Review of Heat (1995) by Peter F — 10 Feb 2016

An often superb thriller, that has a few shortcomings that keeps it from being the masterpiece it aspires to be. There was much discussion in the cinematic community upon Heat's release due to it's warranted pedigree (it's the first film where Pacino and De Niro shared a scene), and it certainly earns its cast as it's a character piece that fully fleshes out the two leads.

It's an amazing action film too, with Mann's trademark grip on veneer making the film absorbing from the very first shot, and the action set-pieces suggest that he's a maestro with gunplay as much as John Woo and Sam Peckinpah were.

Sadly, Heat also suffers from an overlong running time, mainly due to the film having a series of unnecessary sub-plots (one of which wouldn't feel out of place in a prime-time TV procedural drama).

Also, the film loses a lot of momentum after the big heist sequence comes and goes, and the ending is a bit of let-down because of it. Despite this, Heat is still a very important film for recent crime fiction as it's influence can be felt in TV shows (True Detective), video games (Grand Theft Auto V), and other movies (Drive), and it's evident now more than ever that no one can do a slow-burn crime drama like Mann does.