LA Takedown - Michael Mann's Heat before Heat

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As some of y'all know I re-watched Heat recently, and somewhere along the line as I was researching the production of that film I learned about LA Takedown.

Apparently LA Takedown was a 1989 failed TV pilot that Michael Mann wrote and directed, which was later repurposed as a standalone TV movie. And this TV movie was later remade by Mann as 1995's Heat.

Some interesting info from Wikipedia:

The origins of L.A. Takedown lay in real life. Michael Mann, the film's producer and screenwriter, cited producer, screenwriter and Chicago ex-police officer Chuck Adamson as an inspiration for the character of Vincent Hanna. Mann, who collaborated with Adamson on Miami Vice and Crime Story and several minor projects, was told of an investigation Adamson partook in. In 1963, he was investigating Neil McCauley, a professional robber. According to Mann, "one day they simply bumped into one another. [Adamson] didn't know what to do: arrest him, shoot him or have a cup of coffee." Adamson later killed McCauley in a stand-off after a failed robbery.

In 1979, Mann wrote an early 180-page draft for the screenplay. After making his first feature film, Thief, he re-wrote the draft. In a 1983 interview, he mentioned he was planning to make a film based on the draft, and was looking for someone to direct it. He later offered the director position to Walter Hill, but Hill refused. In the late 1980s, NBC commissioned Mann to produce a new television series. Mann felt the draft would make a good pilot episode, but decided to set the story in Los Angeles, deeming the L. A. Robbery–Homicide Division a better basis for a TV show. He took the 180-page screenplay and edited out roughly 110 pages to make room for a 90-minute pilot. However, the new series was not picked up by the network. Instead, it was released as a television film entitled L.A. Takedown.

After directing The Last of the Mohicans, Mann decided to remake L.A. Takedown into a wide release cinema feature. He viewed the film as a dry run for the original story, which was a complex, multi-layered crime drama axed for the television film. He consulted a longer 1986 draft to work on the remake. Having made L.A. Takedown, Mann felt he had a much better idea of how he wanted to structure the remake, saying: "I charted the film out like a 2 hr 45 min piece of music, so I'd know where to be smooth, where not to be smooth, where to be staccato, where to use a pulse like a heartbeat."
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Anyone actually watched this thing? The reviews I've run across are not great and most seem to feel like it's best regarded as an interesting curiosity and a companion piece to Heat.

I just got done watching this clip, and it's fucking bizarre because this shit IS fucking Heat . . . except it's not!


 
It's basically like if HEAT is the finished studio album, LA Takedown is the demo tape.

It's worth checking out if you are a HEAT superfan, or just a Michael Mann fan. If anyone hasn't seen HEAT though, definitely watch that first.
 
Peteyandjia said:
It's basically like if HEAT is the finished studio album, LA Takedown is the demo tape.

It's worth checking out if you are a HEAT superfan, or just a Michael Mann fan. If anyone hasn't seen HEAT though, definitely watch that first.
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So you've actually seen it start-to-finish?

I'm kind of surprised I didn't even hear about it until recently. Seems like the kind of thing I'd have at least run across some info on in the past.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
So you've actually seen it start-to-finish?

I'm kind of surprised I didn't even hear about it until recently. Seems like the kind of thing I'd have at least run across some info on in the past.
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Dude. You know who you're talking to right? I have an unhealthy obsession with this movie. I think about HEAT the way ISIS thinks about Islam. I can recite lines from it better than a preacher can quote Bible scripture. And with more reverence.
 
Peteyandjia said:
Dude. You know who you're talking to right? I have an unhealthy obsession with this movie. I think about HEAT the way ISIS thinks about Islam. I can recite lines from it better than a preacher can quote Bible scripture. And with more reverence.
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I knew you liked the movie but I didn't know it was like all THAT. . .

How many times you seen that motherfucker? And what is it that you would say fascinates you so much?
 
Petey's affinity for Heat is well known around these parts.
 
I'm a big fan of Heat and Mann as well. I gotta get round to LA Takedown sometime
 
shadow_priest_x said:
As some of y'all know I re-watched Heat recently, and somewhere along the line as I was researching the production of that film I learned about LA Takedown.

Apparently LA Takedown was a 1989 failed TV pilot that Michael Mann wrote and directed, which was later repurposed as a standalone TV movie. And this TV movie was later remade by Mann as 1995's Heat.

Some interesting info from Wikipedia:



Anyone actually watched this thing? The reviews I've run across are not great and most seem to feel like it's best regarded as an interesting curiosity and a companion piece to Heat.

I just got done watching this clip, and it's fucking bizarre because this shit IS fucking Heat . . . except it's not!


Click to expand...


What if I told you Terminator 1 and Terminator 2 are basically the same story told 2 times. Cameron the director originally wanted the scene of blowing up Cyberdyne Labs in the first one but he didn't have the budget for it. T2 is basically the big budget version of T1.

The only big difference with this and the Micahel Mann movie you brought up is that no one forgot about T1.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
I knew you liked the movie but I didn't know it was like all THAT. . .

