Heat (1995) ft. Ralph Esparza

Guest:

• Ralph Esparza (Film Producer)

  • Credited on Tollbooth, Mad House, Killer Date, An Occasional Hell, and One Degree Celcius

  • @ralph_esparza on IG

  • Previously on Magnolia (1999), Jaws (1975) Re-Revisit

Cast:

• Michael Mann, Director/Writer

• Dante Spinotti, Cinematography

• Elliott Goldenthal, Music

• Dov Hoenig, Pasquale Buba, William Goldenberg, Tom Rolf; Editors

• Al Pacino as LAPD Lieutenant Vincent Hanna

• Robert De Niro as Neil McCauley

• Val Kilmer as Chris Shiherlis

• Jon Voight as Nate

• Tom Sizemore as Michael Cheritto

• Diane Venora as Justine Hanna

• Amy Brenneman as Eady

• Ashley Judd as Charlene Shiherlis

• Mykelti Williamson as Sergeant Bobby Drucker

• Wes Studi as Detective Sammy Casals

• Ted Levine as Detective Mike Bosko

• Dennis Haysbert as Don Breedan

• William Fichtner as Roger Van Zant

• Natalie Portman as Lauren Gustafson

• Kevin Gage as Waingro

• Hank Azaria as Alan Marciano

• Danny Trejo as Gilbert Trejo

Background:

• Heat premiered on December 15, 1995 - 30th Anniversary.

• On a rough budget of $60 million, Heat would gross over $67 million in its initial run to finish #27 at the worldwide box office for 1995.

• Heat was critically acclaimed at the time, but was not nominated for an Oscar.

• In the years since, it has been reevaluated as an all-time classic with Rolling Stone ranking Heat #28 on its list of "The 100 Greatest Movies of the '90s", and The Guardian ranking it #22 on its list of "The Greatest Crime Films of All Time".

• Heat was revealed as the #31 film on the CLP list.

• Heat has also been influential on other major directors since its release with Christopher Nolan specifically highlighting the film as a direct influence on The Dark Knight.

• Heat 2 - the novel - was released in 2022 and Michael Mann is set to return to the director's chair to film the prequel movie. Adam Driver, Austin Butler, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Christian Bale have all been rumored to be in the cast.

• Heat currently holds an 84% among critics on RT, a 76 score on Metacritic, and a 4.3/5 on Letterboxd.

Plot Summary: Heat is a crime thriller that stars Al Pacino as Lt. Vincent Hanna, a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, and Robert De Niro as Neil McCauley, a highly skilled professional thief. Both men are the best at what they do, and their lives begin to collide as McCauley’s crew plans a major bank robbery.

McCauley leads a disciplined team that includes characters played by Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore. They try to stay ahead of the law while preparing for one last big score. Hanna, who is obsessed with catching them, struggles to balance his dangerous job with his strained home life. When the final robbery goes wrong, it leads to a dramatic chase through the streets of Los Angeles.

Did You Know:

• As many already know, rather than dubbing in the gunshots during the bank robbery shoot-out, Michael Mann had microphones carefully placed around the set so that the audio could be captured live. This added to the impact of the scene, because it sounded like no other gunfight shown on-screen.

• In an interview with Al Pacino on the DVD Special Edition, Pacino revealed that for the scene in the restaurant between Hanna and McCauley, Robert De Niro felt that the scene should not be rehearsed so that the unfamiliarity between the two characters would seem more genuine. Michael Mann agreed, and shot the scene with no practice rehearsals.

• Val Kilmer was thrilled to learn that the moment in the gunfight scene where he runs out of bullets, and rapidly changes his magazine, is regularly shown to Marine recruits as an example of how to perform the action properly. According to Kilmer, a trainer once said, "If you can't change a clip as fast as this actor, get out of my army!"

• Val Kilmer stated the main reason he chose to act in this film was so that he would be able to call Al Pacino and Robert De Niro "Al and Bob" the rest of his life.

• Waingro (Kevin Gage) is based on a real Chicago criminal named "Waingro", who ratted out some influential Chicago criminals. According to Michael Mann, Waingro went missing. His body was found in northern Mexico, where it had been nailed to the wall of a shed.

• Michael Mann made the movie as tribute to a detective friend of his in Chicago, who obsessively tracked and killed a thief (named Neil McCauley) he had once met under non-violent circumstances.

