should be. But (thank god again) there are dozens of movies you can call "one of the greatest movies ever made" out there, and that makes me happy.