The Budget of Paradox

Sophia, One of my favorite movies is called Heat. It’s from 1995. It’s a crime drama about a group of bank robbers. But it’s arguably a neo-Western; it’s filled with Old West themes. The two protagonists are a relentless police detective and a criminal mastermind who, throughout the movie, trade places between the story’s hero and antihero, and recognize themselves in the other.

The movie was written and produced by Michael Mann, who is one of my favorite producers. He’s best known for a TV series called Miami Vice. It was popular when I was in high school. I wonder if you’ve ever seen any clips – or even heard of it. Micahel Mann focused on imagery, emotions and energy instead of characters and words. Some scenes were intense and heartbreaking. At the time, it was amazing and new.

Anyway, in Heat, there’s a scene where a bank robber is buying information about a bank. He’s buying all kinds of information such as times and dates of cash deliveries, and information about the security systems. The man selling the information is a formal signal intelligence officer who has since become disabled and works for himself at home. As he describes in the video clip below, signals intelligence refers to grabbing the information that “just flies through the air” in radio waves. “I know how to grab it.”

This was 1995. The internet was only one or two years old then. And he’s right, back then, plenty of information was sent over radio towers and very little of it was encrypted or protected. If you had the right kind of antenna and radio, you could capture private information.

During my career, I’ve never formally worked in signal intelligence, but I have worked on plenty of radio systems that can grab private information from the air waves. So, I enjoy this clip. (BTW, did you ever hear the music I made from cell phone calls that I intercepted with a radio? Check out this song.)

Also, I really admire his house. He’s up on the very top of some hill in Los Angeles, right next to the 10 Freeway. His house is bristling with antennas, no doubt listening to all kinds of radio traffic. I love the idea of a criminal signals intelligence lair, some secret hideout on a mountaintop, quietly listening to everything. Mass observation.

In real life, that house is located at 1235 Dodds Circle in Los Angeles. You can look it up. And it’s for sale right now. I looked it up on May 7, 2023, and you can see photos on the realtor’s website. The house is a little dumpy now, but still a wonderful lair.

I think that would be a cool place to live. I love the views of the freeway in the video clip.

The clip: Heat video clip

Here is the real estate listing (if it’s still available): listing

Anyway, I know you’re still a kid, sorta, and probably only interested in kid movies or comedies. But there is so much wonderful cinema I’d love to show you. Neo-Westerns, psychological dramas, black comedy (as opposed to blue comedy), Tech-noir, Femme fatale, and so much more.