There’s so much to unpack in Micheal Mann’s crime thriller Heat. Coming in at a runtime of 2 hours and 55 minutes, Heat practically feels like two movies with how thorough it is. The film stars Al Pacino and Robert De Niro as two exact opposites. One of them, a determined robbery expert and the other a determined Lieutenant for the L.A.P.D.. Al Pacino plays good guy Lieutenant Vincent Hanna and De Niro, Neil McCauley. Our movie kicks off with De Niro and his coworkers pulling off a robbery that blows open a law enforcement vehicle carrying bearer bonds. This crew includes Neil McCauley, Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer), Waingro (Kevin Gage), and Trejo (Danny Trejo). After they successfully pull the robbery off, Hanna and the police get to cracking it. This is the start of Vincent’s long and arduous chase to get the crew and mainly Neil McCauley later. This movie isn’t only about Vincent Hanna chasing after McCauley, but also focuses on the theme of fulfilling life with a specific meaning and purpose, a wife. Both Neil and Vincent struggle in different ways with Hanna’s wife being his fourth, and Neil being the only crew member other than Waingro without a wife or ‘woman’. Heat was able to classify itself as a success because it features two themes, flashy cinematography from Micheal Mann, and a long, well thought-out story.
WARNING FOR SPOILERS. READ AT OWN RISK.
The Pros
This movie features what probably is the greatest robbery police shootout in film history. I can say that with confidence because of the great sound design and the fact that they chose for it to take place in the middle of the downtown streets of Los Angeles. Vincent Hanna and non descript police officers of the L.A.P.D. are not only chasing some of the crew through public squares as midday shoppers scream and run away, but also have a full shootout on the roads. When I talk about the sound design, it’s the fullness and echoing of the guns. It really sounds like realistic gunshots and as though they’re perhaps bouncing off the skyscrapers. The angles are also awesome. They follow and stay right behind and even parallel to the robbers as they shoot.
Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are fantastic as though I didn’t make that clear in the plot synopsis. Putting aside that they are both A+ performers in a lot of the movies they play, they both have characters that mirror each other but are opposites. What I mean by that in laymen’s terms is that Vincent Hanna carries the same “no days off” mentality if you will to his job that Neil McCauley also brings to his job. With the acting brought back to the table, De Niro played a hard-nosed Neil McCauley who never seemed to be concerned or worried. Pacino’s Hanna has some great lines that make you laugh; In one, he talks about the chicken his wife made being not cooked well enough in specific regard to how she shouldn’t be worried about him not making it home for dinner because he’s out working.
An impressive ending scene. What was weird to me was when Vincent shook Neil’s hand at the end of this scene. I discussed it with my father and he explained it to me as it was a closure to what they were talking about at the coffee scene: it was in the job that one of them was going to kill the other and they sat on flip sides of the same coin. I’m not sure how I feel about that if that’s the intended interpretation from Mann. Regardless of meaning, the end scene had great suspense that had you at the end of your seat and nervous that Vincent would die and that at any moment he’d turn the wrong corner. The light revealing, or exposing even the ending of the movie was a perfect way to close it.
The Cons
The acting at certain moments felt cliché and often came from scenes revolving around Eady. I wasn’t a fan of Eady’s character. Sure she fit one of the themes of the movie, however she just made the movie feel less like a work of art, the way it’s supposed to be. An example is when Neil goes after Waingro at the hotel, steering off of his plan to catch a plane out of L.A. and never be seen again. After Neil takes care of business with Waingro, he comes back to Eady. But his stupid decision (in my opinion) on setting off the fire alarm for the hotel helped alert Vincent that he was there. Eady’s in the car as Neil sees Vincent about 40 yards away chasing after him and he realizes that he can’t put her in danger, so he leaves her. What follows is about the most cringe dramatic stare between Neil as he slowly turns his body to get a run on and she stands there jaw dropped. It isn’t entirely clear to me whether she’s shocked over either his decision to run away or that he would risk the plane ride to commit one last bad act. It genuinely made me laugh out loud while watching alone because of how cringe and plastic the scene felt. Another part that had me cringe was when Neil and Eady had their little night talk after meeting each other at the restaurant. I believe the background is edited, but if it’s not, then that is the worst camera quality ever for trying to capture the lights of L.A. from the hillside. It just looked really bad and took away from the movie just like how the boxing night car scene with Butch and Esmerelda from Pulp Fiction was terrible.
You knew this critique was coming, but the movie is too long. I’ll keep it short because this is a common critique that comes from my reviews, however it’s justified as the movie comes in at almost three long hours of runtime. Eady and Neil had very long and drawn out conversations that paused a good bit and made you feel bored. It also felt as though the movie could’ve been made into two. There’s so much that happens between their first robbery and the last one. There most likely will be a lapse in viewer engagement and understanding with how many important scenes there were to focus on. This movie on top of that also tried to take a few different angles on the plot as I mentioned: the romance focus and contrasting Vincent and Neil as characters. While the story is well put together, it pays the price on the other side of that deal by being Lord of The Rings length.
Overall I believe that Heat pretty much justifies most of its long length by building such a comprehensive story. All the long parts that I would usually critique—such as maybe Vincent and his wife’s arguments and strife—I actually put aside this time because I realize that Micheal Mann and the creators wanted to build Vincent fully, allowing you to understand why he is the way he is. All of that dedication to the storyline, combined with Micheal Mann’s cinematography style and a great supporting cast behind two top dogs, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro… The Score is a 92.