Return to the Scene of the Crime - Heat Bonus Feature

I came across this YouTube footage that is on the Heat DVD as a bonus feature. Ten years after the film was made cameras follow the original location scouts for Heat as they provide a guided tour of some of the key shooting locations for Heat around LA. One of the most interesting is where they discuss the final airport scene and Mann's inch by inch detail in planning the final shoot out. For those who haven't seen this bonus feature you will enjoy it.

Michael Rooker on Michael Mann's L.A. Takedown & Heat

Michael Rooker

I noticed that an early role of yours was in the Michael Mann’s TV movie L.A. Take Down, which he later remade as Heat. I was curious what you though of Heat when you eventually saw it since its shockingly similar to the original?

Oh my God! You know that was a case where from the studio’s standpoint, they didn’t want any actors from the original. I was wondering why I wasn’t even able to see Michael. I couldn’t get an audition for Heat. And then I got the script and realized why. It was the same exact script, word for word, as the TV version. So, I was like, “OK I get it now. He doesn’t want anyone to know that it was a TV pilot and a failed one at that.” So I don’t blame him for trying to keep it under wraps. With the names that they had in the cast, I’m sure those guys didn’t know that it was a failed TV pilot when they decided to do it. But that’s not saying that it wasn’t good material. I would have loved to work with Michael again on that. Was it something I said? No, it was something I’d done. I was in the original. So nope, couldn’t do it.

http://www.toromagazine.com/features/talking-to/a0cad6b5-b18c-21c4-e9a2-7bd28f16708a/Michael-Rooker/

Documentary of Key Scenes with Michael Mann and Actors

For as long as these videos are available online, you can treat yourself to some old but powerful Michael Mann interviews with some of our best loved Michael Mann scenes. This is wonderful footage, including actor interviews about the Tiger scene from Manhunter and that extraordinarily charged cliff scene in Last of the Mohicans. It includes scenes from Heat, and also the Insider. Actors speak about who they feel Michael Mann is, with some superb quotes to take away that sum up our favourite director. Get Michael Mann's inside story. Essential viewing, enjoy. I did... immensely. (Anyone know where these were first broadcast and who by?).


Part 1


"Les Réalisateurs" - Michael Mann (1/3) by SoWiFo


Part 2


"Les Réalisateurs" - Michael Mann (2/3) by SoWiFo

Part 3


"Les Réalisateurs" - Michael Mann (3/3) by SoWiFo

Michael Mann's heat Movie Trivia

Well folks, if you thought you knew Michael Mann's movie Heat inside out, then try answering some of the questions on Heat from this movie trivia site. Visit the site here. If nothing else, it is a useful list of information if you are wanting to put together an essay on Heat.

If you want to see a list of Heat goofs, then look here:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113277/goofs

I always think listing goofs is a bit harsh and unfair, when you think just how minor they are when putting together something as meticulous and intricate as most movies require. But for those interested, enjoy.

Signed: Robert De Niro's character Neil from Michael Mann's Heat

I am not endorsing this product, but I am posting it here for anyone interested! I have no idea if it is authentic or not. Link to product is here. I would prefer a signed one of him in the blue interior house shot by the sea. I don't have any autographs - not even by Mann himself. Does anyone reading this have one? Any story behind it?

Product Description:

Robert DeNiro has personally hand signed this 8x10 Photo with a Silver paint pen. This great action shot is from the movie "Heat". The Black custom wood frame measures 13x15 inches, and includes double matting. Conservation Clear glass was used on this fine piece to protect the autograph from fading due to UltraViolet (UV) Rays, which will fade your autographed collectibles. This custom made frame is ready to hang on the wall, and would look great in any office, bedroom, or man cave! This item comes with a numbered Online Authentics.com authenticity sticker on the autographed photo, which you can verify online once you purchase it. Online Authentics.com is one of the top third party authenticators in the memorabilia industry. This item also comes with a REAL DEAL Memorabilia Certificate of Authenticity (COA). Get The REAL DEAL!


Our Price: $343.95

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Disney Ducks version of Michael Mann's Heat - hilarious

This is hilarious.... absolutely hilarious. See the Disney Ducks version of Heat. I am still chuckling away as I type.

