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Remembering ‘Heat’ With Michael Mann and Friends

By Victorino Matus

Vincent Hanna was strung out on coke. If that means anything to you, read on. (And if it doesn’t, read on, anyway. I need the clicks.) This was just one of many revelations during a panel discussion following a Wednesday night screening of Heat, a remastered 20th anniversary edition of Michael Mann’s crime-thriller masterpiece. The panel included Mann, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Val Kilmer. Also, it was moderated by Christopher Nolan. (I fainted just typing that.)

At L.A.’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Wednesday night, as reported in Variety, Pacino admitted that he played his character, police officer Vincent Hanna, as being high on cocaine. “I don’t think I ever said it out loud, but I’ve always wanted to say it, just so you know where some of the behavior comes from,” he explained. Val Kilmer, who plays fellow bank robber Chris Shiherlis, said he researched his role by visiting prisons while filming Batman Forever: “The most fun I had doing Batman was preparing for Heat.” Poor guy.

Variety‘s Kristopher Tapley provides a bit more background:

As has been recounted before, Mann took his own inspiration from the real-life saga of criminal Neil McCauley, who was finally killed by Mann’s friend, Chicago police detective Charlie Adamson, in 1963. They were two men, like Hanna and De Niro’s version of McCauley, who had a fondness for one another, despite being on opposite sides of the law. “They had the kind of intimacy only strangers can have,” Mann said. That, and the idea of two characters the audience could invest in and pull for despite their goals being at such stark opposition to one another, was the germ of “Heat.” Mann first explored it as a movie of the week with 1989’s “L.A. Takedown,” and finally developed it to its full 172-minute glory six years later.

Also in attendance was Amy Brenneman, who plays De Niro’s love interest. As Tapley notes:

Brenneman, meanwhile, said she came to the table with a lot of ideas for Eady, which Mann was eager to hear. What she read on the page had her thinking the character was incredibly damaged, with father issues and perhaps even dark chapters of incest in her history. But Mann made it simple for her. “He said, ‘No—she just falls in love with him,'” Brenneman recalled.

And thank God for that.

But back to Pacino’s Vincent Hanna. You can go online to see highlights of his portrayal, which we might have simply attributed to Pacino being Pacino, particularly the “great ass” line. Speaking of which, Hank Azaria, who played opposite Pacino in that scene, gave the A.V. Club a bit more insight:

[O]ne thing that did make it into the movie that was extemporaneous was … I don’t know if you remember, but I say something like, “I don’t know why I got mixed up with this stupid broad,” and he says [Does a loud, spot-on Pacino impression.] “‘Cause she’s got a great ass!” He just screams it. And that was the line, but Al kind of yelled it for the first time, and he did it so completely out of nowhere that it scared me. So much so that I just went, “Jesus!” Not in character, just as Hank. I got frightened, and I went, “Jesus!” And then Al improvised [As Pacino.] “I’m sorry. Something happens to me when I think about a woman’s ass.” Or whatever it is that he said. And that actually made it into the movie! Michael Mann told me not to improvise, and the one line that I said that wasn’t scripted made it in there because … I don’t know, I guess because it was a good moment. Because I was scared of Al. [Laughs.]

Seriously, if you haven’t seen this movie, please fill that void in your life tonight—or whenever you have three hours to spare. There are some unforgettable scenes, plus the cast is stellar: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd, Wes Studi, Ted Levine, Dennis Haysbert, William Fichtner, Natalie Portman, Hank Azaria, Danny Trejo, and even Tone Loc! Cannonball Run-type films can be amusing, but what’s more impressive are star-studded casts comprised of actors who were cast because of their solid performances. (Haysbert had not yet done 24. Sizemore had yet to play Sergeant Horvath in Saving Private Ryan. Portman was 13 years old.)

And more than 20 years later, Todd McCarthy’s review of Heat is still worth reading.

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