Heat (1995) - Vincent and Neil

in taking on these characters I mean you you two are both actors with extraordinary commitment to the truth of a performance and the interior life of a character being expressed in sincere terms in the case of this film these characters also have an iconic presence and they're part of a grand visual design that's going on and I was curious to ask both of you in how do you balance in your process the sincerity of the interior process with the the understanding of the iconic nature of the character you first I really I've worked with him before so I think I can answer this and it was a great experience on my my tab I think I get it but you're you're you're at and and I I think one of the things that at least I tried having seen Bob and known in my whole life really and admired him mine and so it at at the onset I thought I don't know if I mentioned it to Michael but I thought there should be that difference in in in the characters in terms of their how they come off how they're you know what colors they're they're in and I thought that you know the more introverted or extroverted I thought that would help with a balance so so we had talked about it I think Michael I mean yeah help me at all here and but there was that was part of it and I and I think I took a liberté we did both we had talked about him I know that I my character's situation is different than his and and I'm all my life is falling apart in his is just starting and and and and that was a key for me anyway and I and also the carrot I don't know if this has gotten out much I don't know if I've ever said it but I might be breaking the law now but I'll say it be the character I played is is a guy he's like he's been around he done a lot of stuff and he also chips cocaine and I I always thought that that was a a choice we made and and but yet not not showing it because it would be somewhat it was a little trek too much attention how to attract too much yeah but there is a scene in it where it goes by really quick but which we never get never got into the film and I've always wanted to say sometimes just so you know where is some of the behaviors coming from okay I never thought I'd ever have that opportunity to say this just you know elegant audience here that I could actually anyway I've had to say it for 20 years and I thanks for this opportunity Mike are you okay well thank you now what how it answers your question it's kind of vague and around and around but it sort of does you know yeah no it absolutely does no mr. DeNiro what was the question here FairPoint Neal he's a very iconic figure in the design of the film and yet he's played with total sincerity as a as a psychological realistic character and they're all they're all kinds of nuances to it that I'm curious about and maybe it's too intimate question it tells you your process but for example I mean he has an extraordinary extraordinarily acute perception of the world and of what's going around him and yet at times an unbelievable blind spot particularly his relationship with Edie you know when he strolls casually in and you know his drinking his drink and think about everything's going on and expects her to just come come with him and I'm sort of curious as to the how you approach that psychology there's blind spots with somebody who's that that sharp well you know Michael wrote the script and the thing about and the characters the thing about Michael is that he's he creates a tension in the in the whole approach of the film even in the prep in our training and everything it's a whole kind of it just it kind of affects you where you know every moment is I don't want to say precious but kind of important so the things that like the what you're talking about and I'm not I can't think specifically but all I know is that whatever he does it just makes the move whatever he did was important and creates a tension if you will or a tautness what else could I say what we all did together the three we sit together and everybody and veil and and and actually telling me Brennan at the anthon or everybody and John Voight was we spent a lot of time building their histories so what the film is is the right now of it what what preceded that was very specific very detailed history that we really immersed we really immersed ourselves in why and how Hannah is a hunter why he truly is and he's somebody who is all I am is who I'm going after and why how he is completely self-aware there's no self-deception and the only other person who was as conscious and unselfish his new McAuley and what was Neil McCauley doing when his father disappeared and he and his brother got remanded and they wound up in an shins in Gladiator Academy's like Tracy or Chino and he lost track was father lost track was a brother and then graduated into crime and at what point this very bright guy decided I have to figure out which is something observed with convicts and who I Brayden Penitentiary's and likely false in 52 70s by the way when they had a lot more programs in the institutions and they were really go into guys with third or fourth grade education with walking on libraries and say give me a book that tells me about time tells me about my life I got to figure out what I'm going to do or I'm just going to say hello gray walls life is yours and surrender to a life in prison and instead of that people like Neil McCauley and this was part of the backstory and this part The Bachelor we'll call it people like new equality find out what they think time is that time is short and has to be invested and if you don't invest in it and have experience it's your fault and it's not going to happen and then they continue to read and it could read marks and decide that property is theft and it becomes a justification for stealing or they get into Buddhism and they decide that if anything happens to all the other people that's their working out their bad karma what all the so there's some of the philosophical underpinnings that is factual and part of the backstory of who Neil McCauley is when he gets out and technicolor is going to be the zealand refugee and always a weigh station on the way to somewhere else and then how does he minimalize risk by being anonymous so it's a gray suit and white shirts it's hard to describe him and no attachments so that people can't the cops can't cut into his communications and talk to people like et so it's not supposed to be a needy once there is a needy in the in his life it was supposed to be temporary and that's why he's not going back but then he succumbs the seduction and calls or and does go back with her but is that the fatalism of the film oven we were talking about outcomes and talk about each character the way fate works was just something we just invented which is that well what happened to each character is a function of the way he thinks life works so it's Kara totally character driven and and Neil believing that being very doctrinaire and not having attachments and that's it's very efficient and affected a navigation system through the weigh station if he deviates from that which he does and the under palisades when he's talking was talking to Edie he defeat deviates from that then there has to be a repercussion and cause and effect will be brutal so the neo who is flying free and as and is moved by emotions like vengeance or rage or deciding to go after Wayne grown it the Neil for the beginning of the movie wouldn't I would never go an afternoon win-win bro so that's the when whereas another cure for like Val Kilmer who was going to postmodern and doesn't have doctrine doesn't have discipline he skates so what happened to them they're failures of function to who they were characters in the engine of the story in the way it drives to the end

