L.A. Takedown

Dir: Michael Mann

1989

****

Michael Mann’s L.A. Takedown was originally filmed as an unsuccessful pilot for an NBC television series but it was reworked and aired as a stand-alone TV film. It didn’t receive much love and it was soon forgotten until Mann used it as the basis of what would be one of his most successful films and one of the 1990s most iconic. 1995’s Heat, starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, was based on Mann’s failed L.A. Takedown. I understand why Mann would make a remake after coming up with such a great idea, I just can’t understand why L.A. Takedown was never appreciated for the brilliant film it was and still is. The origins of L.A. Takedown lay in real life. Michael Mann, the film's producer and screenwriter, cited producer, screenwriter and Chicago ex-police officer Chuck Adamson as an inspiration for the character of Vincent Hanna. Mann, who collaborated with Adamson on Miami Vice and Crime Story and several minor projects, was told of an investigation Adamson partook in. In 1963, he was investigating Neil McCauley, a professional robber. According to Mann, "one day they simply bumped into one another. Adamson didn't know what to do: arrest him, shoot him or have a cup of coffee.” Adamson later killed McCauley in a stand-off after a failed robbery. In 1979, Mann wrote an early draft for the screenplay. After making his first feature film, Thief, he re-wrote the draft. In a 1983 interview, he mentioned he was planning to make a film based on the draft, and was looking for someone to direct it. He later offered the director position to Walter Hill, but Hill refused. In the late 1980s, NBC commissioned Mann to produce a new television series. Mann felt the draft would make a good pilot episode, but decided to set the story in Los Angeles, deeming the L. A. Robbery–Homicide Division a better basis for a TV show. He took the 180-page screenplay and edited out roughly 110 pages to make room for a 90-minute pilot However, the new series was not picked up by the network. Instead, it was released as a television film entitled L.A. Takedown. The pilot was shot in nineteen days, with ten days of pre-production, which was noted atypically fast for Mann. The majority of the main cast appeared as guest stars in episodes of one or both of Michael Mann's two shows produced in the 1980s, Miami Vice and Crime Story. Los Angeles robbery-homicide sergeant Vincent Hanna (Scott Plank) is on the trail of a gang of ruthless professional criminals, led by the methodical Patrick McLaren (Alex McArthur), whose only mistake in the last heist was the killing of armored car guards by the new recruit, Waingro (Xander Berkeley), who is a loose cannon. But Hanna is soon surprised when he discovers that he and McLaren have quite a lot in common. While McLaren and his gang plan another heist, Hanna and his colleagues keep surveillance. Hanna is facing a personal problem, as the police work is straining his relationship with his wife, Lillian (Ely Pouget). Moreover, McLaren is also facing a similar problem when he finds himself falling in love with Eady (Laura Harrington), which he personally condemns due to the commitment required to his profession. Things then take a turn for the very worst, as McLaren unsuccessfully attempts to kill Waingro, who in turn betrays the team to the police. When Hanna arrives on the scene unexpectedly with the police, McLaren and his crew engage them in a mid-street shootout, in which most of McLaren's crew are killed. After making an unlikely escape, McLaren is presented with an opportunity to leave Los Angeles for a new life with Eady, but he decides to first take revenge for Waingro's betrayal. However, after McLaren tracks down Waingro to a hotel room, he is ambushed by Hanna and his team. Waingro takes advantage of the confusion to shoot McLaren through a closed door. While Hanna advises Waingro of his options in jail, for a string of previous murders, Waingro resists arrest and tries to pull a gun. In self-defense, Hanna forces Waingro through a hotel window, and Waingro falls fifteen floors to his death. In the final sequences, Hanna is reunited with his wife. It’s a great slice of 1980s crime drama and amazing for a TV movie. Michael Rooker and Daniel Baldwin co-star as Detective Bosko, Hanna's second-in-command and Detective Bobby Schwartz respectively. Mann had cast Scott Plank in the role of Hanna but this was not well received by NBC. They expressed interest in buying the series on the condition of finding a new lead actor, but Mann refused, leading to NBC's rejecting the show. The film was predictably compared to Mann's cult TV series Miami Vice and felt it emphasized style over substance. The performances by the cast relatively unknown cast was the film’s biggest criticism, a view I don’t share at all. For me it felt real, and when it didn’t it felt like a classic 80s crime film. Michael Mann has since said he’s glad he made L.A. Takedown because it helped to serve as a prototype for Heat and gave him the chance to see what worked and what didn't work, to play around with it, and to get deeper into it. He never planned on the TV film being a prototype, but it ended up being that way and it helped Mann to get "Heat" the way he wanted it. However, all that aside, L.A. Takedown is one of those made-for-TV films that is so much better than what you expect from the made-for-TV world. Given an opinion to re-watch Heat or L.A. Takedown then more often than not, I choose L.A. Takedown.