Heat
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Michael Mann
Al Pacino
Robert De Niro
Hank Azaria
Amy Brenneman
Ashley Judd
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Neil McCauley is a hardened professional criminal who has spent many years behind bars and is determined never to go back. A highly focused loner, McCauley's protection is that there's nothing in his life that he can't walk away from in 30 seconds flat. Vincent Hanna is a lieutenant of detectives in LAPD's Robbery/Homicide Division who searches through the remains of a crime for the scent of his prey and then hunts them down. Those are the elevated experiences of his life--the rest is disorder. When McCauley and his team rob an armored van of bearer bonds, Hanna takes over the case. McCauley and his crew are nearly impossible to identify, let alone track down. But Hanna's network of informants and the details of each man's life--failures and dreams, betrayals and vendettas--generate clues Hanna is able to discover. Soon, Hanna and his detectives and McCauley and his crime partners are driven towards a collision from which only some will survive.
Director
Michael Mann
Cast
Al Pacino
Robert De Niro
Hank Azaria
Amy Brenneman
Ashley Judd
Natalie Portman
Jon Voight
Val Kilmer
Cindy Katz
Tone Loc
Thomas Elfmont
Amanda Graves
Max Daniels
Vince Deadrick
Niki Harris
Thomas Rosales Jr.
Brian Cammuncio
Hazelle Goodman
Terry Miller
Diane Venora
Paul Moyer
Phillip Robinson
Dennis Haysbert
Rick Marzan
Farrah Forke
Danny Trejo
Kevin Gage
Marty Ferrero
Wes Studi
Wendy Walsh
Xander Berkeley
Mario Roberts
Ted Levine
Henry Rollins
Rey Verdugo
Paul Herman
Kenny Endoso
Bill Mcintosh
Kai Soremekun
Kim Staunton
Emily Graves
Charles Duke
William Fichtner
Dan Martin
Jerry Trimble
Rick Avery
Patricia Healy
Susan Traylor
Ray Buktenica
Yvonne Zima
Rainell Saunders
Steven Ford
Mykelti Williamson
Brad Baldridge
Hannes Fritsch
Ted Harvey
Tom Noonan
Tom Sizemore
Brian Libby
Daniel O'haco
Kimberly Flynn
Begonya Plaza
Ricky Harris
Andrew Cammuncio
Jeremy Piven
Crew
Bill Abbott
Mimi Abers
Charles Adamsom
Anne H. Ahrens
Gary Alexander
Edward Allen
Nicholas R Allen
Neal Anderson
James Apted
John Arrias
Christopher Assells
Darryl M Athons
Howard Bachrach
Karen M. Baker
Jeff Balsmeyer
Lori A Balton
Ron Bartlett
Anna Behlmer
Bill W Benton
Jeff Berger
Carlo Bernard
Raymond Boniker
Matthew Booth
Jamie Boscardin-martin
Andrea Bottigliero
Nigel Boucher
Bob Bowman
Rick Bozeat
Marsha L Bozeman
Christopher S Brooks
Tony Brubaker
Pieter Jan Brugge
Thomas R Bryant
Pasquale Buba
Duncan Burns
John Caglione Jr.
