Heat

Heat (1995)

Director: Michael Mann

Cast: Robert DeNiro, Al Pachino, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Diane Venora, Amy Brenneman, Ashley Judd, Natalie Portman, Mykeleti Williamson, Wes Studi, Ted Levine, Dennis Haysbert, William Fitchner, Jon Voight, Tom Noonan, Hank Azaria

Writer: Michael Mann

Synopsis:

Neil McCauley (DeNiro) leads a crew of ruthless bank robbers taking down scores around Los Angeles. After their recent job goes wrong and results in the murder of three armored car guards, McCauley and his crew draw the attention of LAPD Robbery Homicide detective Vincent Hanna (Pachino). What follows is an epic cat-and-mouse game as Hanna attempts to track down and stop McCauley before he can take down his next score. In the process of the hunt, Hanna and McCauley grow to respect one another, despite being on opposite sides of the law. 

First Impressions:

I did not see Heat in theaters, in fact when it was released I wasn't even aware of its existence. Despite the critical acclaim the movie received, it was not  not exactly a box-office hit and was not pushed very hard by the studio. The only reason I found out about this film was because I happened to grab a "coming soon" flyer at my local Blockbuster, which had a brief description of the film. I was 19 at the time and I was just getting into more mature movies like Heat. I didn't know who Michael Mann was yet, but I knew who Pachino and DeNiro were and when I discovered that this was the first time that the two acting legends actually shared a scene together on film, I knew I had to give it a try. So, a couple of weeks later on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I convinced my friends that we should give the movie a try. We did and I was not disappointed, in fact, I was bowled over. I loved this movie and I still rank it in my top 10 to this day.

 

Story/Direction: 

"Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner."

This film manages to pack a lot of story into what is essentially a cops and robbers tale. Not only does the movie focus on Hanna's search for McCauley's crew but it also takes a look into their personal lives and how their jobs impact their personal and familial relationships. The above quote sums up nicely one of the most prevalent themes in the movie, which is about the sacrifices driven people make in their efforts to become the best at what they do. McCauley is a loner who has avoided any attachments in his life because he knows that the cops could be breaking down his door at any minute. Nevertheless, he meets and falls for Edie (Brenneman) a book store clerk, who makes him reconsider his loner mentality. Meanwhile, Hanna is in a shell of a marriage with Justine (Venora), who resents his obsession with his quarry and his refusal to open up to her. Despite both men's efforts to lead a "normal" life, they are both consumed with the job and put aside all else to accomplish their goals regardless of the damage that may cause. Neither of these men are particularly likable and yet, we still end up rooting for both of them in the end, or at least I did. 

As far as directing goes, Michael Mann was one of the best in Hollywood during the 90s and early 2000s. Mann has a great affinity with the city of LA and knows how to shoot it in such a way that makes the audience feel as though they are there. Mann also has a talent for bringing the audience close to the characters, literally. Through liberal use of close-ups on actors, Mann is able to convey what's going on in the characters' minds with little to no dialogue. Of course, it helps when you have great actors, but there'll be more on that later. Speaking of close ups of great actors, I can't talk about the direction in this film and not bring up the diner scene between DeNiro and Pachino. It's just a simple conversation between to blokes having coffee but the way its shot using close-ups and mid-range shots makes the audience feel as if they were sitting on the other side of the table. All in all, its a masterful scene and worth the price of admission.

Acting:

I like to think of this movie as one of the last really great performances of Pachino's career before he kind of...lost it. Make no mistake, he chews a fair amount of scenery in Heat but it's nowhere near what he did in Scent of a Woman just a few years earlier. While Pachino could play Hanna as over the top, I think it was mostly a character choice, seeing as Hanna is an incredibly intense individual and people like that can be prone to outbursts. As a bonus, they also provide the movie with its few comedic moments.

On the other end of the spectrum was DeNiro's performance. He plays McCauley as no less intense than Hanna but much more low key (as one would do when they're frequently hunted by the police). To McCauley, crime is just a means to an end, he does it because he's not good at anything else. I think this performance and the one he turned in a few years later in The Score rank among DeNiro's best outputs of the 90s and beyond.

Of course the cast is riddled with other great performances, such as Val Kilmer's take on McCauley's gambling-addicted right-hand man Chris Shiherlis or Dennis Haybert's turn as Donald Breeden, a parolee just trying to get his life back on track. There's even a small role for a very young Natalie Portman, who plays Hanna's troubled step-daughter Lauren. No matter where you look, there's not a bad performance to be found here.

Visuals:

There's not a ton in the way of visual effects in this movie, save for a fair amount of gunfire, which I'll cover in a later section. That being said, there's still a lot to like visually with Heat. The film's backdrop in LA and as I mentioned earlier, Mann has an affinity with the city. In the film, he shows us almost two different cities through the use of color and light. The scenes scenes set during the day time are almost too bright, the ever-present sunshine highlights the optimism that many must feel when first visiting LA. Conversely, the scenes shot at night have an almost dull blue glow about them which is almost more at home in a cyberpunk setting than 1990's Los Angeles. It gives the city an almost dystopian feel to it and shows the seedy underbelly of the City of Angels. The contrasting backdrops work very well in the context of the movie and gives the movie a distinct visual feel.

Score/Music:

The score in this film, composed  by Eliot Goldenthal, is understated but effective. While I didn't find any particular piece of music stuck in my head after watching, I still found the score did its job by underscoring the particular emotions meant to dominate a particular scene. There's even some contemporary (for the time) tracks sprinkled in, which are mostly instrumental and don't date the film too much. All in all, it's a fie score that serves the movie well.

Action:

While I wouldn't classify this film as an "action" movie, there's still a fair amount of action scenes to be found here. Most of these are gunfights, with a short car chase thrown in. The actions scenes are all well shot and clearly show the audience the action, but you can't talk about the action in this film without talking about the bank robbery scene. Simply put, the bank robbery scene, and the subsequent firefight, is one of the best actions scenes ever put to celluloid. It's inspired countless similar scenes in film, television and even video games. At the beginning, it's almost like the gunfight at the OK Corral because its so contained and there's bullets flying everywhere. As it progresses though, and the players separate, it almost becomes a sequence that would be more at home in a war movie like Black Hawk Down, rather than in a hard-boiled crime drama. What really sets the scene apart, to me at least, is the sound. The gunshots echo through the city streets so loud and clear that it really highlights the violence of the scene. 

Final Verdict:

As I suspected, my most recent viewing of Heat hasn't really changed my opinion on it at all, except to maybe give me more appreciation for it. Fans of crime films or of just great films in general owe it to themselves to give this movie a shot.