A masterpiece of masculinity

Rating: Null/10 (15 July 2000)

I cite this film was a masterpiece of masculinity, but as an exploration of character it does little for me.
Michael Mann bears comparison to John Woo: he is a fantastic stylist, great at portraying the excitingly macho world of gunplay, cops and robbers, sharp suits. The characterisation is risible though, camp to be honest.
It's obvious that the director wants to show he's making an effort to humanise his characters: unfortunately there's nothing humanly quirky about the methods used. Pacino as a cop obsessed with the job at the expense of a failing marriage is nothing new. The odd manic outburst is purely Pacino, and appears to have nothing to do with the character. De Niro is quiet De Niro, with a beard. When the 2 meet, fortunately it's brief, because suddenly we're not watching the characters, we're watching the actors. (Did anyone else find the dialogue here a bit of a let down?) The final loyalty of the Val Kilmer character's wife at their separation is touching, but the theme is duplicated with De Niro's character and his girlfriend. This repetition is a luxury that might have been avoided. It's a long film.
Any pretence at this being a serious examination of crime is lost at the beginning: a lot of the tension hinges on us believing that the criminals are formidably competent, but from the off they've needlessly executed the security guards during a raid, followed by a scene immediately after where they violently draw attention to themselves in a diner, then bungle an execution in the car park outside!
At the centre of the film is a gunfight with machine guns: an unpleasantly exciting experience. I don't remember hearing how many policemen die in this sequence: it probably doesn't matter. After this, we're in a revenge thriller, with De Niro mopping up the pieces, taking on the usual superhuman characteristics of the avenger. Exciting of course, but not to be taken seriously.
What Mann does is whip the thing along: his vision of LA is awesome, and even his interiors are energised with a super-elevated style.
Other reviewers have cited this film as a demonstration of the grey area that lies between good and evil. It's a film about Pacino in midlife finding prey finally worthy of himself, his equal in expertise, and the basic excitement that this hunt produces. The protagonists are joined by their indulgence in the hunt and the violence, but not their motivation, the job to be done, which makes the moral distinction.