Chris Carpenter
Budd Carr
Gusmano Cesaretti
Robin Chambers
Dave Christensen
Larry E Clark
Richard Cody
Doug Coleman
Ralph Coleman
Casey Collins
Michael Connell
Frank Connor
Stuart Copely
Lou Crisa
Christopher Cronyn
Geno Crum
Brad Curry
Zack Davis
Ken Diaz
Brenda Donoho
Frank Dorowsky
Chris Douridas
David Dresher
Steven S Duncan
Amy Dunn
Richard Dwan
Tom Elfmont
Robert Elhai
Tom Elliott
Cynthia Ellis
Leonard Engleman
Mike Fantasia
Robert Fechman
Amy Beth Feldman
Michelle Fielding
Ann Fisher
Donald L. Frazee
Logan Frazee
Terry Frazee
David Galbraith
Joe Gareri
Gerrit Garretsen
Scott Gershin
Hector Gika
Matthias Gohl
William Goldenberg
Elliot Goldenthal
Elliot Goldenthal
Mark S Gordon
Mick Gould
Jim Grce
Tim Groseclose
Paul H Haines
Daniel Haizlip
Per Hallberg
Shannon Hamed
Marc A Hammer
Scott Hanson
Cate Hardman
Sean Hargreaves
Ross Harpold
Richard Hausfeld
Joseph A Hawthorne
Clint Hegeman
D. M. Hemphill
Mo Henry
Ilona Herman
Julie Herrin
Phil Hess
Ellen Heuer
Vicki Hiatt
John Hinkle
Dov Hoenig
Robyn B Holmes
Josiah W Hooper
David Hopkins
Norman Howell
Holly Huckins
Philip C Hurst
Walter Huse
David Hyman
Joel Iwataki
Bill Jackson
Julie Janata
Gary Jay
Chris Jenkins
David Jobe
Timothy G Jones
Tim Judge
Tammy Kalka
Randy Kelley
Larry Kemp
Michael R Kern
Lou Kleinman
Beth Koenigsberg
Teri Anne Kopp
Selma Kora
Joel Kramer
Neil Krepela
Bruce Kuroyama
John Lafauce
Mark Lapointe
Clifford Latimer
Anthony Lattanzio
Judson Leach
Daniel Leahy
Peter J Lehman
Lynn Leonhard
Tendaji Lethan
David Levey
Al Lewis
Art Linson
Charles R Lipscomb
Lanette Little
Stephen Lotwis
Nina Lucia
Ami Canaan Mann
Ami Canaan Mann
Michael Mann
Michael Mann
Duane 'dc' Manwiller
Horace Manzanares
Larry Markart
Richard Martinez
Peter Martorano
Joseph T Mastrolia
Douglas E Maxwell
Joe Mayer
Oscar A Mazzola
Alison Mcbryde
Amie Frances Mccarthy-winn
Jonathan Mcgarry
Gary Mclarty
Cliff Mclaughlin
Stephen Mclaughlin
David Mcmoyler
Andy Mcnab
Kelsey Mcneal
Brian Mcpherson
Margie Stone Mcshirley
Steven Mercurio
Steven J. Mikolas
Alexandra Milchan
Arnon Milchan
Vera Mitchell
Richard Monak
Chris Moriana
Philip D. Morrill
Rick Morris
John Morrisey
Chris Moseley
J Michael Muro
J Michael Muro
Donald Myers
Andy Nelson
Patti Roberts Nelson
Tom Numbers
Denise Okimoto
Lee Orloff
Douglas S Ornstein
David Orr
Gil Parra
Jane Payne
Thomas A Payne
Film Details
Technical Specs
Articles
Heat (1995)
Although Heat is often cited as the only picture in which Al Pacino and Robert De Niro share a scene together -- they both appeared in The Godfather Part II (1974), but their characters existed during different time periods - the real draw of Heat is Mann's obsession with...obsessive characters.
De Niro plays Neil McCauley, a shrewd professional thief who asserts that there's not a situation or relationship in his life that he can't abandon in 30 seconds. McCauley prides himself on his lack of connection with the outside world...that is, the one that exists outside his own steel-trap mind. Pacino is Vincent Hanna, an unkempt career cop who is so emotionally invested in his work that he often clashes with his superiors and co-workers. And he's unsuccessful in preventing his job from disrupting personal relationships. When Vincent determines that McCauley and his crew (played with oozing machismo by such top-flight performers as Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore) are planning a complex heist, he goes after the thief with a zeal that unravels his world. "There's a design to everything Hanna does and everything McCauley does," Mann once said of the characters. "Being that inner directed, though, brings a certain solitariness, which makes them the only two men like this in the universe of the motion picture."
