Heat (1995 film)
| Heat | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Michael Mann |
| Written by | Michael Mann |
| Produced by | Michael Mann Art Linson |
| Starring | Al Pacino Robert de Niro Val Kilmer Jon Voight Wes Studi Tom Sizemore Diane Venora |
| Cinematography | Dante Spinotti |
| Edited by | Pasquale Buba William Goldenberg Dov Hoenig Tom Rolf |
| Music by | Elliot Goldenthal |
| Distributed by | Warner Brothers |
Release date | December 15 1995 |
Running time | 171 min. |
| Country | USA  |
| Language | English |
Heat is an American made crime/thriller/drama film released on December 15, 1995. It was written and directed by Michael Mann, and its ensemble cast includes Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Mykelti Williamson, Tom Sizemore, Diane Venora, Ted Levine, Ashley Judd, Kevin Gage and a young Natalie Portman.
De Niro plays a thief named Neil McCauley who is a calm, methodical loner and an introvert, while Pacino's cop Vincent Hanna is a veteran LAPD homicide detective whose devotion to his job leads to a doomed marriage that is collapsing around him.
The film is sort of a remake of L.A. Takedown, a 1989 made-for-television film also written and directed by Mann.
Plot summary
Template:Spoiler Neil McCauley (De Niro) is an expert thief who has centered his life around the creed "Do not allow anything into your life that you cannot walk out on in thirty seconds flat if you spot the 'heat' around the corner." He and his crew, including compulsive gambler Chris Shiherlis (Kilmer) and ex-con turned family man Michael Cheritto (Sizemore), take part in an elaborate robbery of an armored car. They escape with US$1.6 million in bearer bonds from Malibu Equity Investments, a shell company that launders off-shore drug accounts. Although originally planned as a mere robbery, they end up killing all three guards after the first is executed impulsively by new member Waingro (Kevin Gage), the second is shot in self-defense and the third simply to leave no witnesses.
McCauley meets with his fence, Nate (Voight), who suggests selling the bonds back to their original owner, Roger Van Zant. Van Zant had the bonds insured and stands to profit from buying the bonds back at a reduced price, though higher than what Nate could conceivably receive on the open market. As retribution for turning the robbery into a triple-homicide, McCauley and crew also attempt to kill Waingro, but he escapes when a police cruiser drives by and distracts McCauley during the attempt. Van Zant double-crosses McCauley and tries to kill him during the attempted buy-back, prompting McCauley to call Van Zant and promise to kill him.
The officer investigating McCauley's armored car job is Lieutenant Vincent Hanna. Hanna's extensive pedigree has made him one of the top detectives in the elite Robbery-Homicide Division of the LAPD. Vincent and his team immediately go to work, utilizing a number of leads and informants to bring McCauley and his crew to justice. Meanwhile, McCauley is busy planning another major score: an audacious bank heist valued at US$12 million.
As the plans are being made, the movie explores the personal lives of both men, and how their commitment to being the best in their respective professions has all but destroyed their personal lives: McCauley lives a lonely, barren existence, having severed all links and emotional attachments in furtherance of his creed, although he tells his new girlfriend, Eady, "I'm alone, I am not lonely." He starts to thaw as a result of meeting Eady (Amy Brenneman), a graphic designer who believes him to be a metal salesman. Meanwhile, Hanna's current marriage, his third, to Justine (Diane Venora) is clearly in the last stages of a breakdown — although he is close to and clearly cares dearly for his troubled stepdaughter Lauren (Natalie Portman), whose own father is neglectful. The relationship between Shiherlis (Kilmer) and his wife Charlene (Judd) is examined as well; their marriage is also apparently disintegrating due to his gambling addiction. Charlene is also cheating on her husband with another man, Marciano (Hank Azaria), who later will become a very important information source to Hanna and his team.
The film culminates in a scene where McCauley and Hanna cross paths and reflect on their chosen lives, over coffee in a diner. During their meeting, Hanna says that while he may not like it, he will kill McCauley if need be. McCauley explains the purpose of his "30 seconds" creed by saying he is never going back to prison.
The best-laid plans of the thieves for the bank heist are thwarted behind-the-scenes by Waingro. Waingro has attempted to lay low since the attempt on his life by McCauley; he eventually meets Van Zant after looking for criminal work in a biker bar. Waingro leads Van Zant to one of the members of McCauley's crew, Trejo.
