Heat

It's been a few years since I've sat down and watched Michael Mann's "Heat", arguably the director's best film. It was somewhat overshadowed in its initial release due to the coverage of it being the first film starring both Al Pacino and Robert De Niro and having them share precious moments of screen time.

Indeed the film is a terrific showcase for both great actors, and the one scene they share together in a coffee shop is quite special just seeing the two of them act and react to one another, it's a great treat. However let's not take anything away from the pure craft and technique Michael Mann had to create such a beautifully shot epic crime saga.

On the surface, "Heat" doesn't offer anything new, it's a story about bank robbers and the police who pursue them. This type has been done since the old Warner Brothers days of James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, and Edward G. Robinson. Even some of today's most popular films like "The Town" follow the same formula. "Heat" however tells its story in a new modern light. In the film Mann is interested not only in the professional lives of the criminals and the law, but also how their lives seem to parallel the others.

The main criminal here is Neil McCauley (De Niro), a career bank robber, a man who has trained himself to walk away from any kind of commitment or normal life if he feels the heat around the corner. Neil is never settled, his house is isolated and solitary. His friend and accomplice Chris (Val Kilmer) asks him "When are you gonna get some furniture?" he says "When I get around to it." Chris then asks him "When are you gonna get a wife?" he says "When I get around to it." For Neil, his life is his work, he remains disciplined even as he finds himself getting involved with someone (Amy Brenneman), he's still willing to walk away.

When Neil and his men rob an armored car, he is now being trailed by ace detective Vincent Hanna (Pacino), a man like Neil dedicated to his work, despite it taking its toll on his personal life. Vincent is now on his third marriage that is disintegrating before his eyes. He's obsessed with the chase and catching his man, he understands he has to stay as sharp and dedicated as the men he's after.

What's interesting about "Heat" is Mann's attention to detail and authenticity, he makes us understand the lives of these two by showing them both as men of honor but also as flawed human beings. "Heat" never remains black and white when it comes to crime, it's too smart for that, these are people finding their own morality in an immoral world, and it's fascinating seeing that it's coming from both sides of the law.

The main color of "Heat" I would say is blue, it sometimes seems to streak the entire frame, particularly in De Niro's house where he can look out on the ocean, which is just as desolate as his character. It's a beautifully shot film and Mann adds to the atmosphere a sense of realism unseen in genre filmmaking before.

The climactic bank robbery stands alone as one of the best ever shot, merely because of Mann's attention to detail. The intense gunfire is loud and pounding, probably sounding like what a real gun would instead of hearing bullets ricochet in the Hollywood manner. All the men playing Pacino's fellow officer's all seem real, they are men doing their job, there isn't one of them who flies of the handle the way you might see in a regular crime movie.

Despite all this authenticity, Mann remains a stylized director, and he throws in some hypothetical scenes to give the movie its weight, the most famous of course being the coffee shop scene with Pacino and De Niro.

The scene couldn't exist outside of movies, it's not often you think of a cop having coffee with the man he's pursuing. Yet the scene is also not just an excuse to get these acting heavyweights in a room together. It actually becomes a philosophical, and existential discussion between these two men who must feel a certain bond between one another. At one moment Pacino talks of a dream he had about all the victims killed by the men he's put away. You leave the scene feeling what these men are all about in relation to the other and it's quite wonderful to see.

"Heat" stands above many of the other modern genre films made today, mainly because Michael Mann has a certain respect for this material. He takes equal time with the criminals and the police to see what makes them tick. Mann of course would come back to this type of film time and again with "Collateral", "Miami Vice", and "Public Enemies". You can sense there is a type of obsession with Mann not unlike Neil and Vincent in this film, and something like that is quite admirable. It takes a very special filmmaker to take a crime movie and make it quite beautiful.