Michael Mann has been clear that 1995's "Heat" is a drama and not a crime movie. But even when the audience is in on the mystery from the very start, and knows what the criminals are planning, Mann is able to make the story compelling through the characters' cat-and-mouse investigation of each other.
As was one of Mann's goals for the film, "Heat" paints a full picture of the private lives of Al Pacino's Vicent Hanna and Robert De Niro's Neil McAuley. Consistent with the film's title, Hanna's escalating efforts to subdue McAuley drive the plot, with each constantly trying to outsmart the other. Only at great cost does Hanna finally catch McCauley. In Mann's other films, like "Thief" (1981), "Collateral" (2004), and "Miami Vice" (2006) — though he rotates between spending time with cops, criminals, or civilians — characters are similarly in regular search for insight into how their enemy operates.
Mann is...
As was one of Mann's goals for the film, "Heat" paints a full picture of the private lives of Al Pacino's Vicent Hanna and Robert De Niro's Neil McAuley. Consistent with the film's title, Hanna's escalating efforts to subdue McAuley drive the plot, with each constantly trying to outsmart the other. Only at great cost does Hanna finally catch McCauley. In Mann's other films, like "Thief" (1981), "Collateral" (2004), and "Miami Vice" (2006) — though he rotates between spending time with cops, criminals, or civilians — characters are similarly in regular search for insight into how their enemy operates.
Mann is...
- 11/6/2022
- by Walter Roberts
- Slash Film
Michael Mann is having quite a week. In addition to beginning production on his star-studded film “Ferrari” this week in Italy, the director’s first novel, “Heat 2,” a sequel to his epic 1995 crime epic, is topping bestseller lists.
Written alongside veteran thriller writer Meg Gardiner, the book reprises the complex characters featured in the original film, namely the professional thief Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) and LAPD detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino). Although the film ends with Hanna’s murder of McCauley at the end of his years-long investigation, the pair had created an inexplicable bond through their catch-and-kill dynamic that’s further explored in the book’s prequel scenes. One of the most revelatory plot points is the revelation that Hanna and McCauley unknowingly crossed paths in a previous major heist before they met each other.
The 466-page tome, which serves as both a sequel and prequel, also delves...
Written alongside veteran thriller writer Meg Gardiner, the book reprises the complex characters featured in the original film, namely the professional thief Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) and LAPD detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino). Although the film ends with Hanna’s murder of McCauley at the end of his years-long investigation, the pair had created an inexplicable bond through their catch-and-kill dynamic that’s further explored in the book’s prequel scenes. One of the most revelatory plot points is the revelation that Hanna and McCauley unknowingly crossed paths in a previous major heist before they met each other.
The 466-page tome, which serves as both a sequel and prequel, also delves...
- 8/18/2022
- by Anna Tingley
- Variety Film + TV
The publication of Heat 2 this week marks writer-director Michael Mann’s debut as a novelist, expands the mythology of perhaps his most beloved film, and becomes the first major release of the publishing imprint he set at William Morrow six years ago.
From the TV series Miami Vice and Crime Story to his feature debut Thief, to the Tom Cruise-Jamie Foxx thriller Collateral and the 1995 Al Pacino-Robert De Niro drama classic Heat, Mann’s crime procedurals are informed by an intimate knowledge of cops and robbers that breathes life and multi-dimensional characters with empathy to go with the violence in lawbreaking.
That is the same thing that Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo did with The Godfather films, David Chase for his The Sopranos series, and Martin Scorsese for Goodfellas and Casino, the other crime high-water marks of the last half century. What is interesting here is the difference in...
From the TV series Miami Vice and Crime Story to his feature debut Thief, to the Tom Cruise-Jamie Foxx thriller Collateral and the 1995 Al Pacino-Robert De Niro drama classic Heat, Mann’s crime procedurals are informed by an intimate knowledge of cops and robbers that breathes life and multi-dimensional characters with empathy to go with the violence in lawbreaking.
That is the same thing that Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo did with The Godfather films, David Chase for his The Sopranos series, and Martin Scorsese for Goodfellas and Casino, the other crime high-water marks of the last half century. What is interesting here is the difference in...
