HEAT (1995)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Action / Crime / Drama

Director: Michael Mann

Cast: Al Pacino / Robert DeNiro / Val Kilmer

Plot

A gang of professional thieves plot a multi-million dollar bank robbery with an obsessed Los Angeles police detective determined to bring them to justice.

What I Liked

Much was made of the pairing of gangster movie icons Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro in the same film together for the first time since “The Godfather, Part II,” a movie in which they had not shared a single scene.  Thankfully, both actors delivered on the promise of what was, truth be told, a gimmick to sell the movie, with performances that met if not surpassed expectations.  It’s not so much their portrayals of their characters individually that impresses.  Both actors were perfectly cast in roles that are not vast departures from characters they had played before.  It’s the way that Pacino and DeNiro, with help from director Michael Mann, elevated the relationship between their two characters from what could have been a simple cop-and-robber cliché to a more complex symbiosis that is conveyed so powerfully to the audience that it borders on spooky.

Outside of the Pacino-DeNiro dynamic there’s still plenty more about “Heat” to admire.  Essentially an update on the L.A. noir and detective movies of yesteryear, the film is at once a tip of the hat to the sinister fantasy of what was essentially a dead genre and a first rate heist action flick.  The kind of film that warms the hearts of nerdy cinephiles and casual fans who want things to go boom.  Director Mann finds that perfect middle ground by endowing the look of the film with a gorgeous black sheen and his characters with the cool brilliance that classic tough guys Pacino and DeNiro embody perfectly.  Of course we know that the lives of L.A. detectives and their criminal prey are never as glamorous as Mann would have us believe, but that’s part of the fun.  He’s given us an escapist pleasure disguised as a gritty crime picture.

What I Didn’t Like

Let’s face it, we’ve seen these characters from Pacino and DeNiro before and since.  How many incorruptible cops with unpredictable tempers has Pacino played before?  His characters in “Serpico” and “Sea of Love” come to mind.  DeNiro as a brooding gangster of few words?  That list is too long for me to bother compiling.  Luckily, the combination of those two characters and what the actors do with that combination is what makes the film work.

These titans of cinema are backed by one of the most star-studded supporting casts of the 90s: Natalie Portman, John Voight, Ashley Judd, Val Kilmer, Henry Rollins, Danny Trejo, Wes Studi, Tom Sizemore, and others all do well with limited screen time.  But sometimes star power can be a weakness in a film.  I can’t tell you the name of a single character in that movie and I just watched it yesterday.  To me, they were Pacino, DeNiro, Kilmer, Judd, Voight, etc.  Talented and familiar actors they may be, but I might have gotten even more into this movie if the supporting cast featured more unknowns.

Most Memorable Scene:

Come on.  No contest.  The diner scene.  Pacino and DeNiro in a verbal chess match over coffee.  I once heard one movie critic describe this is the greatest dialogue in movie history.  That’s overrating it a bit.  In fact, it’s less the tough guy dialogue that makes the scene so scintilating than what the two actors bring to the dialogue with their glances, stares, sneers, smirks, and gestures.

My Rating: 4 out of 5