Behind the scenes of the shooting scene in Heat

Michael Mann Video Interview: From LA Takedown to Heat

Here is a bit of must see Michael Mann interview treasure. This has to be one of the best video interviews available with Michael Mann as he clearly presents his methodology of shooting films and explains the progression from 'LA Takedown' to 'Heat'. Amazingly, in this interview that must be at least 10 years old (his hair is still brown!) he admits he finds it hard to find a movie he wants to shoot and wishes he could shoot more. He said exactly the same thing in the recent Financial Times interview I posted below. It's a fascinating insight into how Mann's mind works. Note what he says about the role of architecture. Great stuff.

Alternative Music Ending to Michael Mann's Heat

The iconic end scene of Heat

I am so glad I found this wonderful insight into the ending of Heat, which is one of my top cinematic moments. For me, Moby's "God Moving Across the Face of the Water" has become almost a life anthem. The end scene of Heat is iconic to me. It resonates with something deep inside of me, something even now I find hard to understand. But this write up of the music development of this scene is short but fascinating. Be sure to follow the link to the source of this, because you can actually play a stream of "End Titles" by Elliot Goldenthal, which is just superb and sadly commercially unavailable.

The precisely hodge-podged sources for Michael Mann's musical cues—sometimes original compositions, sometimes culled from pre-existing pop, rock, industrial, and/or electronic groups—are as diverse as the dusty Los Angeles turfs he agilely vignettes in his consummate epic crime male-odrama Heat.

Film scorer Elliot Goldenthal's original cue for the end titles (performed by the Kronos Quartet) was ultimately replaced by a Moby track—the Reich-like "God Moving Across the Face of the Water" which appeared on "Everything is Wrong" that same year.  While both selections capture the enveloping electricity of an adrenaline rush effervescing into the blinking lights of a warm L.A. night, the Goldenthal better emphasizes a potential lack of resolution, thus providing an appropriate emotional bookend to that composer's hauntingly spare and ambivalent opening track.  The Moby, in a new version specific to the film, features an additional bridge that seems rather to triumphantly celebrate the story's fulfillment.

To read more and play the wonderful streamed music click here

To read a host of brilliant writing about the work of Michael Mann click here!

Michael Mann's Heat Script

Here is the script for Michael Mann's Heat:

http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Heat.pdf

Heat Presentation - A Message of Hope in a Dark World

I gave a talk earlier in the week to about 40 people presenting a message about Heat. I showed several scenes from the movie, these being:

• LA shootout (after main bank heist)
• The Conversation (between Vincent and Neil)
• Vincent telling his wife that after seeing three dead bodies he can't be concerned about burnt chicken and being late home.
• Neil returning to his empty, minimalist home looking out to sea.
• Vincent discovering his step daughter following a suicide attempt and taking her to hospital.
• The final shootout and the ending of the film. Moby's music finished it off.

In my talk I presented these two men to people who the majority had not seen Heat before. I tried, in a very short space of time, to represent these two characters as men that had somehow lost their way in a very confused world. The LA shootout represented the "badness" of Neil, out to kill whoever gets in his way - and Vincent, the relentless hunter of an elusive, intelligent prey.

Turning the clock backwards, I then show these two men in conversation, a useful contrast having just seen them try to take each other down. The conversation demonstrated the paradoxical reality of their lives - that whilst they are on each side of the law, they are still very much the same. One is deemed "good", the other deemed "bad". This theme continues throughout the film. Both Vincent and Neil share their bad dreams at night. Vincent sees decomposing dead bodies, the victims of brutal murders he has investigated. There is no explanation of the dream, but it is clear that whilst trying to live on the good side of the law that you cannot escape the horror and "badness" of life - it affects him every day. Later on we see this affect Vincent in his normal life as his family life and marriage fall apart. For Neil, his dream is one of drowning in his sleep, trying to gasp for air. Unlike Vincent, he can explain his dream - he doesn't have enough time to do what he does. He isn't talking about robbing banks. He sees a future outside his current circumstances, and he later shares this, unusually, in his new relationship with a girl he met. Both men are seeing negative manifestations, consequences of their activities, affecting their lives. In doing so, we see the two men identify with each other.