With his wife held hostage, Trejo is forced to reveal McCauley's latest plans. One of Van Zant's subordinates, a police informant named Hugh Benny (Henry Rollins), then tips off the police. Even though the bank robbery is executed flawlessly, as the crew is entering the getaway car the police arrive; a chaotic, violent shoot-out on a busy downtown Los Angeles boulevard erupts. During the gunfight, Hanna's partner, Bosko (Ted Levine), is killed.
Following the disastrous robbery and getaway, in which several cops, as well as Cheritto and Trejo's replacement driver, Breedan (Dennis Haysbert), are killed, the survivors attempt to find an escape route. Shiherlis is wounded but manages to escape with McCauley's help. Believing Trejo to have double-crossed them, McCauley goes to his house but finds Trejo dying and his wife dead, both savagely beaten. Learning that Waingro and Van Zant were responsible, he mercifully kills Trejo and goes to Van Zant's house, demanding to know the whereabouts of Waingro. Van Zant claims not to know and McCauley immediately shoots him.
The police move Charlene Shiherlis and her son Dominic to a safe house. One of Hanna's team, Drucker (Mykelti Williamson), explains that Charlene will be charged as an accessory to her husband and serve jail time if she refuses to turn him over to the police. Drucker also informs her that her son will become a foster child and more prone to a criminal life if she will not cooperate. Chris eventually shows up, sporting a new hairstyle to disguise his identity, and is surreptitiously warned away by his wife. The two share one last longing look before Chris gets back in his car, which is ironically the only act of love they make for each other throughout the entire film. He comes close to being caught as he passes a police checkpoint, but a fake ID card saves him at the last moment. Chris is now a free man, but has lost everything.
McCauley, now in love with Eady, breaks his creed by asking her to flee the country with him. Prior arrangements had been made for the two to escape for New Zealand; however, upon receiving a tip concerning Waingro's whereabouts from Nate, McCauley makes the impulsive decision to locate him at a hotel near the airport. After setting off the hotel's emergency alarm to clear the area, McCauley executes Waingro, then escapes after a short confrontation with a cop. Unknown to him, Waingro is responsible for a number of brutal murders of prostitutes in the city. Hanna is also involved in the investigation of these murders.
Meanwhile, having also acted on a tip-off from Benny, Hanna arrives at the hotel. From a distance, Hanna is able to spot a suspicious-looking Eady calmly awaiting McCauley in his car. As McCauley emerges from the building and begins heading for the car, he sees Hanna quickly approaching. At this critical and poignant moment in the film, McCauley defaults to his "30 seconds" rule and abandons Eady; he melts into the crowd with Hanna in hot pursuit. An alternative interpretation is that McCauley abandons the car, and with it his best chance of escape, to lead Hanna away from Eady.
McCauley jumps over the perimeter fence of the airport and heads to the freight terminal. Hanna is close behind and the two briefly exchange gunfire until McCauley moves again, finding refuge behind the ILS and electronic control system buildings near one of the airport's runways. Hanna follows and the two play a tense game of cat-and-mouse in the dark. McCauley notices that bright runway lights turn on during landings to enable the pilots to land, and, sensing an opportunity, makes a move to take out Hanna. However, as McCauley steps out to shoot Hanna with the lights at his back, Hanna is able to see McCauley's shadow and, by a fraction of a second, shoots first, hitting McCauley several times in the chest. Hanna moves to comfort him, and the two men share a final, reflective moment together before McCauley dies.
Key themes and motifs
Director Mann dwells heavily on the personal lives of both the criminals and the police, and in particular, their relationships with their wives and girlfriends. McCauley is forced to break his creed when he becomes involved with Eady (Brenneman), an aspiring graphic artist who is similarly lonely. Shiherlis' destructive behavior takes a toll on his marriage to Charlene (Judd), an ex-Vegas showgirl and mother to his son. She fears her husband's capture and the possibility of her being sent to prison as an accessory to his crimes. Hanna, a workaholic, has neglected his third wife Justine (Venora) and her troubled daughter Lauren (Portman). Over the course of the film, their tenuous relationship also reaches a crossroads.
The "crews" on both sides (McCauley's professional robbers and Hanna's group of detectives) are juxtaposed and shown to have equal skill and competency; this creates tension over which side will triumph, right until the climax. This seeming equivalence is shown to be false, however, in the climactic shoot-out scene, where the cops are shown to be concerned over who they shoot, while the robbers simply spray bullets everywhere. This distinction between the similar competence but dissimilar ethics gives the film its moral center. A brief scene where Hanna tells his men to "watch their backgrounds," that is, be aware of who is behind the criminals at whom they are shooting, illuminates this.