Best Performance: Michael Mann (Director/Writer)

Best Secondary Performance: Robert DeNiro (Neil)/Danta Spinotti (cinematography)

Most Charismatic Award: Al Pacino (Vincent)/Amy Brenneman (Eady)

Best Scene:

• Heist Walkaway

• Mano y Mano

• Bank Heist Gone Wrong

• Killing Waingro

• Warning Chris

• Final Shootout

Favorite Scene: Killing Waingro

Most Indelible Moment: Mano y Mano/Bank Heist Gone Wrong

In Memorium:

• Sir Tom Stoppard, 88, Czech-born British playwright (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead) and screenwriter (Shakespeare in Love, Empire of the Sun, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), five-time Tony winner, Oscar Winner 1998.

• Jill Freud, 98, British actress (Torchy the Battery Boy, Love Actually), inspiration for Lucy Pevensie.

• Jonathan Farwell, 93, American actor (The Young and the Restless, The Doctors, The Edge of Night)

• Lise Bourdin, 99, French model and actress (Love in the Afternoon, The River Girl, It Happens in Roma)

• Jack Shepherd, 85, English actor and playwright (English TV drama - Wycliffe)

• Danny Seagren, 81, American actor and puppeteer (Electric Company, Sesame Street, Spidey Super Stories)

• Ethan Browne, 52, American model, actor, and musician (Raising Helen, Hackers)

• Michael DeLano, 84, American actor (Rhonda, Commando, Ocean's Eleven)

Best Lines/Funniest Lines:

Vincent Hanna: I'm angry. I'm very angry, Ralph. You know, you can ball my wife if she wants you to. You can lounge around here on her sofa, in her ex-husband's dead-tech, post-modernistic bullshit house if you want to. But you do not get to watch my fucking television set!

Michael Cheritto: Well ya know, for me, the action is the juice.

Neil McCauley: I'm alone, I am not lonely.

Roger Van Zant: What are you doing?

Neil McCauley: What am I doing? I'm talking to an empty telephone.

Roger Van Zant: I don't understand.

Neil McCauley: 'Cause there is a dead man on the other end of this fuckin' line.

Vincent Hanna: So you never wanted a regular type life?

Neil McCauley: What the fuck is that? Barbeques and ballgames?

Neil McCauley: Told you I'm never going back...

Vincent Hanna: Yeah.

Vincent Hanna: My life's a disaster zone. I got a stepdaughter so fucked up because her real father's this large-type asshole. I got a wife, we're passing each other on the down-slope of a marriage - my third - because I spend all my time chasing guys like you around the block. That's my life.

Neil McCauley: A guy told me one time, "Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner." Now, if you're on me and you gotta move when I move, how do you expect to keep a... a marriage?

Neil McCauley: I don't even know what I'm doing anymore. I know life is short, whatever time you get is luck. You want to walk? You walk right now. Or on your own... on your own you choose to come with me. And all I know is... all I know is there's no point in me going anywhere anymore if it's going to be alone... without you.

Vincent Hanna: You know what they're looking at?

Schwartz: What?

Vincent Hanna: Us. The L-A-P-D. Po-lice Department... We just got made.

Vincent Hanna: You know, we are sitting here, you and I, like a couple of regular fellas. You do what you do, and I do what I gotta do. And now that we've been face to face, if I'm there and I gotta put you away, I won't like it. But I tell you, if it's between you and some poor bastard whose wife you're gonna turn into a widow, brother, you are going down.

Neil McCauley: There is a flip side to that coin. What if you do got me boxed in and I gotta put you down? Cause no matter what, you will not get in my way. We've been face to face, yeah. But I will not hesitate. Not for a second.

Alan Marciano: Why'd I get mixed up with that bitch?

Vincent Hanna: Cause she's got a great ass... and you got your head all the way up it!

Vincent Hanna: I gotta hold on to my angst. I preserve it because I need it. It keeps me sharp, on the edge, where I gotta be.

Chris Shiherlis: For me the sun rises and sets with her, man.

Vincent Hanna: It's like you said. All I am is what I'm going after.

The Stanley Rubric:

Legacy: 8.17

Impact/Significance: 7.67

Novelty: 8.5

Classic-ness: 8

Rewatchability: 7.33

Audience Score: 9.0 (86% Google, 94% RT)

Total: 48.67

Remaining Questions:

• Why didn't Neil get in the car and take off?

• Why did Lauren go to Vincent's hotel room, and how did she get in?

• Where does Chris go?