I went on to demonstrate how Vincent's life was falling apart through the scene where he falls out with his wife, Justeen. As Vincent explained to Neil in the conversation, "my life is a disaster zone".

In contrast to Vincent's attempt of a respectable "family life", we see by contrast Neil's minimalist "no attachments" life. He returns to an empty, cold house, walks to the window and stares to the oceans horizon - yearning for something more than what he has. The scene is short and shot with a blue tint for added coldness... detachment.

The clip depicting Vincent's step daughter's suicide is powerful and I showed this to further illustrate the deterioration of his family life. Not only this, but the screwed up mess the world is largely in. There is so much personal tragedy out there, much we never see, much that is never reported.

Finally, I showed the end scene of the movie. Vincent shoots Neil and he goes down. Neil's last words were, " I told you I wasn't going back." As Neil's life started to slip away he lifted his hand to Vincent, not wanting to die alone in the dark world he was trying to make sense of. Neil's earlier family life condemned him to what he became. His mother died young and he had no idea where his father was. There was no love in his family.

In the conversation with Vincent he said don't attach yourself to anything you can't leave in 30 seconds if heat is around the corner. I read in some movie trivia that just as Vincent spotted him in the final chase, that Neil spent 45 seconds looking at his new girlfriend he was about to start a new life with, and then looking at Vincent. He had finally attached himself to something, and it was his downfall. He lived his life with no attachments, and he broke his discipline of observing the 30 second rule. It cost him, but as he said at the end, "I told you I wasn't going back". Perhaps he was talking about jail, but maybe he didn't want that life on the run, of drowning. The reason he was with his girlfriend at that end sequence was because he was on the way to the airport to start a new life. It never happened.

So, that final scene we see Vincent talking Neil's hand. There is that moment of identification with each other. The great sadness of a world that is in a hopeless mess, that whether good or bad, we are all caught up in it and some of us consumed and destroyed by it - just as Vincent's step daughter almost was - quite often at no fault of our own. Just lives dictated by cruel circumstance.

It was the "bad" character of Neil who finally lost. But lost to what? "Good" prevailed, as so often does in a film. Yet Vincent still has his junk, and will no doubt continue to have his bad dreams.

Well, at the end one can think the world is a nihilist place. I personally believe in God. I believe he is the only one that can save us from this hopelessness that seems to wrap this film like a blanket. There is good out there, but somehow it gets corrupted. God offers something incorruptable, and that is where my hope is. That was my message. What do you think?

Dark Knight Influences

Argued by many to be the film of 2008, Dark Night, Directed by Christopher Nolan is said to be influenced in its making by Michael Mann's Heat. Here is the director quoted by Variety.

For Nolan's urban-set comicbook blockbuster, the London-born director actually screened Mann's L.A. crime drama for all his department heads before going into production.

"I always felt 'Heat' to be a remarkable demonstration of how you can create a vast universe within one city and balance a very large number of characters and their emotional journeys in an effective manner," Nolan says.

A bloggers view of Michael Mann's Characterization

Here is an extract highlighting from another blogger thoughts about Mann's movie Heat. Click the title to get the full article.

Michael Mann & the Interlacing Strings of Causality

by Mansur

Heat is like an opera, a mosaic with threads that branch out in all directions. We have cops, we have criminals, we have your ordinary citizens, but Michael Mann never makes a distinction between them in any moral capacity. He cuts away all the labels and definitions for his characters until we can’t even judge them in simple absolutes as good and bad. There is no good and bad, there’s just the decisions the characters make, either consciously or unconsciously, and the inevitable circumstances engendered from those choices.

Artistic influences on Michael Mann

I came across this genuinely fascinating write up looking at the artistic influences on Michael Mann. It really is eye catching to see some paintings look incredibly similar to certain shots in Mann's films. It is refreshing to find this intelligent level of examination of Mann's visual work. You can't ignore the fact that Mann must infuence his cinematographers, or at least they are employed for their own enthusiasm for Mann's artistic tastes.