In an insightful 1995 interview with Graham Fuller, Mann maintains that the personal stories of his characters aren't necessarily affected by whether they're criminals or cops: "Mostly, it's based on who they are as people. In writing the story, I wanted to polarize each of these situations to make each as different from the other as possible. I wanted to make the life of each character in each relationship as authentic as it could be." In the same interview, Mann also states that the central protagonists in Heat spring from real life, rather than myth: "One of the antecedents for Vincent Hanna, the detective, played by Al Pacino, is Chuck Adamson - an old friend of mine who co-authored the Crime Story pilot, which Abel Ferrara directed. Chuck hunted down and killed the real Neil McCauley, in Chicago, in 1963. Another is a guy I can't really talk about, who's bright, intuitive, and driven, and runs large operations against drug cartels in foreign countries. He's a singularly focused individual and much of the core of Hanna's character comes from him."
When Mann began pre-production on Heat he visited inmates at Folsom State Prison in California to gain some insight into De Niro's character whose approach to life was formed by his prison experience. Other character details came from personal experiences or real life as in the case of the homicidal Waingro (played by Kevin Gage) who was actually based on a Chicago criminal of the same name that turned informer and was later found murdered in Mexico. Mann even used former Chicago cop turned actor Dennis Farina as a consultant on the film.
As for casting, the role of Chris, Neil's cohort, was originally considered for Keanu Reeves until Val Kilmer became available between the shooting of Batman Forever (1995). The part of Nate, which was based on career criminal Edward Bunker, was conceived with Jon Voight in mind but the actor turned it down repeatedly. "I thought, you don't need me for this part. But Michael was a friend of mine, and I knew Bobby and Al well and they were insistent. I tried to back out of it a couple of times, but they pushed it. I had to change myself with padding, hair, scars; it was a lot of work...But when I got into the part I really liked it. It was a delicate part...I thought I could show different sides of this guy who was a thug and convict...With his brilliance, he could have done anything. It's that little-boy thing, they want adventures...It's kind of like acting."
Amy Brenneman, who plays Eady, Neil's wary girlfriend, also resisted making Heat at first. She felt the script was unnecessarily violent with no moral point of view but Mann convinced her that her disapproving attitude was perfect for the character.
Mann utilizes Los Angeles in Heat in much the same way that Woody Allen leans on Manhattan in his best pictures. Los Angeles itself, with its endless highways and stark contrasts between the haves and the have-nots, becomes an important character in the narrative. Heat was filmed in no less than 65 different locations around L.A.; there's not a single sequence that takes place on a sound stage, an approach that adds greatly to the film's realism. Although Heat hardly looks like a documentary (Dante Spinotti's coolly stylish cinematography is a particular highlight), you can sense the rhythms of a sometimes languid, always money-driven city that could burst into violence with no advance warning. A harrowing midday shoot-out that leaves an affluent business quarter littered with shattered glass and punctured metal almost seems an attack on the environment itself. Mann saw to it that the scene would play properly by putting his actors through months of high-power weapons training before the cameras ever rolled. According to co-star Tom Sizemore, "The shootout in the middle we worked on for two weeks. The whole process from December 26 to end of shooting in May, was like boot camp."
The face to face sit-down between Pacino and De Niro, by the way, may be historic, but seems contrived for the sole reason of putting Pacino and De Niro into the same frame - there's no logical reason for these two characters to chat over a cup of coffee, regardless of their respect for one another. If you're a Heat fan who's trying to find the real-life restaurant where it happened, however, look no further than Kate Mantilini in Beverly Hills. If you ask nicely, the staff will reportedly seat you at the exact table where the Pacino-De Niro summit took place.
Producers: Art Linson, Michael Mann
Director: Michael Mann Screenplay: Michael Mann
Music: Elliot Goldenthal
Cinematography: Dante Spinotti
Editing: Pasquale Buba, William Goldenberg, Dov Hoenig, Tom Rolf
Casting: Bonnie Timmermann
Production Design: Neil Spisak
Art Direction: Margie Stone McShirley
Set Decoration: Anne H. Ahrens
Costume Design: Deborah Lynn Scott
Principal Cast: Al Pacino (Lt. Vincent Hanna), Robert De Niro (Neil McCauley), Val Kilmer (Chris Shiherlis), Jon Voight (Nate), Tom Sizemore (Michael Cheritto), Diane Venora (Justine Hanna), Amy Brenneman (Eady), Ashley Judd (Charlene Shiherlis), Mykelti Williamson (Sgt. Drucker), Wes Studi (Detective Casals), Natalie Portman (Lauren Gustafson).
