Review of Heat (1995) by Leonard D — 17 Oct 2014

Rating: 10/10.

It has been a very long time since I first saw this film, and that was about a year or so after it released which would put me around 13 years old. I barely remembered it at all before watching it again, but I vaguely remember liking it okay. I'm reminded in watching it again just how much age and experience can factor into the enjoyment and appreciation of a film. Heat is a fantastic film and now, being older and wiser, I can fully appreciate that fact.

Michael Mann has directed many awesome films such as Collateral, Last of the Mohicans, and The Insider, but Heat is his masterpiece. Starring heavyweights Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, two of the greatest actors to ever grace the screen, Heat is a masterful crime drama with depth and thrills and fantastic characters. The supporting cast is positively loaded, with Val Kilmer, Ashley Judd, Jon Voigt, Tom Sizemore, Dennis Haysbert, Willaim Fichtner, Natalie Portman, and a few others all lending their immense talent to this film, and not a single one of them are wasted.

Heat could easily be simplified as a cat-and-mouse drama between Pacino's and De Niro's characters, and while that thread certainly exists it is both an oversimplification of their story and the story as a whole. Heat is really all about these characters, each and every one of them, and the notion spoken by Robert De Niro's character, Neil, on more than one occasion: "A guy told me one time, 'Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.'" That 'heat' is seemingly always around the corner for these characters, and for various reasons. Some of them are able to walk away, and some are not.

Now, while I don't want the film's themes to be undersold or the supporting characters forgotten, it certainly is true that De Niro's Neil and Pacino's Vincent are at the heart and center of the film. Vincent is a lieutenant who is all about his job. Catching the bad guys is all he's good at and ultimately all he really cares about, which is mostly why he's on his third marriage and why it's likely to go the way of the first two. It's not that he doesn't care about his wife or his stepdaughter, but the job is who he is. Neil is the other side of the coin, and I mean that in as literal a way as possible. He is all about the job as well, only his job is the score. That quote that underlines the films theme is his personal motto. He knows when to walk away, and that can be from a job or a colleague or even a lover. It goes without saying that Neil and Vincent are pitted against each other here, but that does not mean there is animosity. Quite the opposite. There is a lot of respect between these two characters because they are so similar and so good at what they do. They understand each other, and part of that is the understanding that when it comes down to it, because of their principles, neither will hesitate to put the other down.

De Niro and Pacino spend very little of the near-3 hour running time on the screen together, but that isn't a bad thing at all. For one thing it fits the story perfectly, and secondly those few times they are together are made that much better. Oh, and how great those moments are. I can't help but wonder if this film has an underhanded motive of acknowledging the fact that choosing which of these two actors, in their prime, is next to near impossible. They have been cast in similar roles in similar films, and were both the major players in The Godfather Part II. However, unlike that film, Heat shows them on screen together, even if it is just for a few, sumptuous moments. And in their characters, who are equals, there may be that notion that these two actors are also equals. Both masters of their craft. And so they are.

Heat is a brilliant and atmospheric work of art. It is engaging from beginning to end and should be on any film junky's list of must-see films.