A lot of great films were made in the 90’s. Michael Mann’s Heat was the best.
What about the Shawshank Redemption you say? They traded Tolstoy’s truth for a happy ending, too easy.
What about Titanic? It was a time and place, you had to be there, and nobody has watched it since.
Braveheart? Way too long.
What about Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, and Dazed and Confused? Ok, those are actually pretty good.
But I digress.
Heat was the best, bar none.
Everything about it is excellent. The action is intense, it is beautifully paced from beginning to end, and matched with a score that is sparely expressive, drives the action forward, and rests in the background when it is not needed, and still sounds fresh. Nothing about this movie is dated, even the clothes have a nostalgic 90’s feel.
The locations are unique even in the familiar, heavily-filmed environs of LA. Underpasses and container yards. East LA and Downtown. Malibu and LAX. It is incredibly evocative and brings the city to life in a way few movies do.
The cast is excellent from top to bottom. De Niro and Pacino were both at the top of their game. They get big assists from Dennis Haysbert, Wes Studi, Diane Venora, Tom Sizemore, Val Kilmer and even a young Natalie Portman.
It didn’t win any major awards which tells you that it wasn’t the easy, popular, topical rubbish that usually wins awards (Paul Haggis’ ‘Crash’ anyone). It wasn’t made to win awards or deal with the social issue du jour. It was made to be an excellent movie.
At heart, Heat is a movie about what it means to be a professional, working with a crew of professionals. It doesn’t really matter whether you’re a thief or a cop. They each have their code. They each take it seriously, so seriously in fact that their family lives are either non-existent, as with De Niro’s Neil McCauley at the beginning of the film, or on life support, as with Pacino’s Hanna. De Niro’s Neil McCauley has it all, the lady of his dreams, love, money, and an easy way out of the country. He gives it all up to right a wrong by killing Waingro, under tight police custody, who was not only a rat and trigger happy, but a serial killer.
When deciding whether to try their big score, knowing the cops are wise to them, De Niro puts the question to the crew. Sizemore’s Michael Cherrito says: “well ya know, for me the action IS the juice.” It’s not about the money. It’s about the work, it’s about the rush.
Hanna on the other side of the coin says to his wife: “I gotta hold on to my angst. I preserve it because I need it. It keeps me sharp, on the edge, where I gotta be.”
These men thrive on the edge, they find not just meaning, but everything in their work. Do you understand this? Do you have this in your life? This can be a dangerous edge to be on, it can lead to burnout or deep fulfilment or both. It can lead to divorce or death.
The movie ends as it must. The scores settled, the cop and the crook pushed to the limit, one dying, reaches out for the hand of the other, amid the sudden daylight of the LAX runway approach, the music throbs.
If you haven’t seen Heat, I can’t recommend it more. If you haven’t seen it recently, watch it again, tell me how much you loved it.
Thanks for reading.
Sean
*Belgian poster – no copyright infringement intended
Sean van der Lee 