One of the Top 5 crime thrillers of all time

Rating: 9/10 (20 February 2005)

SPOILER ALERT--from the get-go.
"Heat" contains the best, most exciting bank robbery scene ever filmed. (And in an eerie example of life imitating art, an infamous bank robbery not dissimilar from the one in the film occurred in LA only months after the movie had been released; fortunately, unlike the movie, no one but the bad guys were killed). Mann gives us a tableau showcasing a scene of such intensity, it makes the viewer feel as if he were almost there. Mann plunges you into his familiar world of cops versus bad guys. It's the dazzling execution which enlarges the formula and raises it to an accomplishment of both directorial technique and white-knuckled suspense.
"Heat" begins with a slam-bang armored car heist (in another example of life imitating art, a similar robbery was committed only miles from my home a few years back; as in the movie all three guards are murdered in cold blood), a signature Michael Mann violent set-piece that proves the better moments of "Miami Vice" were just warm-ups for his outstanding feature work such as in this and "Collateral." "Heat" presents us with a hardcore crew of criminals who specialize in highly lucrative but dangerous robberies and burglaries. Robert DeNiro plays the leader of this band of elite bad guys. Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore also turn in excellent performances. Henry Rollins, however, should look into more acting lessons. The genuinely frightening Danny Trejo is badly underused, a rare example of Mann under-utilizing a talented actor.
The pace is frenetic, the characters sharply drawn and Al Pacino's explosiveness has seldom been put to better use. The film also has a cameo from the serial killer in "Red Dragon" (Tom Noonan). John Voit also gives a low-key, effective performance as McCauley's fence-cum-manager-type.
DeNiro gives us a man who's always been outside the "system" and now views, Don Corleone-like, those of us who do choose to live by society's rules as nothing but pawns pushed around by forces beyond our control. As Neil McCauley, DeNiro delivers to us that staple character of Westerns, the man who means to live by his own rules at whatever cost to himself or innocent bystanders. Smart enough to use violence only when necessary, but cold-blooded enough to murder anyone in his way "at the drop of a hat." McCauley gives us his philosophy about "the Life" learned from years inside California's toughest prisons, "Have nothing in your life that you cannot walk-away from in thirty seconds flat if you see the 'heat' coming around the corner. That's the discipline."
The film is beautifully shot and expertly cut. Like "Collateral", this picture is another kind of visual "tone poem" of LA, the beautiful camera work revealing both the ethereal nature of the city and the brutality beneath the glitz and glamor. Mann's trademark cinematography sparkles.
The movie is encumbered, however, by a distracting and irrelevant subplot involving Natalie Portman as Al Pacino's Lt. Vincent Hanna's stepdaughter and his collapsing third marriage to (the wasted) Diane Venora. It takes time and intensity away from the whipsaw action and crackerjack plot, weakening the movie's focus especially during the race to the "inevitable" denouement.
Often touted for being the only movie in which DeNiro and Pacino have ever appeared in a scene together, the famous scene fails to meet expectations. The two greats don't seem to have much chemistry. The conversation between their two characters starts with inanity and ends in sputtering, platitudinous machismo unworthy of neither the actors nor director. Pacino's delivery of "Brother, you are going down" will hardly go down as one of Mann's best lines--or Pacino's best deliveries.
I would give the movie a 10 except for the above-mentioned unnecessary family suds and half-develop subplot about a serial murderer who also happens to be a key character in McCauley's fall; this irrelevant filler distracts the viewer and weakens the dramatic structure and forces me to give it a 9.
And, a minor nitpick with the climactic bank robbery scene. The only hole in the writing is how Pacino's cops learn of the robbery. After one of McCauley's crew is locked in by police surveillance and has to bail out of the "scores", Mann expects us to believe that this crew of hardcore hijackers wouldn't alter their plans, the timing, the date of the bank job or simply abandon it. It's the one really false note in the main plot. But the spectacular results of Mann's plot device almost makes you forget about the contrived way it was brought about that false note.
Finally, one more subplot is left dangling and unresolved. McCauley's girlfriend, played by a subdued, sexy Amy Brennerman, is left, at the end, in a car with $5 million in stolen cash. And...nothing. Mann just leaves it and the character hanging. I mean, if you're looking at a dozen accessory after-the-fact murder charges, that's no minor thing. The time wasted with the schmaltz could have been used better here. Personally, I have to say, I would have booked. You'd have never talked yourself out of a prison sentence and no one even knows you're involved. Honestly what would YOU do? Mann doesn't give us his answer.
The ending leaves you nearly breathless and the beauty of the whole outweighs the flaws.
DVD transfer: 9.
Sound: 9
5.1 Remix Quality: 9
Packging: 6
Disk Image: 7