Have a look by clicking the title below, great material. There are some great Michael Mann links to explore too at the bottom of the page. Enjoy.

Against the Flow of Time: Michael Mann and Edward Hopper

Moby and Mann again

Following up on a recent post, here is another interviewer asking Moby about his music in Heat:
Click here for the full article (no more mention of Mann though).

RS: Very cool. Do you enjoy hearing your music in films?
Moby: Yes, I do. I like hearing my music in films because when they're mixing it to the film, they usually do a good job. I'm always very flattered that someone would choose to use my music in a movie. There's so much music that could be used, the fact that they've chosen mine, its very exciting and flattering.

RS: There was a scene in the movie Heat when there's that change at the end of God Moving Over the Face of the Waters… That was just a magical moment for the person who wrote the question. Do you remember seeing that on screen for the first time?
Moby: Yes, I saw Heat in a movie theatre on 19th and Broadway with my friend Damien. It was interesting because Heat was an example of a movie that, when it was released, the critics just didn't get it. When Heat was released it got really bad reviews and it didn't do very well, but in the ten years that it's been out it's come to be this almost revered iconic movie. So it once again proves to me that I shouldn't always take critics' reviews too seriously. But I do remember seeing it at 19th and Broadway with my friend Damien and just thinking that Michael Mann had done a really wonderful job putting the music in there.

Variety ran an interview with Moby too, and here is that Michael Mann connection again with God Moving Over the Face of the Waters:

Then came "Play."
"When that was released, I was a has-been," he notes,"even though it was the first release of mine to really sell. I was surprised as time went on, that the story about how every track was licensed became 'every track was licensed to a commercial.' Eighty percent of the licenses were to indie films. Most of play went to movies with only a small percentage to TV shows and advertising."
His favorite usage out of placements in nearly 70 released films?
One of the first: Michael Mann's "Heat." His "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters," a track from "Everything is Wrong," plays over the climax of the movie and the credits. "Of all of them, that's what I'm most proud of," says the former film student.

In another interview Moby is quoted as saying God Moving Over the Face of the Waters is one of two of his all time favourite pieces of music he has written. I have to say, it is mine too! It is the one track I play when the world crowds in - it takes me to a place of solice and acceptance of whatever happens next. Wierd isn't it, what music can do? Here is that relevant extract from Surfline:

SZ: Do you have a favorite song that you have ever written?

Moby: I have two. In 1996 I put out an album called Animal Rights, it is a really dark, punk rock record. It alternates between really aggressive punk-rock-metal songs and very quiet instrumentals. There is one song called "Face It" and it's about 11 minutes and I don't think anyone has ever listened to the whole thing 'cause it is very long and very dark. That's probably my favorite song I've ever written. And then on an album called, Everything Is Wrong in 1995 I wrote a classical piece of music called "God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters," that was used as the closing music for a Michael Mann film with Al Pacino and Robert Di Niro. So those two would be my favorites.

Michael Mann and Moby

The words Michael Mann and Moby almost have the same rythmic connection as their work. I first became aware of Moby's music through the soundtrack of Heat. It doesn't say a lot for my musical awareness, but it transformed my appreciation of his genre of sound. I have the same glowing feeling when hearing a Moby track as I do when I watch a Mann movie. It is almost impossible to watch any movie and fail to miss a track that was made by Moby. Just as Mann connects us to our emotions through images and story, so Moby connects us through music. It is a dizzying concoction when Moby and Mann are fused creatively together. Both have a puritan zeal running through them - a moral question that is continually being asked of us through their respective arts. So, I really want to devote some posts to Moby's collaborations with Mann. I will start with a little interview I found. Moby didn't seem that comfortable, as it was mainly one line answers. But he did say something that made me rather pleased. After reading the interview click here for a previous post, and play the YouTube clip.

INDEPENTANT FILM QUARTERLY MAGAZINE

IFQ: What was the first Moby track used in a film?

Moby: I believe it was called Ah Ah and it was used in the Ralph Bakshi movie Cool World (starring Brad Pitt).

IFQ: Was it made for the film or taken from the album?

