A brilliant crime saga

Rating: 10/10 (13 July 2006)

Heat is a movie filled with clichés but as a whole is not clichéd. It has a confidence and skill to its craft that makes you believe that you are seeing this kind of story for the first time, or at least, in a whole new light. It's mainly the story of the obsessed-with-his-cases, badass cop and the professional, by-the-numbers criminal. Michael Mann fleshes out the characters (played by Pacino and DeNiro) extremely well and presents them as two men who are each consumed by their profession. Mostly because they are both very good at what they do, and they would not prefer to do anything else. Each story would make an interesting movie or TV show, but Heat collides these two similar characters together to make a great movie about two skilled men conflicted amidst pressures from their work and personal lives finally meeting their match.
What I liked about the connection Pacino and DeNiro build is the fact that their characters truly respected each other. If the movie were bias to either side of the law, one character would be good and the other would be bad. It's not bias at all, and both characters are very likable. It's hard to root for one character over the other, which makes the film's conclusion all the more emotional. And believe me, it has a great ending.
The supporting cast is top notch, ranging from Val Kilmer to Ashley Judd to William Fichner to a young Natalie Portman, but the main attraction obviously is Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro in the leads. They're actors who are amazing beyond words, and have acted in so many monumental movies throughout their careers, and I have to say that this was the last truly great, outstanding film that either has starred in to date. Oddly enough, it just so happens it was the same movie.
With Heat, Michael Mann tells a sincere and richly detailed story within a subject matter that usually isn't treated with such care, and Pacino and DeNiro perform with their usual greatness, but still offer up new things we haven't seen before. It's one of the best films of the 1990's.
My rating: 10/10