- 8/10/2022
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
It ends the only way it can end, with two of the toughest men in Los Angeles holding hands as one of them bleeds out on the periphery of Lax’s tarmac. For the greater part of two and a half hours, we’ve watched Neil McCauley — mastermind of heists and bank robberies — and Vincent Hanna — lieutenant in the LAPD’s Major Crimes Unit — circle one another, chase each other, and calmly converse over a cup of coffee. Now, however, these apex predators of the urban jungle have reached their endgame,...
- 8/7/2022
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Exclusive: Michael Mann is ready to rip on Heat 2, a novel he has written with Edgar-winner Meg Gardiner that expands the tapestry of his 1995 crime classic film. The surprise here: the novel coming August 9 from William Morrow through the HarperCollins-based Michael Mann Books imprint will tell an original story about the lives of the characters in that movie both before and after the events depicted in the movie..
To those like myself who’ve watched the atmospheric Los Angeles-based heist thriller dozens of times, the prospect of its creator revisiting the terrain and characters is something to look forward to. To remind, the meticulously plotted mano a mano matchup between LAPD Homicide/Robbery lieutenant Vincent Hanna and master thief Neil McCauley became...
To those like myself who’ve watched the atmospheric Los Angeles-based heist thriller dozens of times, the prospect of its creator revisiting the terrain and characters is something to look forward to. To remind, the meticulously plotted mano a mano matchup between LAPD Homicide/Robbery lieutenant Vincent Hanna and master thief Neil McCauley became...
- 1/19/2022
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Ryan Lambie Dec 13, 2019
More than two decades on, Heat is still an important film. We look at how Michael Mann's research made for a powerful crime drama.
Cool, measured, melancholy and stylish, Michael Mann's Heat was a box office hit in 1995, and 18 years on, its impact can still be felt. A story about two weary men on either side of the law - one a cop married to his profession, the other a career criminal with no intention of going straight - Heat is also a movie about Los Angeles, in all its sparkly opulence and grimy malaise. Other directors have attempted to bottle some of Heat's atmosphere and move it to another city, whether it be London (see The Sweeney or the visually striking Welcome To The Punch) or Gotham, as seen in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight: look at the way Nolan and cinematographer...
More than two decades on, Heat is still an important film. We look at how Michael Mann's research made for a powerful crime drama.
Cool, measured, melancholy and stylish, Michael Mann's Heat was a box office hit in 1995, and 18 years on, its impact can still be felt. A story about two weary men on either side of the law - one a cop married to his profession, the other a career criminal with no intention of going straight - Heat is also a movie about Los Angeles, in all its sparkly opulence and grimy malaise. Other directors have attempted to bottle some of Heat's atmosphere and move it to another city, whether it be London (see The Sweeney or the visually striking Welcome To The Punch) or Gotham, as seen in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight: look at the way Nolan and cinematographer...
- 8/21/2017
- Den of Geek
"Heat" is arguably everyone's favorite Michael Mann movie.
It's the source of a rare Robert De Niro/Al Pacino summit, one of the most gripping cops-and-robbers thrillers ever made, and a quintessential Los Angeles movie. Yet, when it opened 20 years ago (on December 15, 1995), it went unheralded by the Angelenos in the Academy.
Despite being snubbed for Oscar nominations, it went on to be considered a classic, one imitated not only by filmmakers (ahem Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight") but also by real-life crooks. Still, for all the obsessive viewings and re-viewings, there's a lot you may not know about "Heat." Here are 11 things you need to know.
1. The inspiration for De Niro's Neil McCauley was a real-life Chicago thief of the same name. The real-life Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino's character) was Chicago cop Chuck Adamson, a technical adviser on Mann's TV police dramas "Miami Vice" and "Crime Story."
2. As in the film,...
It's the source of a rare Robert De Niro/Al Pacino summit, one of the most gripping cops-and-robbers thrillers ever made, and a quintessential Los Angeles movie. Yet, when it opened 20 years ago (on December 15, 1995), it went unheralded by the Angelenos in the Academy.
