The ‘Heat’ smile that took Robert De Niro three days to shoot: “It really pays off”
There is something about Heat that makes people go absolutely feral. It could be the slick action, quick pacing or the masterful direction, but there are many elements that have led it to be one of the most beloved classics of all time.
There are few projects in which greatness seems to converge from all sides, something that perhaps gives Heat its one-of-a-kind reputation due to the combined powers of Al Pacino and Robert de Niro. The pair had constantly been pitted against each other throughout their careers, with each project being compared to the others due to their equal reputations as the wunderkinds of Hollywood.
With legendary performances in great films like Scarface, The Godfather, Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, there is perhaps no on-screen duo that was more anticipated when it was announced that they would star across each other in Michael Mann’s thriller. The result is extraordinary, with intense thrills and heart-racing sequences as the criminal and detective walk circles around each other in one long battle to find and steer clear of the other.
But while it might come across as a purely effortless display of cinematic perfection, there was one moment that didn’t come so naturally to De Niro, someone who isn’t well-known for being a particularly smiley character and struggled with one moment that demanded a specific kind of grin.
There is a moment in Heat where De Niro’s character realises that he is about to go after Waingro, contemplating the decision in his car and briefly smiling as he settles on what he is about to do. When asked about this smile, De Niro said, “We shot that one night, I didn’t get it. We went back another night, I thought I had it. I didn’t have it, and we went back a third night. While we were out there at the airport, I’d say, ‘Let’s take an hour and go shoot that moment again.’ And then we got it. It’s one of those really intangible things, but when you get it, it really pays off. Responding that way is a deviation from his discipline of distance and separation. It’s an error, but it’s thrilling to him — he’s responding viscerally, intuitively, spontaneously”.
It’s a moment that shows McCauley doing something that breaks all his golden rules, perhaps knowing that he should play it safe but being unable to resist the pull of something dangerous and outside the box. While he might have been more logical and deliberate with his past crimes, this is an act driven by the human instinct to give in to our animalistic impulses, letting go of this carefully controlled philosophy that has led him to evade capture for his entire career.
The battle between instinct and duty is one that defines the film, showing that ultimately, you cannot be free of who you really are and no job will hide your true nature. It’s both romantic and incredibly tragic, almost Shakespearean in Mann’s portrayal of the way that we cannot escape ourselves, and there will always be something to pull us right back to who we are.
