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1995
171 mins
dir. Michael Mann
stars - Robert De Niro - Neil McCauley
Al Pacino - Vincent Hanna
Val Kilmer - Chris Shiherlis
Jon Voight - Nate
Tom Sizemore - Michael Cheritto
Diane Venora - Justine Hanna
Ashley Judd - Charlene Shiherlis
This movie is a remake of Michael Mann's 1989 movie L.A. Takedown
which was the blueprint to Heat. Here he had the opportunity
to build on this blueprint and he also had the luxury of having
the two best living actors starring in it which resulted in
a movie that is often refered to as a modern classic and an
epic. It isn't classic but it is an excellent film and I think
that sometimes it is only called an epic because he takes
almost three hours to tell the story.
The story is about two guys, one on each side of the law who
allow what would ordinarily be a regular cops vs. robbers
case become a personal battle between the two of them. Al
Pacino plays the obsessive police chief Vincent Hanna and
Robert De Niro plays Neil McCauley the professional thief
that Vincent is looking to take down on his next job, but
when Vincent is unsuccessful on this attempt it starts to
get a little more personal. The respect for that they have
for each other results in the famous cafe scene where Vincent
and Neil sit face to face discussing how, even though they
are having this chat, both of them will not hesitate to take
the other out if it becomes necessary. This is probably the
most talked about scene in the whole movie, because although
they were both in The Godfather: Part II, they were never
actually on screen together at the same time, but this cafe
scene in Heat represents the first time that these two greats,
De Niro and Pacino have been together on screen, and although
it was long over due it was definitely worth the wait.
The
movie combines some brilliant action sequences with both Vincent's
and Neil's struggles with their respective private lives.
Vincent is having big trouble with his ex-wife and his step
daughter whereas Neil is kind of seeing some girl on a fairly
irregular basis and he doesn't want his career to be disrupted
because of this and so it doesn't really work out. As for
the action sequences they are fantastic. The heist on the
van at the beginning is good and in the second half of the
movie there is a huge street battle in downtown L.A. which
has got to be seen. All the storylines eventually culminate
in what could have been a really cheesy ending but luckily
it wasn't and it is a suitable ending to the film.
You can't really go far wrong with Heat, a smart cast and
a great story all result in a top film. The movie also contains
one of my favorite movie quotes.
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