"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.""
Heat is a movie that came out in 1995, which is one of my favourite years in terms of movies. The Usual Suspects, Se7en, Toy Story, Casino, Twelve Monkeys and Braveheart were all released that year as well, but Heat is easily the most underrated of them all in my opinion. This movie is director Michael Mann's undisputed masterpiece in every sense of the word, and it features some of the best storytelling I've ever witnessed, the best action/heist scene in movie history, but more importantly, it's a picture perfect example of how beneficial good character development can be to the overall succes of a movie.
The cast consists of stars like Val Kilmer, Jon Voight and Natalie Portman, but also the first onscreen pairing of the all time greats Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. In the first fifteen minutes of Heat, Niel McCauley (De Niro) and his crew of expert criminals overthrow and rob a money transport. Waingro, the newest member of the team, eventually starts shooting the people that were guarding the van during the heist, a fatal mistake that starts off a chain of inevitable events that eventually leads Niel and the hard nosed police lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Pacino), the cop who's assigned to solve the case, on a collision course. After the opening act finishes and the crew starts planning their next big score, the movie slows down a lot, and the character development part of the movie begins. The audience is introduced to some of the more personal things that the different characters are dealing with, and the astonishing detail in which Michael Mann does this is one of Heat's strongest selling point in my personal opinion.
It's revealed that De Niro's character is an incredibly lonely man who lives by the quote that you see written under the title of this review, and it turns out that Lt. Vincent is one of those cops whos' only real passion is his job, which in turn leads to a chaotic family life. Even though these are the two main characters of the movie, Michal Mann still leaves room to develop a lot of the supporting cast as well, the stand out being Val Kilmer's character, Chris. This guy seems like a total dickhead at first glance, but thanks to the Michael Mann, he actually turns out to be an incredibly emotional character who's willing to do anything for his wife and his child. Kilmer might not have as much screen time as De Niro or Pacino, but he's my personal favourite character of the movie, Simply because of how fleshed out Michael Mann allowed his and all the other supporting characters of this movie to be.
As the movie starts to get going and the main problems that the characters have to deal with are introduced, another great thing about this movie becomes apparent. It might not seem that important to most viewers, but the cinematography in Heat is essential to the tone of the movie, and it would not have been the same without it. The background score is very important as well, and when combined, these two elements create an atmosphere of tension and uncertainty that's as effective as it gets. A lot of critiques and audiences have complained about the length of this movie, but to me, when cinematography and music come together to create an atmosphere that is as powerful as it is in Heat, 2 hours and 50 minutes isn't too long at all. My father once described Heat as "a Christopher Nolan Batman film without Batman", and now that I've seen the movie twice, I completely agree with that statement. Remember how The Dark Knight's storytelling, moral dilemmas, confrontations, all consuming feel of grandness and character development kept you on the edge of your seat for two and a half hours the first time you watched it? Heat will do the same thing, because the tone and the atmosphere of both movies are as similar as they are.
Writing about Heat without mentioning the downtown Los Angeles bank robbery scene would be an even bigger crime than stealing 12.1/12.2 million dollars and killing 50 police officers in the meantime. In a scene that has become one of the most famous actions sequences in recent memory, McCauley and his crew pulls of their biggest score ever about 90 minutes into the movie. The actual bank robbery is tense and exiting in itself, but the shootout between the cops and the criminals that ensues afterwards has gone down in history as one of the all time greatest action sequences. Little things such as the sound of guns being fired is greater in this scene than in any other shootout I've seen before, and the fact that you can hear the echo of the shots bounce off of the surrounding buildings is a testimony to the care with which this movie was created. According to IMDb's trivia page, the tactics that the criminals use to retreat is similar to the tactics employed by armies all over the world, and even though it seems like Val Kilmer's gun has 200 rounds in each magazine, the scene feels oddly realistic and grounded in reality.
The way each of the characters behave when their cover is blown and everything is reduced to the principal rule of "kill or be killed" is remarkable to say the least, and it's my personal favourite part of this famous scene. Kilmer's character goes into a complete frenzy and starts killing cops left and right, and De Niro plays it smart and uses tactically efficient and well though out methods to escape. Another person from their crew simply just takes his part of the stolen money and bails the scene completely, and Pacino does everything he can to stop the criminals and reduce the amount of injured civilians as much as possible. No words are spoken in this entire scene, but it still says incredibly much about all of the characters that are involved. A lot of noteworthy things happen during this scene, and it's baffling to me how Michael Mann managed to make an element that usually just focuses on big guns and explosions become something more than just that.
Michael Mann knew that the Robert De Niro/Al Pacino showdown would be this movies strongest selling point, and he also knew how big a potential he was dealing with. The way he set these two actors up against each other reflects that completely, and even though they only share about 10 minutes of screen time in this 170 minute movie, he handled it flawlessly in my opinion. Lt. Vincent Hanna and Niel McCauley are polar opposites in terms of their choice of profession, but they're almost exactly the same in all other aspects. They're both troubled men who're 100% dedicated to what they do, they both wish that their lives had turned out a different way than the way it did, and they share the same way of thinking professionally. The two characters respect each other immensely, and when they finally meet to talk over a cup of coffe as regular men, every single line they deliver is memorable and chillingly effective. As great and important as the bank robbery scene is, it doesn't even come close to the level that this first on screen conversation between De Niro and Pacino reaches. The final moments of Heat are as emotionally effective and masterfully created as anything I've seen in a long time, and the memories and impressions that Michael Mann's masterpiece leaves me with are indescribable. It's a tragic and unsettling movie to say the least, but it's still one of the best crime dramas of our time, which is mainly because of De Niro and Pacino's fleshed out characters and the way they clash.
Even though Heat was marketed as being an action-jackson movie with gunfights, babes, explosions and fireworks, it's a much deeper and more philosophical movie than I'd ever expected. Michael Mann's directing and the way he set up each and every single character to be important and impactful to the over all story is incomparable to 99% of the movies I've ever seen, and as a big fan of character development and dark plots with emotional twist and turns, there's no way to describe how far up my alley this film is. Michael Mann's vision and Kilmer's, De Niro and Pacino's characters are enough to earn Heat the rating of Movie Magic, but everything else about this epic movie is top shelf cinema gold as well. (6/6)
Heat IMDb page here
Heat trailer here
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