Even with its naggingly implausible timeline, this film feels almost shockingly realistic, using urgent
documentary filmmaking techniques to tell a story that seems to have come straight from the headlines.
Getting his start working on TV commercials, Mann took his rapid - paced, flash - cut approach into
documentary filmmaking, producing an award - winning short on the 1968 French student riots, Janpuri.Mann's fragmented - image
technique further manifested itself on such TV detective series of the»70s such as Starsky and Hutch and Vegas, both of which utilized his scripts (though they were directed by others in the standard conventional style of the period).