Despite being snubbed for Oscar nominations, it went on to be considered a classic, one imitated not only by filmmakers (ahem Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight") but also by real-life crooks. Still, for all the obsessive viewings and re-viewings, there's a lot you may not know about "Heat." Here are 11 things you need to know.
1. The inspiration for De Niro's Neil McCauley was a real-life Chicago thief of the same name. The real-life Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino's character) was Chicago cop Chuck Adamson, a technical adviser on Mann's TV police dramas "Miami Vice" and "Crime Story."
2. As in the film,...
- 12/15/2015
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
Crime Story, Season 1, Episode 1 “Pilot”
Directed by Abel Ferrara
Written by Chuck Adamson, David J. Burke and Gustave Reiniger
Aired 18 September 1986
There are many reasons why the pilot of 1986’s Crime Story may not be great television.
The 90+ minute story by series creators Chuck Adamson and Gustave Reininger never gains any real traction as they introduce the 1963 Chicago Major Crimes Unit team and their mob rivals. Two veterans from Miami Vice, creators Adamson and Reininger’s ambitious story tries to introduce too many characters from both sides of the law. While focusing on Detective Mike Torello (more on him later), they try to cram everything from cop/mob rivalry and revenge to marital discord into this first episode. With everything they are wanting to accomplish, they lose sight of building any basic structure to this episode as this pilot moves from one plot point to another with little grace or...
Directed by Abel Ferrara
Written by Chuck Adamson, David J. Burke and Gustave Reiniger
Aired 18 September 1986
There are many reasons why the pilot of 1986’s Crime Story may not be great television.
The 90+ minute story by series creators Chuck Adamson and Gustave Reininger never gains any real traction as they introduce the 1963 Chicago Major Crimes Unit team and their mob rivals. Two veterans from Miami Vice, creators Adamson and Reininger’s ambitious story tries to introduce too many characters from both sides of the law. While focusing on Detective Mike Torello (more on him later), they try to cram everything from cop/mob rivalry and revenge to marital discord into this first episode. With everything they are wanting to accomplish, they lose sight of building any basic structure to this episode as this pilot moves from one plot point to another with little grace or...
- 3/29/2014
- by Scott Cederlund
- SoundOnSight
When the news of Dennis Farina’s death by cancer at age 69 came through early this week, I think I felt a particularly sharp pang because it came so soon after the passing of James Gandolfini. I hadn’t thought of it before, but with Gandolfini still fresh in my mind, when I heard about Farina’s death I had a sense of connection between the two actors, and the same sense of having lost “one of our own.”
As actors, they were poles apart. Gandolfini was the trained actor, the skilled artist, somebody who had found his calling young and applied himself to perfecting his instrument. Farina’s was a case of fortunate circumstance, natural ability, and working from the gut.
But what they both shared – and what I’d always responded to in both men – was an Italian-American blue collar-dom, a sense of being one of the guys,...
As actors, they were poles apart. Gandolfini was the trained actor, the skilled artist, somebody who had found his calling young and applied himself to perfecting his instrument. Farina’s was a case of fortunate circumstance, natural ability, and working from the gut.
But what they both shared – and what I’d always responded to in both men – was an Italian-American blue collar-dom, a sense of being one of the guys,...
- 7/28/2013
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
Dennis Farina, a former Chicago police officer turned actor, has died. His representative told the Associated Press that he "died Monday morning in a Scottsdale, Ariz., hospital after suffering a blood clot in his lung." Farina served in the Chicago Police Department, reportedly for 18 years. His first acting appearance came in Michael Mann's Thief in 1981. Mann cast him as Jack Crawford in 1986's Manhunter, but his big breakthrough came as Lt. Mike Torello in TV's Crime Story. Mann served as executive producer, which was co-created by Chuck Adamson, who had been one of Farina's police partners. That show was the first time I saw Farina, who exhibited crisp command and absolute authenticity as the head of Chicago's Major Crimes Unit in the early...
