Friedkin’s basketball enthusiasm reportedly included considering a one-third Celtics purchase and consulting Cousy, explaining the latter’s appearance.
The production reportedly used real players, coaches and games before six thousand spectators, but authentic play alone does not solve basketball’s cinematic difficulty. — Van Lathan
Anthony C. Hall is described as both actor and player; many real coaches and college stars supplied the basketball cast.
A claimed Kevin Garnett appearance cannot be located and his youth raises doubt; Geert Hammink is recognized. — Bill Simmons
Shelton reportedly developed the script in 1981, with studio delays before White Men Can’t Jump revived interest; Lansing brought in Friedkin while Shelton made Cobb. — Bill Simmons
Basketball was reportedly filmed at Frankfort High using full competitive games plus set plays; Knight repeatedly disrupted planned endings by coaching to win. — Bill Simmons
A $35 million budget and $26 million gross are reported; later home-video value and enduring cultural references are offered as qualifications. — Bill Simmons
Shaq’s reported worst-new-star Razzie nomination is rejected as unfair because his performance is good. — Bill Simmons
Friedkin’s reported claim that sports films cannot reproduce a real game’s unpredictable suspense is dismissed as sour grapes, with successful sports movies offered as the objection. — Bill Simmons
Shaq reportedly wore very thin soles to reduce height differences; framing him farther from Nolte and Mary McDonnell is discussed as another solution. — Chris Ryan
Shaq’s last college game is recalled as an Indiana loss to the team featuring Knight and the actor playing Ricky; Indiana’s subsequent Final Four loss to Duke is also recalled. — Bill Simmons
Butch’s Chicago gym is identified as Mount Carmel High School, and the crew including Shaq reportedly stayed at a Lafayette Howard Johnson’s for two weeks. — Van Lathan
Real crooks and Gunsite training; Howard Johnson's booth; real burglary tools; water truck for wet streets; Green Mill's Capone booth; unused source book; Belushi's squibs; Tuesday Weld's Wikipedia
The actors hung out with real crooks, and Mann took Caan to the Gunsite firearms academy in Arizona, which is why his house raid looks realistic. — Bill Simmons
Per Alan Siegel's research, Mann took his future wife to that Howard Johnson's in 1971 and they talked all night in the booth used for the scene; they are still married 50 years later. — Bill Simmons
The burglary tools were real, and the actors were trained to use them. — Bill Simmons
A 60,000-gallon water truck kept the streets wet, a Mann staple he may have invented, though Scorsese did some of it in Taxi Driver. — Bill Simmons
Mann tells an anecdote about driving around looking at bridges and water before he was a filmmaker; the urban landscape colliding with nature, rain and neon are his signatures, as in Collateral. — Sean Fennessey
The Green Mill jazz club in Uptown was an Al Capone hangout, and the scene was shot in Capone's booth, where he could see the whole club. — Bill Simmons
The film is based on a book that was optioned, but Mann did not really use it. — Bill Simmons
Belushi begged to do his own death scene and absorbed dozens of squib shots. — Bill Simmons
First pick: Caan going to the plating company to demand his $185,000 within three hours; it is the first time Farina is seen, and the eight horrified 1981 office workers are a highlight. — Bill Simmons
A joke that Chris used to enter the office the same way, moving the chair to see what was on the desk.
Willie Nelson's big prison scene is complicated but fascinating, an intense staring contest with the faces a foot apart; Mann seems to have few friends but insanely intense connections with the ones he has.
The Nelson scene is not obviously working at first but pays off with "I don't want to die in here, Frank"; his line readings are sometimes odd, but his open, empathetic face makes it work.
Willie Nelson on Frank's postcard collage is briefly puzzling on a rewatch until you remember he is Frank's best friend. — Chris Ryan
Praski's (Prosky's) first scene: his first movie at 51, dressed like a grandfather in a golf shirt tucked into pressed slacks. — Bill Simmons
Mann auditioned dozens of New York actors for Leo; Bruckheimer advised that the right person had not walked in the room yet, and Prosky, a theater actor, was found, leading to a That Guy career. — Bill Simmons
Peak Prosky is this role: an avuncular, warm, familial sensibility with pure evil right under the surface. — Sean Fennessey
The Natural is raised as close but too evil; later roles such as Last Action Hero and Mrs. Doubtfire made him the favorite uncle. — Sean Fennessey
Caan lays out what he won't steal: just diamonds and cash, no coin collections. — Bill Simmons
The diner monologue is the reason for the episode after it was caught while flipping channels and texted to Chris; it is called the best moment of Caan's career, better than any Godfather moment, laying out the character's spine in four minutes. — Bill Simmons
It is called a favorite first date in movie history: Caan is two hours late, they scream at each other on the drive, and he tells a woman he just met about his prison fight with Morphus. — Bill Simmons
Caan called it the scene he was most proud of; it was filmed at a Howard Johnson's in Illinois that Mann had a connection to, and the wide shot is Heat DNA, though Heat never shows the two men together. — Bill Simmons
An amazing piece of filmmaking; the underrated part is the car speech before the diner, two people who have looked at each other for eight months cutting out the games. — Sean Fennessey
Caan cracking the love affair like a safe ("cut the mini moves and the bullshit and get on with this big romance") while being impatient with the woman he plans to marry is hilarious. — Sean Fennessey
One-last-job movies raise the question of why not ask her out after the job; the woman complicating the last job is a Mann recurring thing. — Chris Ryan
Mann's top restaurants are ranked: diner, Chinese restaurant, Musso and Frank-style steakhouse, a close-booth place like Dan Tana's, and hibachi for the glimmering blades. — Chris Ryan
The Chinese-restaurant waiter gives a borderline Dion Waiters performance and is nicknamed David. — Bill Simmons
The elevator-shaft scene is weirdly harrowing and shows Mann's precision; it is liked more than the safe crack, though the opening keyhole-camera drilling sequence is great. — Sean Fennessey
A first-time viewer at home was riveted by the talking but hid behind an iPad during the drilling; Fincher's Panic Room is imagined as a response to Thief. — Sean Fennessey
Prosky lays down the law in an incredible monologue ("I run you", whacking out the whole family, wimpy burgers), shot upside down from Frank's POV, ending with Belushi dropped in acid. — Bill Simmons
Belushi's death scene could have used another minute of setup. — Bill Simmons
The ending is fun to watch but has issues: it hinges on Attaglia getting a glass of milk, Mann's written ending reunited Frank with Jessie, and seeing the girlfriend again would have been more satisfying.
Burning the postcard reads as Frank giving up the idea that he could be happy or emotionally available. — Chris Ryan
Biggest nit here: he should have gone back in the house and stolen things, though sparing Leo's wife is a purposeful choice by a man with a samurai code.
Mann repeatedly sends the wife packing, as in a two-part season-one Miami Vice episode and Heat's walk-away with Amy Brenneman in the car, which is called weird given the question of whether Mann himself hasn't been married to the same woman for about 50 years.
