"Heat" (1995) - Movie Review

“Heat” could have been the action of Hollywood formulas very easily, the same how “L.A. Confidential” (which it’s been a while I watched it as a whole) would have been. But it studies the characters of two person obsessed with their zeal towards the passion of crime in opposite directions. While Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) is struggling to cope up with his third marriage with Justine (Diane Venora), Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) is stumbling into his first relationship in his lifetime. One a cop, other a con and their relationship are ridiculously opposite too. The thing to look though is that Neil understood all through the years the prospective of having a relationship; it is next to impossible with a profession like his. Vincent believes in a life of his own of wife and kids, when pager ringing is good enough to forget those in a moment. Around these two people runs a crime drama to bring in the two best versatile actors in Hollywood, Pacino and De Niro.

There is no compromise taken by director Michael Mann in order to weigh down the script over the image and phenomenal expectation of these two actors. But looking broadly, we have Jon Voight, Val Kilmer, Ashley Judd, Tom Sizemore and Amy Brenneman equally good in their profession of strong character and supporting roles in various films. One can only imagine the insane figures spent in casting the crew alone. In the hands of any other actors, this role would have been a great one too, but Pacino and De Niro plays with the same passion as these guys do in their respective profession. They get their individual screen time in this movie which clocks near to three hours. When they sit face to face in that restaurant to have a cup of coffee that stamps the scene in any stands as electric. Many believe that they were individual shots and I doubted it too. Wiki cleared the doubt that it was shot with both the actors facing each other. How much they downplayed their image in to that scene is unfathomable. When you see that scene, we never associate it with the actors. Of course we know these are the giants clashing smoothly sipping their coffee, but we see them as the giants of Vincent Hanna and Neil McCauley. Not for one moment there is a loose rope which it could have been. Both are matured actors but there could have been the subconscious feeling of being competitive or intimidated. It never is visible and that five to ten minutes sequence is a time capsule for the generations to come for viewing this two legends work their magic.

The score they plan are good. They are not the “Ocean’s Eleven” high technique co-ordination of various people and sequential order of events executed in a stylistic and sarcastic fashion. The crimes are raw and real. They are prepared for anything and everything which might stand between them and the money, and mainly their life. At that point of time, we realize that it is more than the money. These guys will be happy to walk out with a bag of candy if they are challenged that it is an unachievable ones in the secure place of high tension. Such is their attitude towards their line of living.

You give a character of power, authority and control to these actors and there are fireworks. But the highly anticipated scene of showdown is slow, subtle and comforting. They have the tight rope to dance upon and they walk by in a careless manner not because they are condescending about it, but they know the drill blindfolded.

We see the analogy of life in these personalities which are unalike on bird’s eye view. When we take closer look, they are by chance in different direction. Their instincts are same. We see Vincent empathizing with the mother of a victim. The viewers can be fooled to doubt that Vincent still can be in the other side of the table. It might be true, but the care he takes for his family makes him who he is. Neil would have been afraid of the change and the effect it is going to take on his profession.

What makes “Heat” stand out from the regular run of the mill crime story is the considerable amount of time dedicated to the other characters surrounding Hanna and McCauley. Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer) who loves his wife Charlene (Ashley Judd) so much that he is ready to take the risk of his life, more than the bank robbery in the movie. Being the wife of a cop and also a criminal appears to be same. Both are affected by each other to keep their personal life dangling. It is complex to see that there is no hesitation in shooting out randomly over the streets showing no value for human life and in the next scene they hug and kiss their loved ones. Why does not that face of their wife, daughters, sons and friends glance through by when they decide to go berserk in saving their own life? May be that is one of the reason Neil stayed single and the faces he cares are right beside him shooting.