Greetings one and all, and welcome to the latest episode of The Screening Room! Rorie has returned to the bosom of Whiskey Media's basement offices, and to celebrate, we're going to watch a movie that counts among both our very favorites of all time, the 1995 crime movie classic Heat!
Hopefully by now you're aware of The Screening room and what we do here, but just in case you aren't, here's the quick rundown. Hopefully at some point in the last week you grabbed yourself a copy of Heat, or at least dropped it into your Netflix Instant Watch queue. At 3PM Pacific time today (a special early start time, due to the longish nature of the film), Rorie and I will be watching the movie, and we'll be broadcasting live via our Justin.tv stream. To be clear, WE ARE NOT BROADCASTING THE MOVIE HEAT. If you want to watch along with us, you'll need to sync your own copy up with our stream (which we'll try to make as easy as humanly possible). As you watch, Rorie and I will discuss the film in detail, take your questions from the chat room, and even give away a few copies of Heat to those who answer our Heat trivia questions! Fun, eh?
As always, none of this is a requirement. You can just hang out in the chat room, talk some Heat with your fellow Screened folk, or watch the movie on your own and use our archive video at your leisure, if you're into the whole commentary thing. Above all else, we just want you to discuss this quality piece of cinema, and what it is you love so much about it.
For my own part, when I think of my favorite crime epics of all time, I think The Godfather, I think Goodfellas, and I think Heat. No movie in my mind better captures the atmosphere and the vibe of Los Angeles in the '90s than Heat. Michael Mann knows the city, and his dual tale of a cop and the criminal he's chasing is as wonderfully dramatic as it is action-packed. The bank robbery scene in this movie is simply one of the best gun battles ever captured on film. No hyperbole.
I want to know what you folks think about Heat. Who gave the more memorable performance? Pacino or De Niro? How unbelievable is that scene in the diner (the only one where De Niro and Pacino appear together for an extended period of time)? And seriously, how fucking awesome is that bank robbery?
Let's talk some Heat!
Update: Thanks for watching everyone! It was tons of fun, and we hope you enjoyed it too. We'll put the archived videos (there will be a slight gap due to the one stream drop in the middle) as soon as they're available on Justin.tv's site. In the meantime, hit the jump to find out next week's Screening Room movie!
Update 2: Live stream archive is now up. First half is up top, second half below. Enjoy!
That's right! Starship Troopers, the Paul Verhoeven sci-fi classic, which might be one of the most misunderstood pieces of political satire you'll ever see. So grab yourself a copy between now and next week, and we'll see you next week!
And in the meantime, by all means, continue to discuss Heat. I know I will!
That is very much a myth. There are production photos floating around that clearly show the two in the same space.
Are you giving away dvds or blurays of 'Heat', and will it be U.S. only?
While I love Pacino's performance he does ham it up in one or two scenes, which is in stark contrast to De Niro's consistently realistic portrayal of a cold, calculating professional. No one can argue with a gun battle that awesome in both sound and choreography. I think the NRA even gave it public approval at one point.
Seeing as I transferred the film onto an external HDD I'm going to .gif the hell out of it when I get a chance.
There is no fat, there is no randomness in MM movies. There is no room for accidents, every detail is thought out. He makes movies like Nabokov wrote novels. Every frame (sentence) builds up or give background to the characters. Everythings happens for a reason or looks the way it does because he wants it too. The 2nd unit director is as important.
I remember the movie theater I was in when the bank robbery scene started to blow around our heads (great early THX sound movie theater). You thought all the moviegoers stopped breathing. That scene was so well executed - something nobody saw in his/her life - unless involved in a real gun fight?
But the movie is more than just the awesome action?! I always argue, at the bottom of everything - as awesome this all is - the movie is about loneliness. Two lonely man. Two loners; each the reflection of the other. The drama behind the pictures is the really interesting thing - at least, to me.
btw,
I cannot imagine how threatening and hilarious the letters from MPAA must have been the last couple weeks for the Screened/Whiskey-guys.
Also, as a big Val Kilmer fan, I dare anyone to watch this film and say he's bad. Between Pacino hamming it up and De Niro being ice cold, Kilmer delivers a fantastic performance that often gets forgotten. And on a related note:
...but Heat would not be nearly as good without the amazing performance from Val Kilmer. I'm not saying he's better than Bobby or Al, but De Niro is soooooooo understated, and Pacino is sooooooooo fucking insane, that without this middle sort-of normal dude character, the movie could easily loose it's grasp on reality.
And to me that's what makes Heat one of the best crime dramas. It feels fucking real, so it get's real fucking tragic.
Interesting tidbit about the bank robbery shootout: they intentionally made sure that the gunshots in that scene were louder than anything else in the entire movie, even gun shots from earlier in the film, to give it's epic quality.
Also, apparently the Pacino and De Niro roles are based on a real people. Pacino's role being based a Chicago cop, Chuck Adamson, that Mann had worked with on several projects, the first being Thief, and De Niro's role being based on an actual thief named Neil McCauley, who Adamson had tracked during his career as a cop. According to one of the special features on the DVD, the restaurant scene where they meet and the scene of the crew walking away from a job when they hear a noise, actually happened. Apparently the real Neil McCauley was killed in a shootout following a robbery of a grocery store after Adamson's team was tipped off to the robbery (much like the bank robbery from the movie).
Personally I think Pacino gives a more memorable performance because of how bombastic he is at points, but De Niro gives a more realistic performance of a cold-blooded criminal.
My favorite moments in the movie:
Grungy Jon Voight too. Al Pacino is just Al Pacino in every movie and no different here. I agree, I've always thought that Val Kilmer did a good job in this too.