Rewind Wednesday: Heat

Today's Rewind Wednesday is that of "A Los Angeles crime saga"... Heat. This December 1995 American film was directed by Micheal Mann, starring Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, and Val Kimer.

De Niro plays a professional burglar who is a calm and methodical introvert, while Pacino plays a veteran LAPD homicide detective whose devotion to his job causes him to neglect his personal problems. The central conflict of the film was based on the experiences of former Chicago police officer Chuck Adamson and his pursuit of a criminal named McCauley in the 1960s, from which the name of De Niro's character, Neil McCauley, was derived.

Heat marked the first time that Pacino and De Niro appeared together onscreen, garnering much anticipation from film fans. Although both actors starred in The Godfather Part II, 21 years earlier, they were not in any scenes together. The famous scene in Heat, where Pacino and De Niro share screen time together was shot at a Beverly Hills Restaurant, known as "Kate Mantillini" located at 9101 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Pacino and De Niro would then appear together again in the 2008 film Righteous Kill.

The film is technically a remake of L.A. Takedown, a 1989 made-for-television film which was also written and directed by Mann; Mann had been trying to get Heat made for over a decade, and created L.A Takedown as a simplified version after his efforts were unsuccessful. Despite not receiving any Academy Award nominations, Heat was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $187 million worldwide.

Some little known facts:

Heat was listed as the 38th greatest film in history in Empire magazine's 2008 list of the "500 Greatest Movies of All Time".

Heat also inspired the introductory bank robbery sequence in the 2008 Academy Award-Winning, blockbuster film The Dark Knight, in which William Fichtner was cast as a defensive bank manager.

And to top it off the explicit nature of several of the scenes in Heat were cited as the model of a spate of robberies since its release. This would include armored car robberies in South Africa, Colombia, and Denmark and a bank robbery in North Hollywood, California.