Heat (1995) 171m
It's almost unbelievable that Robert De Niro and Al Pacino had never played a scene together until they appeared in this crime picture by Michael Mann. This alone would be enough to earn the film a following, but even if you'd never seen these two actors before, HEAT would still make good viewing. It began life as a screenplay written by Mann in the 70s, which was then reworked as a TV-movie called L.A. SHAKEDOWN in 1989 and filmed again six years later as he had originally envisaged it.
With two veteran players like these it's a tossup as to who plays the cop and who plays the bad guy, and in a perfect world Mann would have made two versions of this film, with the De Niro and Pacino roles switched (that would have been an interesting concept!). In this version, it's Pacino who's the good guy, a cop on the trail of career criminal De Niro, whose gang has just pulled off an armored truck robbery. He's been in the police business too long and has seen too much, and De Niro is his polar opposite, although just as professional in his approach to his work. While the pair of them reveal their more personal selves to women, they communicate primarily in terms of business with their male associates. It's only when Pacino and De Niro meet face to face at the hub of the story that their dialogue becomes a meld of both personal and professional, confirming our suspicions that each of them has only the other to identify with in this world.
Mann's use of neutral colours (all slate greys and chilly blues) and urban settings also appear to freeze emotions throughout the film. He doesn't allow any humor to relieve the tension of the film's three-hour running time, turning HEAT into a brooding epic of masculinity - the title isn't just referring to police and pressure but also to the testosterone powering its protagonists. Pacino and De Niro make pains to show they're in control while also being aware that they operate on personal codes that protect them from being emotionally vulnerable. On one hand, they provide each other with distraction from the issues of commitment that puzzle and hurt them; however they also know that they are helping each other tear their worlds apart. When they're forced head to head, they come out with guns blazing. In most other crime films, this shootout would serve as the story's climax, but as it deals with the characters' conflict on a superficial, machismo level we don't expect it to be any suitable resolution. That's why Mann's lengthy story doesn't seem overlong - or rather, it doesn't seem inappropriate that it's overlong. Beyond the shootout there must be another more intimate - but just as deadly - confrontation. Mann's precise direction (the timing of every scene and cut seems flawless) and investment into the hearts and minds of the characters make HEAT something grander than the flashy crime films we're most often accustomed to. Actors who have worked with him agree that he's a perfectionist, and here it pays off.
sburridge@hotmail.com
========== X-RAMR-ID: 29313 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 246231 X-RT-TitleID: 1068182 X-RT-AuthorID: 1305
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews