Heat (1995) *****

I remember back in December of 1995 looking through the paper looking for a movie to go see during the weekend and stumbling on a film called Heat. Being not in the loop as much back then I started to read the review and was sold on the film by the first six words:

"Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro star..."

And that's all it took.

Heat is the story of two masters of their craft. Neil McCauley (Robert DeNiro) is a lifelong criminal who is extremely professional in his execution and Al Pacino is the unorthodox robbery/homicide lieutenant Vincent Hanna. Heat is a cat and mouse tale about the chase between these two men and their respective crews as McCauley attempts the heist of his life and Hanna deals with other crimes and issues in his personal life.

The supporting cast is a who's who of great Hollywood talent. Val Kilmer, Tome Sizemore, and Danny Trejo round out Neil's crew. John Voight makes a stretch as a low talking, mullet wearing impression of L.A. crime legend Eddie Bunker (yes, the same Eddie Bunker from Reservoir Dogs). Natalie Portman makes an early appearance as Hanna's troubled teenage step-daughter while Ashley Judd plays Kilmer's character's unfaithful wife. The casting is Grade A.

Michael Mann directs the film with Los Angeles as a character as well. The lights of the city are used as a backdrop several times throughout the film, but what's amazing is that Mann can even use a shot of the ho-hum L.A. freeway as a set piece and make it look beautiful in some weird way. Mann uses the city as a way to get across to us that L.A. is a city unto itself and it helps considering that when you think of Pacino and especially DeNiro you think of New York City. It's great to see a crime drama not set in New York for once.

A person can't discuss Heat and not talk about the action sequences, mainly the bank heist which is the most stylized and realistic I believe has ever been filmed. The slightest detail has been taken care of in these scenes with sound effects that don't sound canned for decades as standard machine gun fare and the realistic portrayal of a real police shoot out. Yes, the good guys wear kevlar not as a plot device but because that's what they would really do. And sometimes it doesn't work. It's these scenes that have certainly influenced the action in The Dark Knight thirteen years later.

Heat is the greatest cop and robber film ever made. It's that simple. The story is multi layered like an onion and its various plots help the story by making us look deeper into the characters than the basic these are the good guys and these are the bad guys mentality. You root for both sides when watching this film because in the end they're all fucked up. DeNiro and Pacino were still on top of their games at this point, though the bottom seems to have fallen out since Heat. The few scenes that the pair appear in together are simply amazing and even though they're the names that will sell the film it's the supporting cast, great story, and superb direction by Michael Mann that have made this film a legendary piece of police work. September 13,