With Heat, Michael Mann reached a height of cool realism that he has perhaps never bettered since its release 25 years ago, writes Thomas Griffiths...
Director: Michael Mann
Starring: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer
Running time: 170 minutes
On paper Heat has a simple plot, career criminal Neil McCaluley (Robert DeNiro) plans his final heist, Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) is determined to catch him and his crew before they split for good. Although based on the classic themes of ‘cops versus robbers’, Heat quickly becomes anything but the stereotypical crime thriller. Taking direction from heist, noir and drama, the film produces a sprawling vision of crime through opposing personalities both driven by their careers.
In a film first, Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino share the screen, having never appeared together in the same scene in The Godfather Part II. In credit to their ability, the two actors blur the lines between traditional good and bad, with neither character falling completely to one side of morality. This merging of morals is displayed perfectly when we realise that for the final third of the film both characters unknowingly hunt for the same man, ‘Waingro’, wanted by Neil (DeNiro) for betrayal, hunted by Vincent (Pacino) for murder. The refusal to give any characters clear cut values is how Heat finds its strength and subsequently restyles the genre.
Each character struggles to balance professionalism with personal life. Ashley Judd, Diane Venora and Amy Brenneman personify the strain of this imbalance, portraying the better halves of our leads and the lives they could have if they were to give up the day jobs. Natalie Portman acts as an example of the repercussions of lives lived this way, her character’s attempted suicide continues to be a difficult and challenging watch even after multiple viewings.
Cinematographer Dante Spinotti expands Mann’s new vision of L.A. through his use of long lenses, characters become separate from wide backdrops, distant city lights of the night blur into a canvas behind the characters. The white sheen of the plastic hockey masks used in the first heist, the minimalistic interiors of the apartments, the glaring lights of the LAX runway, all images that come to mind when I think of Spinotti’s use of the camera throughout the film. Combined with the sparse score of Elliot Goldenthal, the city becomes intertwined with the score as it fades in and out between the ambient sounds of the locations.
Believability is key to Heat’s success. The film's meticulous style would be lost if the characters were not believable. The cast spent long hours in weapons training learning how to aim, shoot and reload exactly as their characters would. Even away from the action, every move of Neil’s crew feels coordinated, without any indication of how long Chris (Kilmer) and Michael (Sizemore) have worked together with Neil we can see clearly this is a tight crew.
The peak of the film's action retains this realism and believability through its deafening sound design. The now famous downtown shootout sequence was said to have been so loud while filming that it could be heard multiple blocks away, all sound was recorded live for the scene, something rarely done with shootouts on film. As a result, the echoes of each round bounce around the scene, amplified by the surrounding towering buildings.
Compare this scene to the quiet and calm earlier in the film when Neil and Vincent sit for coffee, perhaps just as famous and just as enthralling. Heat balances moments of tension with those of compassion and empathy in equal humility and achieves this with a near three hour runtime.
When the sense of threat reaches its peak, the film is only two thirds of the way through its run time
In the ‘diner scene’ Neil and Vincent don’t butt heads or scream threats worthy of blockbuster taglines, instead they discuss their work the same way any of us watching would do while drinking coffee with a friend. While other crime films would here have had this scene be driven by increasing tension or words put into action, Mann instead allows the characters to come face to face and sip their coffee. Here we see Neil and Vincent’s attitudes to their work laid out plain, ultimately reaching a point of understanding:
Neil: “It’s either that or we better go do something else, pal.”
Vincent: “I don’t know how to do anything else.”
Neil: “Neither do I.”
Vincent: “I don’t much want to, either.”
Although respect is achieved between the two, professionalism remains paramount with both agreeing that when the moment comes one of them will not be walking away. This is a scene that reveals mutual respect between the cat and mouse yet increases the stakes of what is to come, another strength of the film, best on show in this scene but prevalent throughout the picture, with every moment of drama revealing a level of understanding tinged with threat.
When the sense of threat reaches its peak, culminating in the aforementioned downtown shootout scene the film is only two thirds of the way through its run time, again challenging the typical structure of a heist film which would usually place the bulk of its action and even the main event in the latter part of the film. The film continues to maintain this tension after the main event, causing characters to make choices, the sense of threat slowly transforms into a feeling of conflict, as viewers we can’t decide who we want to win, we are now fully invested in both sides of the story. This feeling adds strength to the end of the film, as the two agreed in the diner, only one will be able to walk away.
In the 25 years since its release the film's influence can be seen in the look and feel of many today, Christopher Nolan cites the film as the main influence in his portrayal of Gotham City in his Dark Knight trilogy. Even games have taken from the film, with Grand Theft Auto taking major elements from the heist scenes for the player to recreate in its campaign. However, when the film opened it secured no Oscar nominations and didn’t make all that much at the box office. Even the critics weren’t that hot for Heat.
Many would disagree, but I believe Mann has now lost the realism he found in Heat, his later films such as Collateral in 2004 and his film version of Miami Vice in 2006 feeling too cold yet also lacking the believability of Heat.
Heat is not only Mann’s best film but is one of the best examples of what a genre-breaking picture can be. Equalling its action with tension filled drama, presenting L.A. in new light and blurring traditional roles, Heat set a new standard for what the crime epic could be.
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