A movie that deserves to be labelled 'MODERN CLASSIC'

Rating: Null/10 (13 June 2005)

I have watched this movie for the first time since I initially reviewed it in September 2003. Back then I lambasted it for being too long and not answering enough questions, accused the two leads of over-acting and put down the achievements of director Michael Mann amongst other gripes.
Now though, I have to say my opinion has changed tremendously. This is a truly outstanding film. A great take on the tried, tested and sometimes boring genre of heist movies.
In my original review I stated that Robert DeNiro was easily out-acted by Al Pacino. I still maintain that Pacino is the better of the two, but I reckon DeNiro is pretty spectacular as the main villain.
The great thing about this movie is the way in which it portrays the characters as real people with real problems. Pacino is the steadfast, no-nonsense cop with his finger on the pulse, but has a crumbling marriage and suicidal step-daughter to pre-occupy his supposed 'free' time, DeNiro is the compulsive criminal who wants to get away from crime and set up a new life with the woman he loves. But the inescapable fact for these two is that no matter what criminal they arrest or what crime they commit, their working life will never, ever be truly satisfying. Mann plays the characters off brilliantly as two sides of the same coin, each with partners who try but will never fully understand the life they lead away from home. Pacino just wants his wife to be there for him, but she places demands on him that are too much for him to shoulder after a countless bad days at the office.
Whether you are watching a heist or witnessing DeNiro and Pacino having a late-night coffee, the scenes in this film bristle with superb underlying tension; great credit to Mann there. The scene wherein Pacino and his men are carrying out surveillance on DeNiro and Kilmer from the back of a truck is excellent; with hardly any movement from the characters or much dialogue, the tension cranks up ten-fold.
Everything about this film, from the sets to the actors, oozes class. An absolutely superb cast fill each and every role with well defined persona's and you actually care about all of them.
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I still do have a gripe with the fact that Kilmer got away, why was he so special?
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One of the great films of the 1990's, Heat deserves branding as a modern classic.