Heat

[hal9000]

Heat has to be one of my top 3 movies of the 90s. As of today I own it in 4 different formats: Taped off commerical TV, widescreen VHS, DVD, and as of this after noon, the two disk set! I'm going to watch it tonight.

When I saw this in the cinema when I was 15, my friend and I were really involved with the Neil/Eady storyline. I really liked her character then. When they were driving to the airport and Neil got that call from Jon Voight, we were squirming in our seats and willing him not to turn off the freeway.

The great thing about this movie is how good all the supporting performances are, with some killer turns from people who often leave me cold like Val Kilmer.

And also everyone looks really cool and stylish - this is the last time Robert De Niro looked really attractive on screen - but that is to be expected of a Michael Mann movie.

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I love this movie. There are so many great performances in it and everything doesn't work out perfectly in the end for Pacino's character.

Read somewhere that they're gonna create a videogame based on it and that Mann, DeNiro and Pacino will be involved. Not sure if it's a good idea but the idea's interesting.

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I'm another huge fan of this movie. Awesome performances all around. I love the coffee shop scene with Pacino and DeNiro because it's so understated and calm and yet shows off the acting skills of both. Also love the silent goodbye scene between Kilmer and Judd.

And yea, it is one of those movies that I can watch over and over again just for the sheer pleasure of it.

[foxfair]

Wow, Hal9000 - I re-watched this movie last night on DVD and was wondering if I should come start a thread about it and here it is already! I agree with everything you said and I even had the exact same thought you did re: that being the last time De Niro looked cool. In fact I even said it to the person I was watching the movie with. Weird.

This movie is, imo, about as close to flawless as cinema gets. There are no bum notes in this flick, everything works perfectly, there are so many small touches and scenes that just click. I'm sure it didn't hurt that everyone acted their asses off. If I had to name an acting weak-link it would be Judd but she wasn't enough to detract from the whole.

LOVE De Niro's face when he's in the car in the tunnel making the decision on whether or not to go after Wayne Gro. And the scene in the bank - I'm an action movie fan - is there a better action scene, ever?

As you may have guessed, I'm a fan...

[hal9000]

Agree with your entire post, foxfair. Robert De Niro looked his age, early-50s, but still really good. Obviously the grey silk suits helped but he was quite sexy at this point. I think after this age truly kicked in.

*bleeeeeeeeeeeep* it! My DVD player shutdown halfway through the movie. Just after the cafe scene, would you believe it. Didn't get to see the bank heist.

But the leadup to the cafe scene is fantastic. Vincent goes home to his wife, they have a silent stand off and he's like, fuck it! I'm gonna go get coffee with Neil. And he calls in a helicopter and three LAPD cars to track him down! It's so over the top, yet so perfect for Vincent. And that cool Moby song plays in the background. Shivers, I'm telling ya.

The theme of trust and strangers running throught the film is perfectly shown how the "new" people in their respective crews fuck up what would have otherwise been a professional operation. During the score when Chris is cutting into the safe, Vincent and Wes Studi and Ted Levine are waiting patiently for hours, bored as anything, but the person who stuffs it up for them is the guy with glasses from another squad. And similarly, the Waingro fiasco for the opening heist. Tom Sizemore is cool, calm and collected by comparison then he is undoubtedly a freak in comparison. He was so out of place in their crew. The look on Val Kilmer's face when Waingro offered them some of his pie in the diner said it all.

And I love the stuff with Dennis Haysbert. His experience as an ex-con trying to go straight compared with the rest of them. And I love the stuff with his wife.

[foxfair]

But the leadup to the cafe scene is fantastic. Vincent goes home to his wife, they have a silent stand off and he's like, fuck it! I'm gonna go get coffee with Neil. And he calls in a helicopter and three LAPD cars to track him down! It's so over the top, yet so perfect for Vincent. And that cool Moby song plays in the background.

That scene is classic Michael Mann - the shot set-ups, the LA-at-night thing, the music, all of it.

I'm surprised there aren't more posts in this thread...I'd love to be able to find the Vanity Fair article on Heat that came out a few years ago (I think it was by James Wolcott???) - it went into the history of the movie, how it basically bombed at the box office and went critically un-noticed at first and has slowly built up a rep that just keeps getting better and better as time passes. A very weird trajectory for a film!

If you lived anywhere near me, Hal9000, we'd have to arrange a dorktastic Heat Night and get all fangirl-obsessive over it. Have you seen Infernal Affairs? I want to start a thread for it but I am not sure it would get many posts. You should see it if you haven't - there is a brief scene in there that's a direct homage to Heat.

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And the scene in the bank - I'm an action movie fan - is there a better action scene, ever?

I don't think so.

One of my favorite scenes is when De Niro is ordering a clearly intimidated Ashley Judd to give Val Kilmer's character another chance. The edge in his voice when he tells her to "Get cleaned up!" is scary.

