How ‘Heat’s Robert De Niro and Al Pacino Diner Scene Became a 6-Minute Legend

Acting legend Robert De Niro is still delivering big roles over five decades after he made his credited feature film debut in a 1968 Brian De Palma called Greetings. Of course, he would rise to stardom just a few years later when he partnered with long-time collaborator Martin Scorsese in Mean Streets for the first of 10 projects. Interestingly, one of the best scenes the decorated actor has ever shot was opposite fellow Scorsese collaborator, Al Pacino, in 1995 when he sat down in a diner across from the auteur in the Michael Mann thriller, Heat.

Whether you want to call it an adage, an old saying, or an axiom, the phrase, “iron sharpens iron” has never been more true than it was in the crime caper epic, Heat. In particular, the diner scene features two of the greatest actors of their generation, De Niro and Pacino. Getting these two stalwarts of the silver screen to work together on the same project was a major coup for Mann, and the director delivered a six-minute scene that provided a forum for the two to go tete-a-tete in a moment that brought out the best in each. It is still a masterclass that should be used by any acting teacher worth their salt. Despite both appearing in The Godfather Part II in 1974, it was the first time that the Hollywood icons would share a scene together, and it delivered on every level because of the way Mann prepared for such an enormous clash of the titans.

How Michael Mann Set the Stage for ‘Heat’s Diner Scene

Pairing two terrific actors together doesn’t always guarantee a memorable scene. It must be carefully crafted through character development, chemistry, timing, location, and cinematography of the film. Al Pacino plays Los Angeles police veteran Lt. Vincent Hanna, a driven, no-nonsense cop who will stop at nothing to collar his man. On the flip side, Robert DeNiro portrays Neil McCauley, a high-end thief who is meticulous in his work and takes great pride in pulling off complex, big-money heists.

The good guy/bad guy formula is about as black and white as they come, but when delivered by an A-list director in his prime and two of the industry’s best performers, it can take on a life of its own. Mann actually pulled the story and the scene for Heat from the real-life relationship between himself and his friend, a former Chicago detective named Charlie Adamson. The diner discussion over coffee really did take place as the two bumped into each other by coincidence after the thief had been recently paroled from an Illinois prison in 1964.

How Did Michael Mann Prepare to Shoot the Diner Scene in ‘Heat’?

Mann knew he was sitting on a gold mine, and had developed each character and their cat-and-mouse game throughout the first half of the film. If the scene wasn’t shot properly, he risked ending up with a take that wouldn’t serve to further the story or capitalize on the research his two leading men had done. DeNiro, using the familiar method approach that has served him so well, had studied and had discussions with real-life criminals, and Pacino put in work performing interrogations with actual perpetrators in preparation to play Hanna. So in order to squeeze all the juice from the fruit that was in the scene, Mann decided to use three cameras. One to frame Pacino’s Hanna, another to frame DeNiro’s McCauley, and a third to capture the two together sitting across from each other at the table over coffee.

Mann discussed the technique that he finally settled on, in an interview with the Director’s Guild of America, “What I wanted to do was shoot with two cameras; two over-the-shoulders. And I also had a third camera that we’d shoot in profile that we never edited into the film. I knew there’d be an organic unity in one take and a different organic unity in another… Most of what you see is all take 11.” It was, essentially, a “less is more” approach that ensured that each actor would be squarely framed as they go tit-for-tat in a masterfully paced exchange.

The Famed Scene in ‘Heat’ Was Not Easy to Pull Off

The scene was shot at around 1 AM at an oft-used industry restaurant in Beverly Hills called Kate Mantilini’s. At exactly six minutes and seventeen seconds in length, it captures the two characters as they sit across from one another and completely drop all the pretenses that had led them to this point in the film. It’s two of the very best to ever perform in front of a camera shedding any and all formalities in an exchange that highlights the styles that Pacino and DeNiro had developed over decades. An unfazed, gravelly-voiced Pacino goes into detail about the demands of his job, his troubled personal life and his take no prisoners attitude towards catching men like Neil McCauley who, in turn, doesn’t pull any punches in a way that only Robert De Niro can. With his chin tucked toward his chest and peering at Hanna with his familiar facial expressions, he returns the cop’s brutal honesty with some of his own. The two legends establish an organic rhythm that is both calm and wrought with a pent-up tension that has been building throughout the film. There is both a mutual respect and a palpable disdain that the characters have for each other as they sit very calmly and discuss their current predicament, and what each of them is prepared to do in order to achieve a checkmate position on the other.

Robert De Niro and Al Pacino have had several iconic quotes in their careers that have become part of pop culture mainstream. DeNiro’s “You talkin’ to me?” from the troubled sociopath Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver is transcendent. And “…you never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut.” Mafioso, Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas is another. Pacino’s “Hoo-ahh!!” cry as former marine Lt. Col. Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman is timeless, and, “I know it was you Fredo…you broke my heart.” in TheGodfather Part II is arguably the most famous line in the history of film. So Mann, who also wrote the screenplay for the film, didn’t want to waste what he knew was a perfect opportunity to get a couple of master thespians to deliver some dialogue and unforgettable catchphrases while he had the two together in the same room. When it is time to lay down the brass tacks with McCauley, Pacino’s Hanna is brutally direct when he says, ” I tell you, if it’s between you and some poor bastard whose wife you’re gonna’ turn into a widow, brother, you are going down.” DeNiro’s McCauley doesn’t bat an eye with his response, “There is a flip side to that coin. What if you do got me boxed in and I gotta put you down? …I will not hesitate. Not for a second.” These memorable quotes may not have risen to the rarified air of some of their other all-time great lines, but fans of the film will never forget the quiet hostility the two icons shared in the scene.

The Legacy of ‘Heat’ and the Diner Scene

While the movie was well-received by audiences (grossing more than $187 million worldwide) and is recognized as one of Michael Mann’s finest films, what made it a really memorable project was scooping up the two stalwarts and getting them to appear in the same scene together. Both actors were more than twenty years into their remarkable careers and sharing the screen in Heat was something that was long overdue. It took a terrific screenplay and a master filmmaker like Mann, plus a formidable supporting cast that included Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, and Jon Voight to finally make it happen. And though the two went on to appear together one more time in Righteous Kill, Heat singularly had the combination of all the things that go into a great cops and robbers film, and it was punctuated with a single scene that will tie the two legends together forever.

Heat is currently available to stream on The Criterion Channel in the U.S.

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