HEAT (1995)

Heat which came out in 1995 and stars Robert De Niro and Al Pacino was directed by Michael Mann the same director and creator of the classic 80s television series Miami Vice. The plot of heat is Robert De Niro is a career criminal mastermind of large-scale heists. He is being systematically hunted down by Al Pacino’s cop character. What makes this film work are the character dynamics. You do not only have Robert De Niro in the film but you also get to see a younger Val Kilmer and Danny Trejo. The whole film succeeds or fails based on the chemistry of all the characters and the intricacy of how the cops are failing to catch this career criminal.  The whole film succeeds or fails based on the chemistry of all the characters and the intricacy of how the cops are failing to catch this career criminal end it plays out like the biggest cat and mouse game you’ve ever seen and it plays out like the biggest cat and mouse game you’ve ever seen.

What makes this movie interesting isn’t the chemistry between the two leads it’s everything that both the criminals on one side of the law doing versus the reaction of the cops on the other side. I’ve never seen a more chaotic movie then when watching this at home. The violence within the film is tense and the movie never slows down in terms of its pacing. I definitely felt while watching it like I was going through the fastest sprint of a movie humanly possible and that’s saying something because the movie comes in at almost 3 hours. The director had to do a lot to keep the audience invested in how this cat and mouse game plays out between these two diametrically opposed sides.

A fair amount of this movie is dedicated to planning and executing a high-level heist and the metaphorical and literal heat the criminals are conducting in the heist.  The tension as they work through trying to avoid the cops as much as possible is palpable and feels realistic.  The way the scenes are framed always captured any of the criminal’s nervousness and I love how much the story focuses on the private lives of these people that for better or worse are about to do some very bad things.

The real selling point is how Pacino and DeNiro interact with each other despite only sharing two major scenes together.  How both people use their respective groups of law and disorder to both challenge and shame each other is remarkable.  The end result of their cat and mouse game is clearly going to end up in a standoff.  The really remarkable thing about this film is that it doesn’t matter who wins because they’re going to be losers on both sides and Michael Mann works very hard to show us that. This is the best chromatic that I’ve personally ever seen but it is also the first one I’ve seen but it’s a very strong start for a director that I know is extremely talented.  Everyone should rent this movie if they have the opportunity because it is a classic for a reason.

One of the thing that i will say is this dialogue about what it takes to be good and what it takes to be bad is something that’s referenced in every movie that has come after it and it’s based upon that template that we have so many other great crime classics from the early 90s and beyond that is this film’s enduring legacy and I think that’s also why it’s so funny remember when anyone watches it. Check it out for yourself.