The effects in the film create a believable illusion of authenticity. The central shoot-out was supervised by former British SAS sergeant Andy McNab, and the details of the bank robbery (rigging junction boxes, cutting into telco lines and alarm circuitry) seem realistic. Microphones were placed properly to allow a realistic echo-effect on the gunshot sounds given that the shoot-out sequence takes place in the midst of tall buildings. Cinematographer Dante Spinotti uses angles and filters in neo-noir style. Composer Elliot Goldenthal provided the score, performed by the Kronos Quartet. Music Supervisor and KCRW personality Chris Douridas created the film's soundtrack, including the use of Moby's "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters" at the film's ending. Also of note is Moby's rendition of the solo section in Joy Division's "New Dawn Fades", used in the scene where Hanna chases down McCauley and confronts him, leading to the diner scene.
Throughout the film, McCauley mentions that he lives by the creed that a person should not be attached to anything or anyone that the person cannot walk out on if the “heat” is coming around the corner. McCauley also mentions these words of wisdom to Chris in regard to his wife and therefore in regard to women. At the end of the film when McCauley must make his decision between getting into the car with his girlfriend and risking capture or running away, he chooses to run. While many would take note of this immediately and believe he has stuck to his ideals, in fact, McCauley has not, and broke his dedication much earlier. McCauley allows himself to become so obsessed with catching Waingro that he deliberately puts himself in jeopardy to risk settling a score. The thing McCauley cannot walk out on is, in fact, his revenge on Waingro, and this eventually leads to his demise. He ignores his own words of wisdom and suffers as a consequence.
Trivia
- During the shoot-out scene, Ted Levine's death posture mimics that of another of his characters - Buffalo Bill in 'The Silence of The Lambs' (1991).
- Val Kilmer states on the special edition DVD (in the making of featurette) that soldiers in the military are shown the bank robbery scene, with emphasis placed upon the scene where Kilmer's character fires on the police, performs a swift and smooth reload, and resumes firing. Supposedly they say something along the lines of, "If you can't change magazines as fast as this actor, get out of my army!"
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- Andy McNab trained the cast of Heat in handling various small arms in a shooting range in Orange County, California.[citation needed]
- The famous Pacino-De Niro conversation takes place and was filmed on-location at Kate Mantilini, on Wilshire Blvd. in Hollywood. The two sat at table #71, which diners may request if the restaurant is not too busy. A large picture from the scene is over the entrance to the restaurant.
- It is believed that this movie was partly based on the 1986 FBI shootout in Miami.[citation needed]
- The movie provokes unintended amusement in British viewers because Vincent Hanna was the name of a well-known political journalist.
- According to an interview with William Petersen on the Manhunter DVD, Michael Mann was originally only going to produce Heat and let someone else direct it while he made Manhunter.
- Al Pacino's character, while calm at times, instantly becomes volatile and antagonistic during several scenes. Mann's commentary reveals the reason why: he told Pacino that the detective he'd be playing, in an effort to stay "sharp and on the edge" in order to catch criminals, routinely snorted small amounts of cocaine.
- Pacino's line to Azaria regarding Judd, "Because she's got a....GREAT ASS!!" was ad-libbed. The surprise on Azaria's face was genuine.[citation needed]
- Waingro, the brutal criminal-turned-informant, was based off a true criminal from Chicago. After disappearing into witness protection in exchange for his testimony against other criminals, Waingro's body was discovered in Northern Mexico. He had been nailed to a wall.[citation needed]
- Mann states in his DVD commentary that the scene of McCauley putting his gun on a table and standing in front of the ocean inside his home (pictured above) is based on the painting Pacific by Alex Colville, which gave Mann significant inspiration for the film.
- Pacino prefers to wear black or dark colors and usually does in all his movies.[citation needed]
- Kevin Gage, the actor who played Waingro, spent 2003 to 2005 in federal prison on drug charges. Both guards and inmates in the prison unanimously referred to him as Waingro. He was said to have been a model prisoner.[citation needed]
- Val Kilmer is playing a character originally played by Peter Dobson. Dobson also played Elvis Presley in Forrest Gump, a role that Kilmer had played in True Romance.
Box-office success
$67,400,000 in North America and $120,000,000 overseas.
$187,400,000 worldwide.
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