How many times you seen that motherfucker? And what is it that you would say fascinates you so much?
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If I had to guesstimate, maybe like 30 times. One of my favorite theater experiences. I've shown it to just about everyone I know. Nowadays I watch it maybe once a year.

As far as what I love about it, man, just everything. Too much to get too far into. It's such a real world Mann put into that film, the attention to detail is simply staggering. I still notice new things every time I watch it. Every character is a real person, from the two stars on down to the getaway driver who would have barely mattered in almost any other movie. Every side character or person with no lines who you see for one scene feels authentic, it's perfectly cast. And it's kind of a timeless story, even though it's modern there are aspects of it that seem almost futuristic like when Neil is with his chick overlooking LA talking about his future dreams, or other aspects that feel like ancient Japan, since it's basically the story of a ninja (Neil, hiding, scheming) vs. a samurai (Vincent, straightforward, unrelenting). I could talk for hours about this movie. I could teach a fuckin college course about this movie. But I would always be ready to walk out of the classroom in 30 seconds flat if I spot the heat around the corner.
 
Prefect said:
What if I told you Terminator 1 and Terminator 2 are basically the same story told 2 times. Cameron the director originally wanted the scene of blowing up Cyberdyne Labs in the first one but he didn't have the budget for it. T2 is basically the big budget version of T1.

The only big difference with this and the Micahel Mann movie you brought up is that no one forgot about T1.
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But . . . Arnold is the good guy in T2.


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Peteyandjia said:
If I had to guesstimate, maybe like 30 times. One of my favorite theater experiences. I've shown it to just about everyone I know. Nowadays I watch it maybe once a year.

As far as what I love about it, man, just everything. Too much to get too far into. It's such a real world Mann put into that film, the attention to detail is simply staggering. I still notice new things every time I watch it. Every character is a real person, from the two stars on down to the getaway driver who would have barely mattered in almost any other movie. Every side character or person with no lines who you see for one scene feels authentic, it's perfectly cast. And it's kind of a timeless story, even though it's modern there are aspects of it that seem almost futuristic like when Neil is with his chick overlooking LA talking about his future dreams, or other aspects that feel like ancient Japan, since it's basically the story of a ninja (Neil, hiding, scheming) vs. a samurai (Vincent, straightforward, unrelenting). I could talk for hours about this movie. I could teach a fuckin college course about this movie. But I would always be ready to walk out of the classroom in 30 seconds flat if I spot the heat around the corner.
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Interesting.

I did enjoy it when I rewatched it recently and it reminded me that Michael Mann really does have a style all his own, though I think this is even more true during that specific time when he was working on Manhunter, Miami Vice (the TV show) and Heat. He really embraced the aesthetic of that time period, or you could maybe say he created his own version of it in his films.

BTW, remind me, what did you say about the Miami Vice film he made? Did you like it or no?
 
HARRISON_3 said:
Petey's affinity for Heat is well known around these parts.
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When I went to Hawaii some years ago, I had a one night layover in LA on the way back, due to some flight delays. I stayed in a little hotel. At night, I went out for a walk, listening to music on my headphones. At one point, I looked up, noticed the sign on the building... Far East National Bank. (That's the name of the one they rob.) Of all the gin joints in all the expansive town of LA, one of the biggest cities on the planet, I was put up in a hotel 2 blocks from there. It was meant to be. MEANT TO BE I TELL YA. Made my fuckin' month. I had just been to beautiful Hawaii, and here I was just as excited that I was standing in front of a fucking closed bank, lol.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
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Btw the first bank teller in this clip, the one that gets grabbed by the collar, is also one of the armored truck guards in HEAT, the one who can't hear Waingro because he has blood in his ears.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
BTW, remind me, what did you say about the Miami Vice film he made? Did you like it or no?
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It's full of problems, but a few parts I enjoy. The sound of the .50 cal is amazing, nobody captures the real feel of firearms like Mann. Most of the movie is a mess though, as far as story, pace, even casting. It also suffers heavily from Mann having gone down the digital rabbit hole, never to return.
 
Peteyandjia said:
When I went to Hawaii some years ago, I had a one night layover in LA on the way back, due to some flight delays. I stayed in a little hotel. At night, I went out for a walk, listening to music on my headphones. At one point, I looked up, noticed the sign on the building... Far East National Bank. (That's the name of the one they rob.) Of all the gin joints in all the expansive town of LA, one of the biggest cities on the planet, I was put up in a hotel 2 blocks from there. It was meant to be. MEANT TO BE I TELL YA. Made my fuckin' month. I had just been to beautiful Hawaii, and here I was just as excited that I was standing in front of a fucking closed bank, lol.
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Oh, I remember! Wes Studi yells that to Vincent.

Like you, I've got the dialog down cold.

That's a pretty cool story. 'Twas fate!
 
Peteyandjia said:
Btw the first bank teller in this clip, the one that gets grabbed by the collar, is also one of the armored truck guards in HEAT, the one who can't hear Waingro because he has blood in his ears.
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I am surprised that he got the funding to make Heat considering how it did the first time around. It must have been all the stars he got to buy into it.

Here is the scene between Pacino and Deniro. It is line by line the same.
 
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