I was really suckered by the hidden signal from Judd to Kilmer from the balcony. I was convinced she'd sell him out.

Did everyone know that Michael Mann's first choice to play Chris was Keanu Reeves? Kilmer was great, but I can totally see Keanu as Chris. But he turned him down to do another movie. Bet Reeves is still kicking himself for that decision.

And the great cameo's like Jeremy Piven's shady doctor. Priceless.

[hal9000]

tapshowtimestep (phew, that is a username and a half!), apparently Al Pacino was really disappointed that Keanu couldn't make Heat which is part of the reason he made one of my favourite guilty pleasures, The Devil's Advocate.

I tried to find that Vanity Fair article on a database, and unsurprisingly my university access only provides abstracts for that issue with the Wolcott article. Typically, from the the following issue on however I have full text access to all Vanity Fair's articles. The following issue! I know fate to be cruel, but that really is a kicker. I have bought the little essay book on Heat by Nick James from the BFI Modern Classics series, but it is in a box somewhere.

When I watch the movie it is usually with guys going nuts over the action and the AK-47s and the "SHE'S GOT A GREAT ASS!!!". Which I totally get and indulge myself in as well, though Foxfair, if you lived in the southern hemisphere, a fangirly action movie Heat-a-thon would be the perfect antidote to all the testosterone.

I love Infernal Affairs and it is due for a rewatch (what is that scene, BTW?).

[foxfair]

Oh, squee.

Hal9000 - What issue is it in? I'll do some Googling tonight. I swear I've seen that article online.

OK, and the scene in Infernal Affairs (SPOILER warning in effect from here...) comes after the police inspector is thrown off the roof, after a brief scene of Lau checking out the aftermath and right before the scene of the cops in the headquarters watching the announcement of their boss's death and crying. It's a very, very brief shot of a tree in the rain. I remember reading an interview (and I do not, for the life of me, remember where, or who it was even with - it was either the producer or the director) wherein the guy (I think it was the director) expressed admiration for Mann's films, especially Heat, and said that scene an echo of a couple of scenes in Heat. I personally think it's the far-away shot of Eady and Neil standing in the parking lot just before they have the "if you want to leave then you're free to leave" convo. The main thing in the shot is a tree, in streetlight, and I don't know if this is an optical illusion or if that was somehow filmed in time lapse because if you look at the tree it appears to have been shot in time lapse and then sped up. There's also a scene after Waingro (how embarassed am I to have totally mispelled that?!) first escapes being executed by Neil in the parking lot - Neil looks around at the end of the scene and we see and empty lot/tree and that's the other one that's similiar to the shot in Infernal Affairs.

Um, yeah. I'm a geek about this film. Also, I've seen it over 25 times, probably, so I know it almost by heart. I would like to read the book of essays, I didn't know there was one.

It'd be nice to watch Heat with other female fangirls. Sometimes I feel like I have a different appreciation for it than some of my male friends.

Which leads me to...

A male friend HATES Heat, because he thinks it's too macho. I'll try to be brief, but isn't one of the themes of the movie that too-much macho is a bad thing? I mean, Neil loses his lfie and Pacino can't maintain marriage/personal life *precisely* because they inhabit these super-macho worlds. I always assumed that one of the points of the movie was about the need for balance between the masculine and the feminine - Neil's speech on how his life no longer makes sense without Eady in it etc. - I really don't think this is a "male good, female bad" type movie!

And last but not least, I have taken to shouting the "SHE'S GOT A GRRREAT ASS!!!" line at my sister whenever I end up behind her in public. Makes me laugh.

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The scene that always gets to me... I can't remember the characters' names, but the guy was struggling to get a life going after serving time, working as a fry cook, and his loyal girlfriend was trying to bolster his self-esteem and encourage him. Then he gets sucked in by Neil, goes on a heist and ends up dead. The shoot-out is reported on the news and there is a picture of this guy and the newscaster says he was involved in the aborted robbery and was killed. The poor girlfriend is sitting at a counter staring at the t.v. and -- this is the part that gets to me -- you can see a million things happening in her face, and yet her face is perfectly still.

Also, the balcony scene. The way Chris's face is completely drained from from the pain of his injuries but then it lights up at the sight of his girlfriend. Then when she gives him that subtle signal that it's a trap, in his eyes you can see that he realizes they're never going to see one another again.

You know, the first time I saw it, when Neil realizes that Vincent is coming for him and Eady is in the car... I thought the reason he hesitated as he walked past her was because he was considering grabbing her so they could escape together then decided he couldn't put her in danger. Then I remembered that whole thing he talked about, how his code is to never have anything in your life that you can't completely abandon the second you know the "heat" is around the corner. I guess I was trying to romanticize the scene. He wasn't being noble by leaving her alone and safe -- He was just following that macho man code.