L.A. Takedown

This is the original incarnation of Heat.  Michael Mann wrote, produced and directed both of them.  So what are the major differences?  Oh boy there are a lot.

Takedown was a made for TV movie back in the late 80’s so it looks really cheap (as opposed to today where those things look much closer to theatrically released films).  I mean even with a competent director in charge there’s no shaking the constraints that come with a fairly small budget and a tight shooting schedule.  They shot this thing in only two to three weeks which means they had to work fast.  Mann also had to shoot most of it in the daytime to save money and go inside for a lot of the nighttime scenes. 

They seemed to allow themselves two extravagances however.  One was to shoot in many locations.  Only a couple of sites are reused for multiple scenes.  And while that does help the cheapness factor it doesn’t cover it up.  The other is the bank heist scene and subsequent shootout.  This is the centerpiece of both versions so they made sure to set aside some extra cash for that part.  But while the heist itself is handled just fine the firefight and pursuit looks trite and is handled clumsily.  It’s not done in anywhere near the captivating and precise manner in which Mann would execute that kickass scene in Heat. 

The next huge change is that this is only 90 mins long.  That’s about half the length that Heat is.  While I think you could probably make the idea for the film work alright in maybe a two hour running time, 90 mins is not enough.  More than anything I’m just used to all of the shit that’s in Heat so when it’s not there I miss it.  Heat doesn’t feel unnecessarily long to me.  I love getting to know all of the characters and it’s important that we care about them when shit goes down.  In Takedown there isn’t enough time to get to know anyone except the main good guy (Vince) and bad guy (Patrick (in Heat he's called Neil)).  And even then it doesn’t feel like we spent enough time with them. 

All major events occur here like the opening armored car heist, the bank robbery and shootout, the hero and villain meeting face to face in a coffee shop, etc.  It’s the development of just about all of the characters (except the two mains) and the ending that’s dramatically different.  In Heat Neil (De Niro) kills Waingro in his hotel room and then gets pursued by Vince (Pacino) into an airport field where he gets gunned down.  In Takedown Waingro blasts Patrick with a shotgun at the hotel killing him.  Vince then kicks Waingro out a window where he falls to his death.  It’s really unsatisfying.  As uninteresting as the final confrontation between Vince and Neil is in Heat at least they face off against each other.  Takedown robs you of that and turns Waingro into the main villain at the last second.  That’s kind of a shitty way to end your best-damn-L.A.-cop vs. best-damn-thief-in-the-world big time crime story.

What just might trump all of the differences between the two though is the acting.  Everyone in Takedown does a fucking terrible job.  All of the line reads, the looks on their faces, everything is goddamn atrocious.  Ok, it’s not like Troll 2 or Gone With the Pope bad (actually there are a couple of lines where it is) but it’s just surprising because Michael Mann directed this.  He’s usually able to get some good performances out of his actors.  It’s hard to believe that either these were the best actors they could get or that these were the best takes the actors could deliver.  It also doesn’t help that most of the dialogue is the same between this and Heat so we know how cool it can sound and how fuckin’ awesome these performances can be with the right actor.

I will mention that Xander Berkeley (the step dad from T2) as Waingro is probably the only person in this that does a decent acting job.  He’s actually memorable and somewhat believable as a crazy killer.  Kevin Gage (Blow) is great in Heat with his version but I kinda like how Berkeley is unassuming.            

Alright let’s sum this shit up.  The story and characters are bigger than a made for TV movie and Mann must’ve realized that.  After he did his next picture, The Last of the Mohicans, he then jumped into reworking Takedown into Heat.  The flow in Takedown feels rushed like crazy.  The film doesn’t take its time with any aspect.  The dialogue is spit out at a frantic pace, the plot changes fairly rapidly and we don’t get enough time to dig into the characters.

This is almost like a fan made film of Heat.  It kinda feels like a group of friends loved Heat so much that they wanted to recreate it.  But they didn’t have the money or the time to do the whole thing.  So they made an abridged version and only kept the parts they felt were integral to the core story.  At times it feels that amateurish.

I’m glad Mann went ahead with a remake because Heat’s fuckin’ great.  He knew he had something good on his hands and that it didn’t get the treatment it deserved.  If you’re a big Heat fan this is worth checking out just to see the genesis of the idea and how much it evolved over the six year period.  If you’re a casual fan then there’s no need to see this.