Moby: It was adapted for the film, which tends to be the usual way that my music ends up in films. I'll write something and then adapt it to a specific scene.

IFQ: How many film tracks have you done?

Moby: I have absolutley no idea. A lot!

IFQ: Have you ever suggested a Moby track for a film?

Moby: No, I don't think I've ever suggested one of my songs for a film.

IFQ: Do you find time to see many films?

Moby: Unfortunately, because I'm on tour right now I don't see too many films.

IFQ: Well, of the films you have seen, who do you think is the most promising director right now?

Moby: My favourite current director is Takeshi Kitano (Brother, 2000), but I also really like Mark Pellington (Mothman Prophecies, 2002; Arlington Road, 1999; Jerry Maguire, 1996).

IFQ: What's your favorite Moby film track ever used?

Moby: Probably God Moving Over the Face of the Waters as used in the Michael Mann film Heat.

IFQ: Did you like that film?

Moby: I love Heat. I like working with Michael Mann quite a bit, even though he's very intense.

IFQ: Didn't you also reinvent the famous James Bond theme tune?

Moby: Yes, I did, for Tomorrow Never Dies. (It was actually his 8th U.K. top 40 hit.)

IFQ: In the future, do you see yourself doing more tracks for big budget features or independent films?

Moby: When I was young I really wanted to write music for movies, but after writing music for movies I've kind of lost my enthusiasm for it. I'd like to do music for movies wherein I could work with a wonderful director, big budget or not. I don't like being handed a finished film and then being given twenty-four hours to do music for it.

IFQ: Are you working on any film tracks right now?

Moby: No, right now I'm too busy touring to think about making film music.

Melissa Silver

Analysis of Heat

Here is Michael Peter's analysis of Heat, which offers some helpful perspectives for anyone interested. I include an extract, but if you want to see the full interview then click here.

By Michael Peters

Nothing sums this up more (in the film) than when Vincent has been called to the scene of a homicide. A prostitute has been murdered and Vincent seems at ease with it (as if he is used to it). It is only when the mother of the murdered girl runs onto the scene that Vincent is left speechless. He does not know how to verbally console the mother nor does he know how to assist her in any other way. He simply stares at her, lost in her cries of agony.

To put it simply; both Vincent and Neil are emotionally fragile individuals. One is a cop and one is a criminal yet they share a common bond in their lack of understanding of how to connect with someone on a personal and emotional level. That is why the coffee shop sequence (where they first meet) is so crucial to the understanding of these men as emotionally aloof human beings. According to Ian Nathan's 2001 Empire Magazine article, this scene is the foundation for the whole film: “On the surface, it is just a superficial conversation-two guys shooting the breeze-but actually it’s the delicate dance of two disparate souls finding a connection”.

Al Pacino and Robert De Niro: Heat - The Conversation

Only now have I come across this brilliant video on YouTube - a clip detailing the legendary scene in Heat, the first onscreen pairing of Pacino and De Niro. This clip features extensive cast interviews, as well as insights into the scene by Michael Mann himself.

Michael Mann Heat and Insider Interview

Here is a gem of a surprise for all Michael Mann fans. A superb video interview (broadcast for a French audience) that I have not seen before with not only Michael Mann, but some cast members of Heat and the Insider. Mann talks about why he took his name off the "mutilated" TV version of Heat, which was cut down. Mann looks visibly upset talking about it. But more positively, there are some exceptional inside looks at some of the scenes and character developments in each film, along with clips of those scenes. Cast members (some will really surprise you!) from previous films convey their experiences of the director and offer insights into what makes mann so successful and driven. If you are a Mann fan, look at this - very informative.

"Les Réalisateurs" - Michael Mann (3/3)
by SoWiFo

Michael Mann's Heat Trailer

Here is one of the better trailers I have found on the movie Heat. If you know of a better one then please let me know. I think it sums up the movie rather eloquently. However, Mann has admitted that promo trailers are his achilles heel, and for average "Joe Plumber", I can see this sort of trailer makes the viewer work too hard to get what the movie is about, speaking on a commercial marketing point of view. Despite this, I enjoyed watching this trailer again!