Pop culture junkies are perhaps familiar with the name Chuck Adamson through his television work. In the 1980s, he created the series Crime Story and wrote some episodes of Miami Vice, both of which are examples of some of the finest crime fare to ever grace the small screen. On top of that, he briefly appeared in a few notable film and television projects as an actor, including Thief, Beverly Hills Cop, and The Stand. However, prior to his tenure in the entertainment industry, he was a detective.
Adamson was also a good friend of Michael Mann and a consultant to the director on various projects. It is therefore unsurprising that the former detective’s real experiences informed Heat, Mann’s 1995 crime opus about a group of professional robbers carrying out heists in Los Angeles. Al Pacino’s detective character, Vincent Hanna, was modeled after Adamson, and the film’s cat-and-mouse crime story is based on his most exciting case.
In 1964, Adamson was locked in an obsessive pursuit of the real Neil McCauley (played by Robert De Niro in the movie), a career criminal from Chicago who craved the big scores. McCauley had been engulfed in the life of crime from a young age, serving three stints in jail by the time he was 20. Subsequently, he spent the majority of his adult life in and out of prison, as he’d always fall back into old habits upon being released from the pen.
The robber had been on Adamson’s radar since the early 1960s. The detective had a feeling that McCauley would fall into old habits again, so he kept an eye on him and his crew. His hunch proved to be true in the end, and as soon as they started carrying out robberies he was on to them.
This all came to an end on March 25, 1964, though. You see, McCauley and his crew robbed a grocery store and sped off hoping to make a daring escape. Unfortunately for the gang of crooks, they were unaware that Adamson and his detective comrades had blocked off their potential exits from the scene of the crime. A shootout ensued, which led to McCauley being shot six times and killed by Adamson.
Needless to say, McCauley and Adamson saw some action back in his day. In addition to the aforementioned botched escape and shootout, some of the film’s heists are based on actual incidents that took place during this time. The armored car robbery and the aborted warehouse sting really happened. Furthermore, McCauley also scrapped a warehouse operation because he knew his team was being watched after hearing one of the observing police officers make a noise.
However, there’s one scene in particular which was based on an encounter between Adamson and McCauley that inspired Mann more than anything else. Of course, I’m talking about the iconic exchange between Pacino and De Niro’s characters in the diner as they get to know each other over a cup of coffee. Not only does this scene showcase two heavyweight actors at the top of their game, but we also realize that their characters share an understanding and mutual respect for each other. Almost as if they’re different sides of the same coin.
This mutual respect wasn’t exaggerated for the sake of creating compelling cinema, either. In fact, the conversation that takes place in the movie is almost word-for-word the same as McCauley and Adamson’s exchange during their chance meeting. In an interview published in Steven Rybin’s book Michael Mann: Crime Auteur, the director elaborated on the relationship between the detective and the robber:
“Chuck had respected the guy’s professionalism — he was a really good thief, which is exciting to a detective, and he tried to keep any risks to a minimum — but at the same time he was a cold-blooded sociopath who’d kill you as soon as look at you — if necessary…”
He continued:
“Chuck was going through some crises in his life, and they wound up having one of those intimate conversations you sometimes have with strangers. There was a real rapport between them; yet both men verbally recognized one would probably kill the other.”
Mann was clearly fascinated with the bizarre bond between Adamson and McCauley, and this served as the launchpad for the themes of loneliness and duality that permeate Heat. Despite living on opposite ends of the law, Pacino and De Niro’s characters are similar in some ways. For instance, both men are great at their respective jobs, but they’ve become so consumed by them that they’re lonely as a result. Maybe Adamson and his criminal counterpart respected each other because they saw aspects of themselves in the other person…
Other characters in Heat were inspired by unrelated real-life criminals Mann had learned about through conversations with his buddies in law enforcement. For example, Waingro (Kevin Gage) was based on a snitch who ratted out a gang only to be found dead later on. Jon Voight’s character, meanwhile, is modeled after Edward Bunker, a felon who later found a calling as an author of crime fiction.
Mann’s myriad of influences meshed well together, to say the least, as Heat is a perfect movie. You could even say that it’s too perfect, given how it struck a chord with real criminals following its release. The film inspired actual robberies similar to those depicted in the movie. The most famous incident took place in Los Angeles in 1997 and saw a pair of robbers engage in a shootout with the LAPD. Of course, that’s not what Mann set out to accomplish with his masterpiece; but it just goes to show how remarkable his movie is when it comes to presenting crime so effectively.
Related Topics: Crime, film history, Heat, History, Michael Mann, Real Stories, True Crime
