Movie Type: Crime Thriller, Post-Noir (Modern Noir)
Themes: Southern Gothic, Death of a Partner, Drug Trade
Main Cast: Alec Baldwin, Kelly Lynch, Mary Stuart Masterson, Eric Roberts, Teri Hatcher
Release Year: 1996
Country: US
Run Time: 135 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
An ex-cop trying to stay away from trouble finds it literally crashing into his backyard in this crime thriller. Dave Robicheaux (Alec Baldwin) is a former New Orleans police detective who, after kicking an addiction to alcohol and confronting some serious problems with his partners, has left law enforcement behind to run a bait shop in a small Louisiana bayou town. One day, Dave and his wife Annie (Kelly Lynch) see a small plane plummet from the sky and crash into the swamp; the pilot dies, but Dave is able to rescue a young Hispanic girl from the wreckage. Dave and Annie take the child in, but as they try to find out more about the plane crash and who the little girl might be, they discover that she's actually an illegal alien from Salvador and that the pilot was involved with a local drug ring. Dave, constitutionally unable to let a mystery go unsolved, begins asking enough questions and making enough trouble that he finds himself on the bad side of his old High School friend Bubba Rocque (Eric Roberts). Bubba is a local crime boss who controls the area's drug traffic, keeps a boxing ring in his front yard, and has a wife Claudette (Teri Hatcher) who enjoys greeting her guests naked. Dave's inquiries eventually become too much for Bubba and his henchmen, and in the midst of a violent raid on their home, Annie is killed. Dave becomes obsessed with bringing Bubba and his men to justice and gets some unexpected help from Robin Gaddis (Mary Stuart Masterson), an exotic dancer with a heart of gold. While it was originally scheduled for release in 1994, Heaven's Prisoners didn't arrive on theater screens until two years later, by which time Teri Hatcher had risen to stardom on the TV series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Vondie Curtis-Hall - Minos P. Dautrieve; Lenore Banks - Woman Driver; Don Brady - Apartment Man; Badja Djola - Batist; Hawthorne James - Victor Romero; Joe Hess - Johnny Dartez; Patricia Huston - Nun; Carl A. McGee - Toot; Tuck Milligan - Jerry Falgout; Socorro Santiago - Spanish Nun; Anne Schedeen - Jungle Room Patron; Don Stark - Eddie Keats; Saul Stein - Dom; Joe Viterelli - Didi Giancano; Don Yesso - Jungle Room Bartender; Gray Fredrickson - Sheriff Len Whitley; James Hooks Reynolds - Truck Driver; Chuck Zito - Tony; Paul Guilfoyle - Detective Magelli; Walter C. Bassett; Tom Burgess - Prison Guard; Glenn Gomez - Piano Mover; Chris Kriesa - Priest; Samantha Lagpacan - Alafair; Herman Myles Jr. - Clarence; Jerry Procanik - Patron; Connie Whittemore - Stripper; Marion Zinser - Apartment Couple
Credit
Monroe Kelly - Art Director, Michael Alan Kahn - Associate Producer, Linda Phillips-Palo - Casting, Aude Bronson-Howard - Costume Designer, Michael Alan Kahn - First Assistant Director, J. Stephan Buck - First Assistant Director, Phil Joanou - Director, William Steinkamp - Editor, Alec Baldwin - Executive Producer, Gray Fredrickson - Executive Producer, Hildy Gottlieb - Executive Producer, George Fenton - Composer (Music Score), George Fenton - Songwriter, John Stoddart - Production Designer, Harris Savides - Cinematographer, Leslie Greif - Producer, Andre Morgan - Producer, Albert S. Ruddy - Producer, Dorree Cooper - Set Designer, Dennis Dion - Special Effects, Kim Ornitz - Sound/Sound Designer, Pete Antico - Stunts, Scott Frank - Screenwriter, Harley Peyton - Screenwriter, Peter Afterman - Executive Music Producer, Robin Harlan - Foley Walker, Sarah Hammond - Foley Walker, Robert "Bobby Z" Zajonc - Pilot
One of very few memorable things about the 1996 bayou thriller Heaven's Prisoners was its gritty blues and R&B soundtrack, balancing some of the legends of the blues (Junior Wells, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker) with some genuine houserockin' swamp blues from more contemporary bluesmen (C.C. Adcock, the Hoax, Kenny Neal). This balance makes for an album that is not only a primer for those unfamiliar to the genre, but a nice sampler for longtime aficionados looking for the new hot sounds coming from Louisiana. From Buddy Guy's searing rendition of "Red House" to the wildman stomp of C.C. Adcock's "Bo's Bounce (also called "Beaux's Bounce" on the artist's own album), the soundtrack shifts from veteran to greenhorn with surprising continuity. "Twenty Ton Weight" by youthful British blues rockers the Hoax borrows heavily on the influence of Stevie Ray Vaughan, and their contribution on the album is followed by SRV himself. The inclusion of Aretha Franklin on the soundtrack had the potential to stick out like a sore thumb (being the only true R&B artist and the only woman in this collection), but the brash and bluesy "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)" fits in with the same anguish and fire as her album-mates. A thoroughly gritty and enjoyable sampling of 13 of the greatest electric blues tracks of the latter 20th century. ~ Zac Johnson, All Music Guide
In the Electric Mist (2009) is a sequel to Heaven's Prisoners in which Tommy Lee Jones replaces Baldwin as Dave Robicheaux. In the sequel, Robicheaux still lives in Louisiana and has come out of retirement as an Iberia Parish sheriff's detective.
A former police detective in Louisiana and a recovering alcoholic, Dave Robicheaux is living a quiet life in the swamplands of Louisiana with his wife Annie. The couple's tranquility is shattered one day when a drug smuggler's plane crashes in the lake right before their eyes.
Dave succeeds in rescuing a lone survivor, an El Salvadoran girl, whom Dave and his wife quickly adopt. With the arrival of a DEA officer named Dautrieve and an inherent connection to Bubba Rocque, the leading drug kingpin in the area and Dave's childhood friend, Dave finds himself and his family in danger.
Dave is assaulted one day by two thugs. With help from his friend Robin, an exotic dancer, he begins to investigate. His longtime acquaintance Bubba denies any involvement, but Dave warns him and Bubba's sultry wife Claudette that he is going to find out who's behind all this and do something about it. He proceeds to track down one of the men who attacked him, Eddie Keats, and knocks him unconscious in a bar.
Killers come to the Robicheaux home late one night. Robicheaux is helpless to prevent his wife Annie from being killed. He falls off the wagon and neglects the young girl they adopted. Robin comes to stay with them.
Clearing his head, Robicheaux seeks vengeance against the three killers. He first goes after a large man called Toot, chasing him onto a streetcar and causing his death. Bubba and Claudette reassure a local mob boss named Giancano that they won't let this get out of hand, and Bubba gets into a fistfight with Robicheaux, falsely suspecting him of an affair with Claudette.
Eddie Keats is found dead before Robicheaux can get to him. Going after the last and most dangerous of the killers, Victor Romero, he knows that someone else must be giving them orders.
He finds Romero and kills him. Then, going to Bubba's home to confront him, he discovers that it is Claudette who has been calling the shots all along. Once she is dealt with, he and Bubba part ways for good.
Production
Heaven's Prisoners is based on one of a series of novels by James Lee Burke about the troubled ex-cop Dave Robicheaux. The film was not immediately released upon completion and it would be a couple of years later in 1995 before it showed up in theaters.
