Michael Mann graduated from Amundsen High School, also the alum of Bob Fosse.
He then studied English literature at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
While a student, he saw Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove and fell in love with movies.
In an LA Weekly interview, he described the film’s impact on him: “It said to my whole generation of filmmakers that you could make an individual statement of high integrity and have that film be successfully seen by a mass audience all at the same time. In other words, you didn’t have to be making Seven Brides for Seven Brothers if you wanted to work in the mainstream film industry, or be reduced to niche filmmaking if you wanted to be serious about cinema. So that’s what Kubrick meant, aside from the fact that Strangelove was a revelation.