resurrectionsong

December 02, 2004

Honest Conversation: Coffee Shop Scene in "Heat"

I finally watched the DeNiro-Pacino face-off movie, "Heat," last night. A friend would not let me leave his house recently without taking it and promising to watch it. I loved it and could bore you with the details, but I know most people have seen it already. However, do yourself a favor and at least watch the coffee shop scene again. It's two guys, on different sides of the law, talking honestly and respecting one another--they know each other and themselves very well. Overall, the scene masterfully foreshadows the end and is freakin' brilliant.

Can anyone recommend any other good movies in this genre?

Posted by Don O at December 2, 2004 04:11 PM

Comments

Ronin, if only because it's one of my favorite movies. But it does share a certain gritty realism with Heat, and Robert De Niro is even more of a bad-ass in Ronin. Unless you're more interested in a crime story. Maybe L.A. Confidential?

Posted by: dorkafork at December 2, 2004 05:09 PM

Heat is one of the best movies ever. I own the DVD. If you liked it then you must also check out Collateral and Manhunter. Michael Mann produced and directed all three. COllateral is the only one that he didn't write. All three movies explore the same Pachino/DeNiro dynamic that you mentioned. In Collateral it is between a hitman (Tom Cruise) and the cab driver that he kidnaps (Jamie Foxx in one of his best performances ever). In Manhunter it is between an FBI profiler (William L. Petersen) and a serial killer* (Brian Cox).

* The same Hannibal Lecktor from those other movies. Manhunter was first, didn't start the famous guy, and is easily the best one of the lot. Unlike the later movies, the serial killer is ni>not the hero.

Posted by: Jerry at December 3, 2004 06:00 AM

Thanks for the recommendations. Z also mentioned Ronin and I thought Collateral looked great, so I'll be sure to catch that one when released. Manhunter is another one that's slipped my attention because I read and loved the book it was based on. Wasn't the book titles Red Dragon? What year was the movie made?

Posted by: OpinionEngine at December 3, 2004 09:03 AM

Manhunter was based on the book "Red Dragon" and it was released in 1986. It was successful enough to spawn The Silence of the Lambs in 1991, but not pop-culture-defining successful that way that the latter was. This is why they made Red Dragon in 2002 - to capitalize on the work that Hopkins had done. I refused to go see Red Dragon in protest since Manhunter was so great (Mann is one of my favorite directors). Additionally, I heard that it focused more on Lecktor than Manhunter did, which I think would have ruined it for me (despite it starring Edward Norton - one of my favorite actors).

Posted by: Jerry at December 3, 2004 10:03 AM

Michael Mann's first movie for the big screen, Thief, has tremendous atmosphere, along with a great late night coffeeshop scene between Tuesday Weld and James Caan, who plays the title character. He's an extremely successful jewel thief afraid of going back into the slammer.

Thief was the blueprint for much of Mann's early career: the stylistics of Miami Vice and Manhunter derive from it; and in a way, Heat is sort of a graduate thesis on Mann's film technique.

Posted by: Ed Driscoll at December 5, 2004 01:10 PM