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- 7/22/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Ryan Lambie Aug 21, 2017
21 years on, Heat is still an important, influential film. We look at how Michael Mann's research made for a powerful crime drama...
"This is based on observations. This is based on people I have met, people I've known, people I've sat with and talked to. Thieves, cops, killers. It's not derived from other cinema, it's based on research." Michael Mann
Cool, measured, melancholy and stylish, Michael Mann's Heat was a box office hit in 1995, and 18 years on, its impact can still be felt. A story about two weary men on either side of the law - one a cop married to his profession, the other a career criminal with no intention of going straight - Heat is also a movie about Los Angeles, in all its sparkly opulence and grimy malaise. Other directors have attempted to bottle some of Heat's atmosphere and move it to another city,...
21 years on, Heat is still an important, influential film. We look at how Michael Mann's research made for a powerful crime drama...
"This is based on observations. This is based on people I have met, people I've known, people I've sat with and talked to. Thieves, cops, killers. It's not derived from other cinema, it's based on research." Michael Mann
Cool, measured, melancholy and stylish, Michael Mann's Heat was a box office hit in 1995, and 18 years on, its impact can still be felt. A story about two weary men on either side of the law - one a cop married to his profession, the other a career criminal with no intention of going straight - Heat is also a movie about Los Angeles, in all its sparkly opulence and grimy malaise. Other directors have attempted to bottle some of Heat's atmosphere and move it to another city,...
- 5/7/2013
- Den of Geek
Feature Ryan Lambie 8 May 2013 - 06:50
Eighteen years on, Heat is still an important, influential film. We look at how Michael Mann's research made for a powerful crime drama...
"This is based on observations. This is based on people I have met, people I've known, people I've sat with and talked to. Thieves, cops, killers. It's not derived from other cinema, it's based on research." Michael Mann
Cool, measured, melancholy and stylish, Michael Mann's Heat was a box office hit in 1995, and 18 years on, its impact can still be felt. A story about two weary men on either side of the law - one a cop married to his profession, the other a career criminal with no intention of going straight - Heat is also a movie about Los Angeles, in all its sparkly opulence and grimy malaise. Other directors have attempted to bottle some of Heat's...
Eighteen years on, Heat is still an important, influential film. We look at how Michael Mann's research made for a powerful crime drama...
"This is based on observations. This is based on people I have met, people I've known, people I've sat with and talked to. Thieves, cops, killers. It's not derived from other cinema, it's based on research." Michael Mann
Cool, measured, melancholy and stylish, Michael Mann's Heat was a box office hit in 1995, and 18 years on, its impact can still be felt. A story about two weary men on either side of the law - one a cop married to his profession, the other a career criminal with no intention of going straight - Heat is also a movie about Los Angeles, in all its sparkly opulence and grimy malaise. Other directors have attempted to bottle some of Heat's...
- 5/7/2013
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
Locations in films are rarely the thing an average filmgoer remembers after watching a film; it’s always about the story, character and the lines they say that later form the proverbial ‘word of mouth.’ However, when you think of great confrontations, conversations and simple exchanges, they always take place in a nice public setting – although being surrounded by a group of unknowing people rarely dulls the impact of a tense interaction.
An epiphany came after some light people-watching during a mediocre pancake breakfast – they seem to take place in a restaurant, diner or some kind of eatery; a place where some of TV and film’s classic characters can settle an old score of even debate on pop culture over a cup of coffee:
Café des 2 Moulins, Paris (Amélie, 2001)
This quaint coffee shop, where young dreamer Amélie Poulain (Audrey Tautou) worked and interacted with a variety of characters, is based in Montmatre,...
An epiphany came after some light people-watching during a mediocre pancake breakfast – they seem to take place in a restaurant, diner or some kind of eatery; a place where some of TV and film’s classic characters can settle an old score of even debate on pop culture over a cup of coffee:
Café des 2 Moulins, Paris (Amélie, 2001)
This quaint coffee shop, where young dreamer Amélie Poulain (Audrey Tautou) worked and interacted with a variety of characters, is based in Montmatre,...
- 4/16/2013
- by Katie Wong
- SoundOnSight
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