Channel: Oscars

Views: 632,840

Rating: 4.9189324 out of 5

Keywords: Michael Mann, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino

Id: GSKhCfKrZRE

Length: 9min 50sec (590 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 08 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/OrionSouthernStar]

“Cause she's got a...GREAT ASS!! And you've got your head all the way up it!”

[u/duh_metrius]

Everybody talks about the 'Great ass!' line from that movie, as they should, because it's bonkers, but my favorite line read is when Pacino comes home to find his wife is with another man. Pacino pulls the TV out of the wall and goes to leave, and the other guy, Ralph, says "Maybe I should go."

And Pacino says, "SHUT UP! ralph. SIT DOWN!"

The 'Ralph' is it's own little thing, barely whispered as Pacino turns back to talk to his wife, and then when he notices Ralph standing he thunders at him to sit down. It's really specific and funny.

[u/batguano1]

For any hardcore fans of Heat, I highly recommend watching this whole video. It was a 20th anniversary screening of Heat with a q and a with the cast and Michael Mann moderated by Christopher Nolan.

I was lucky enough to attend and as a lifelong Heat fan it was amazing to hear every actor talk about their characters like this. I even got to sit behind Danny Trejo!

[u/9hashtags]

Contrast of a straight-laced, by the book professional criminal versus the haphazard trainwreck cop. I think showing Hanna being on drugs probably makes him more villainous than McCauley.

[u/CineRanter-YTchannel]

If anything this shows how much of an actor's performance is left to the mercy of the director and what he chooses to include into the film. Take Sigorney Weaver in Aliens for example. She based her entire character around the fact that Ripley lost her daughter (Newt essentially becomes the daughter, alien Queen and eggs, motherhood themes etc) only for Cameron to cut this scene out of the theatrical cut. She blamed him for losing the Oscar that year.

[u/BenderDeLorean]

"Okay, let's take another take of the cocaine scene Michael."

"Al! There is no cocaine scene"

[u/bicameral_mind]

I don't think nixing the cocaine use really left his outbursts without explanation. Always loved this movie and seen it many times - and I always just thought Pacino's character was worn down by his job, which contributed to his disaster of a family life, which in turn further wore him down. There are a few scenes where he explains how the nature of his work and the crimes he sees affect his personality. In terms of his outbursts, I just saw it as him blowing off steam and again, being a bit sick of all the bullshit and lashing out.

I think it would have actually muddied his character quite a bit if it were shown he was a cocaine addict. His behavior and the impact on his personal life being the result of his dedication to his work paralleled better with DeNiro's character, which is kind of the point of the movie. How the cops and the robbers are two sides of the same coin.

[u/SamuraiJackBauer]

If anyone loves this movie (so all of you)

There was a great restoration BluRay that came out last year.

I double dipped and it does indeed look/sound better.

It’s like $10 on Amazon too so totally worth it.

[u/doft]

I just rewatched the whole Godfather trilogy and I don't know when it fucking happened, maybe after Scarface where Al Pacino just stopped giving a fuck and started playing Al Pacino. His Micheal in Godfather 3 is almost as if a different actor is playing a different character.