Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Heat (1995) - Mann's superb masculine thriller showstopper

5/29/2021

Heat (1995) - Mann's superb masculine thriller showstopper

♥♥♥♥♥

The three stars above a mysterious image of five men with long shadows make up this stylish poster for Michael Mann's Heat

A five-man group of professional robbers leave a mess after they rob a large sum of money in bearer bonds, and a dedicated veteran LAPD detective begins to let them feel his heat on their tails.

Heat is written, co-produced and directed by great Illinoisan filmmaker Michael Mann (Thief (1981), inspired by the actual criminal case of Neil McCauley and detective Chuck Adamson in the early 1960s.

It is a fantastically well-made man's film. The showdown of the cinematic powers that are Robert De Niro (Greetings (1968)) and Al Pacino (Scarface (1983)), - who meet for the first time on-screen here, - is gladiatorial, but Mann refuses to let this be the film's main premise.

The thrills and suspense is the heart of Heat, which works as a cat-and-mouse game of wits for the two leads but is also heavily loaded with good drama. De Niro and Pacino are terrific, and in supporting roles Dennis Haysbert (Jarhead (2005)), Ashley Judd (High Crimes (2002)) and Amy Brenneman (Nine Lives (2005)) are particularly satisfying.

Heat is written, directed and edited so that its long running time never gets in the way of us always paying full attention; and Elliot Goldenthal's (Blank Generation 1980)) score adds to the tension in superior fashion. Heat is a tremendous joy.

Related posts:

Michael Mann: Top 10: Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Collateral (2004) - Great, urban, digital age thriller from Mann in his right element

Manhunter (1986) - Perhaps the best criminal profiling picture ever

Watch a very short teaser for the film here

Cost: 60 mil. $

Box office: 187.4 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.12 times its cost)

[Heat premiered 6 December (California) and runs 170 minutes. Mann wrote a 180-page draft for Heat in 1979 that eventually turned into a pilot for a TV-series, which was canceled after the pilot was made and released as TV movie L.A. Takedown (1989). Mann's success with The Last of the Mohicans (1992) allowed him to take up his old script and ideas once again. Shooting took place from February - July 1995, solely on locations in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release Jumanji and hold-over hit Toy Story, to an 8.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#5) and grossed 67.4 mil. $ ( 36 % of the total gross). In recent years Mann has teased a sequel to the film several times; Heat is widely considered his greatest film. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #126 on the site's Top 250, sitting between Rashomon (1950) and Yojimbo (1961). Mann returned with The Insider (1999). De Niro returned in The Fan (1996); Pacino in City Hall (1996); and Val Kilmer (5 Days of War (2011)) in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996). Heat is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Heat?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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5/29/2021

Heat (1995) - Mann's superb masculine thriller showstopper

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