I have mentioned on this blog before my respect and adoration for Michael Mann and his films. Heat (1995) is generally considered Mann's quintessential movie. I would agree with that in principal, in so far as Heat does incapsulate a perfect balance of everything one would consider a Michael Mann film. It is about men and their jobs and how that effects their relationships with loved ones and with each other. It has big gun fight scenes, it is filmed in that gritty Mann way, but back when he was still using film, so the cinematography is a bit better. It takes place in all parts of Los Angeles that we don't normally see on film. These are all staples of a Michael Mann film, but despite those qualities and the praise for the film, I don't think it is his best movie.
As much is made of the De Niro, Pacino combination, this film is very much a mosaic that tries to explore the lives of both cops and criminals. It focus's in on their obsessions, their drives, and how their career choices have alienated them from loved ones. Unfortunately in trying to achieve all these aspects, the film over stretches itself and leaves a lot of the relationships feeling flat. I think Mann would have been better off to keep the wives and girlfriends out of this and to just concentrate on the relationships between the cops and the criminals. In fact, the De Niro relationship with his girlfriend played by Amy Brenneman was so unrealistic that I found myself yelling at the screen at one point, asking why she would stay with him. The movie is nearly 3 hours as is, and Mann just doesn't have time to flesh out any of these extra relationships and because of that they seem to distract from the main story, which is very interesting and well done.
Heat has one of the top 5 shoot out scenes in movie history. It is a captivating film, that is able to explore a side of the cop and robber story that is not normally explored, the human side of both. The film looks at all these characters, good or bad, and doesn't judge, doesn't differentiate it just gives us these people and lets us watch the drama unfold. De Niro's Neal McCauley may be a sociopath, but how much different is he that Pacino's Lt. Hanna? Both men have principals and they follow them.
No review of Heat would be complete without discussing the performances by De Niro and Pacino. I think it is pretty obvious who gives the better performance here; De Niro. Not only does he give a better performance than Pacino, I think he gives his last great performance. The subtlety in which he carries himself in this film is something to behold. It also doesn't hurt that his counterpart is chewing the scenery worse than ever before. De Niro does so much more with a look than Pacino does with a yell, there could be a class on acting based on this film. Now I don't by any means believe that this is the determiner between those two legendary actors as to which one is better. De Niro just happens to win this one.
Heat is a procedural and a character study before its an action movie and that is what makes it great. I would have liked to see Mann condense certain aspects like he does in his two best films Collateral and The Insider but overall this movie does everything that Public Enemies attempted to do but better.
****
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