Heat (1995 film): Difference between revisions
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== Plot summary== |
== Plot summary== |
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Revision as of 18:09, 13 January 2006
| HEAT | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Michael Mann |
| Written by | Michael Mann |
| Produced by | Michael Mann, Art Linson |
| Starring | Al Pacino, Robert de Niro, Val Kilmer |
| Distributed by | Warner Brothers |
Release date | 1995 |
Running time | 171 min |
| Language | English |
Heat is a crime thriller/drama film released on December 15, 1995. It is written and directed by Michael Mann, and its ensemble cast includes Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Diane Venora, Ashley Judd, and 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 volatile and outspoken while leaving an increasingly doomed marriage behind him.
The film is a remake of L.A. Takedown, a 1989 made-for-television film also written and directed by Mann.
Cast
- Al Pacino Lt. Vincent Hanna
- Robert De Niro Neil McCauley
- Val Kilmer Chris Shiherlis
- Jon Voight Nate
- Tom Sizemore Michael Cheritto
- Danny Trejo Trejo
- Diane Venora Justine Hanna
- Amy Brenneman Eady
- Ashley Judd Charlene Shiherlis
- Mykelti Williamson Sergeant Drucker
- Wes Studi Detective Casals
- Ted Levine Bosko
- Dennis Haysbert Donald Breedan
- William Fichtner Roger Van Zant
- Natalie Portman Lauren Gustafson
- Tom Noonan Kelso
- Kevin Gage Waingro
Plot summary
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 family man Michael Cheritto (Sizemore), take part in an elaborate robbery of an armored car. They escape with 1.6 million dollars in bearer bonds, leaving the armored car's guards dead. Although originally planned as a mere robbery they quickly reason to leave no witnesses after a new cohort, Waingro, impulsively executes one of the injured guards.
Enter Vincent Hanna (Pacino), one of the top detectives in the Robbery Homicide Division of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Vincent and his team immediately go to work, utilizing a number of leads and informants to bring the perpetrators to justice. Meanwhile, McCauley is busy planning another major score - a bank heist with a twelve-million dollar paycheck. The cops meet the robbers in the middle of their daylight robbery, leading to a massive shootout on a busy Los Angeles boulevard.
Director Mann also dwells 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 (Brennerman), a librarian and 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 effects in the film create a believable illusion of authenticity. The central shootout was supervised by former British SAS sergeant Andy McNabb, and the details of the bank robbery (rigging junction boxes, cutting into telco lines and alarm circuitry) seem realistic. Cinematographer Dante Spinotti uses angles and filters in neo-noir style. Composer Elliot Goldenthal, composed the score, performed by the Kronos Quartet. Music Supervisor/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.
The film's main selling point is an onscreen confrontation between Pacino and De Niro in a coffeehouse. This conversation, lasting several minutes and occurring at the film's halfway point, marks the first time the two have appeared together in the same scene.
Trivia
Although this marks the first time that DeNiro and Pacino have shared the same scene together, it doesn't mark the first time they were in the same movie together. That distinction belongs to The Godfather Part II, where Pacino played Michael Corleone and DeNiro played Michael's father Don Corleone in flashback scenes to when Don Corleone was on his rise to becoming the Godfather.
Box Office Success
$67,400,000 in North America and $120,000,000 overseas
$187,400,000 worldwide
External links
- Heat at IMDb
- L.A. Takedown at IMDb