C-172m.
by Paul Tatara
Heat (1995)
Heat (Special 2-disc Edition) - Michael Mann's Heat on DVD
The riveting narrative starts on the streets of Los Angeles, where an armored car containing over $1 million in bearer bonds is rammed by a truck as part of an obviously well-orchestrated heist. All appears to be going to plan, until the least stable of the masked crew shoots down one of the guards, spurring a bloodbath from which the gang escapes. The plot was the handiwork of the coolly brilliant Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro), a clockwork-precise master thief who lives a spartan lifestyle despite his massive hauls and seems to have no real passions beyond honing his craft.
The audacious theft, however, get assigned to the dogged Lt. Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino), who sets out to identify those responsible. As single-mindedly fixated on duty as McCauley is on his trade, Hanna has seen his job claim two marriages, and his third is poised to follow suit. His wife (Diane Venora) resents his devotion to work and his inability to turn a fraction of that energy to their clinically depressed teenage daughter (Natalie Portman).
From there, Heat spends its considerable but astonishingly briskly-paced length in a paired character study of two matched opposites on an inevitable collision course, as McCauley lays the groundwork for a $12 million bank job and Hanna determinedly hunts for the mastermind's one fatal mistake. The characters very gradually become aware of each other's existence, leading to Hanna's first confrontation with his prey at a diner. For six minutes out of the film's near-three hour running time, De Niro and Pacino put on a clinic as their characters feel each other out.
Mann elicited rich performances from his deep supporting cast. As well as Venora and Portman, also notable are Val Kilmer as McCauley's inveterate gambler right-hand man and Ashley Judd as his fed-up hooker wife; Amy Brenneman as a graphic artist with whom McCauley takes a stab at a normal romantic relationship; and Jon Voight as the gang's fix-it man. The raft of now-familiar faces rounding out the cast includes Mykelti Williamson, Wes Studi, Ted Levine, Dennis Haysbert, William Fichtner, Hank Azaria, Danny Trejo and Jeremy Piven. The audio and video mastering (in the original theatrical 2.35:1 aspect ratio) maintain the high quality of Warner's prior no-frills release.
The copious extras package begins with the feature-length commentary by Mann on the first disc. The director doesn't ring in any of his collaborators for perspective, and it stands to reason that the dead air should increase as the film goes on. Still, for the first half, his recollections are rich with detail, particularly about the real-life figures that inspired his scenario. The extras on the first disc are rounded out by a trio of theatrical trailers.
The second disc contains five featurettes concerning the production. The 15-minute True Crime looks at the real-life cop and crook that provided the templates for the characters of Hanna and McCauley, and the 20-minute Crime Stories tracks Mann's 20-year quest to develop the project. The 24-minute Into The Fire reflects on the shoot itself, with interview footage from Pacino, DeNiro, Kilmer, Judd, Brenneman and various members of the crew. The 10-minute Pacino and De Niro: The Conversation deconstructs the filming of their pivotal moment, with perspectives from Mann and others from the cast and crew as well as various critics. The final short, the 12-minute Return to the Scene of the Crime, follows location manager Janice Polley and associate producer Gusmano Cesaretti to various L.A. locales used in the shoot. Completing the extras are eleven deleted scenes that run an aggregate 10 minutes.
For more information about Heat, visit Warner Video. To order Heat, go to TCM Shopping.
by Jay S. Steinberg
Heat (Special 2-disc Edition) - Michael Mann's Heat on DVD
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Wide Release in United States December 15, 1995
Released in United States Winter December 15, 1995
Expanded Release in United States January 12, 1996
Released in United States on Video June 18, 1996
Completed shooting July 19, 1995.
Began shooting February 21, 1995.
Wide Release in United States December 15, 1995
Released in United States Winter December 15, 1995
Expanded Release in United States January 12, 1996
Released in United States on Video June 18, 1996