Review of Heat (1995) by Ruth L — 11 Feb 2012

Michael Mann has been a director whose work, in the past, I've had difficulty enjoying. Ali was engaging but heavy-handed, I was the one guy who didn't really care for The Last of the Mohicans, and I actually prefer Brett Ratner's Red Dragon remake to the original Manhunter.

However, I'd have to really hate crime epics in order to not recognize the brilliance behind Mann's Los Angeles crime saga, Heat. It is probably the greatest contemporary crime film ever made, and the textbook example of "how to do a cops and robbers story that is both satisfyingly action-packed and emotionally engaging".

Mann pretty much had total creative control over this project, as writer, director, and producer, and is also a textbook example of how to handle a film on which you have complete artistic license. Heat also features the best score of Elliot Goldenthal's career, stunning and gritty photography from lensman Dante Spinotti, perfectly pieced together by a team of editors that keep a $60 million, 170-minute crime epic moving at a fast, unrelenting pace, and has an all-star cast who all deliver stunning, emotional performances.

Though Heat also works on many other levels, it will probably be most remembered for bringing two of cinema's most iconic crime actors onscreen together for the first time. Though they starred together in The Godfather Part II as two different Don Corleones of two different eras, Heat represents the first time that they met face-to-face in front of the camera.

Robert De Niro and Al Pacino come together in the scene's best film, a conversation about life choices over a cup of coffee, and the sizzle between them highlights the acting behemoths that the two truly are.

This is arguably De Niro's last great performance before descending into comedic hell, and he brings career criminal Neil McCauley to life, making him an extremely sympathetic, deep, cultured, and intelligent criminal who hates the life he's chosen, but doesn't know any other way.

He's arguably more sympathetic than Pacino's Detective Vincent Hanna, who is so immersed in his job that he's possibly as isolated and separate from his wife and troubled stepdaughter as McCauley is from everyone.

The film also has a vast ensemble featuring Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Amy Brenneman, Ashley Judd, Ted Levine, Danny Trejo, Tom Noonan, Dennis Haysbert, William Fichtner, Hank Azaria, Xander Berkeley, Jeremy Piven, and a young Natalie Portman, all of whom leave lasting and memorable impacts, with Kilmer and Judd as the troubled Shiherlis couple getting the biggest figure in the plot.

I could rave on and on about Heat's greatness, but really, it must be seen to be understood, as Heat is Mann's best, and the greatest crime film since GoodFellas.