Michael Mann's Best

Rating: 8/10 (15 July 2017)

The in-general COP and THIEF movie showcases the one sided affair of the COP nabbing the thief with various skill sets and expertise. Heat in this case has the similar setup, but at heart the movie is at a much deeper level. Heat talks about the relationship the Cop and Thief have and their inter dependency to a good extent.
A gang of four men prepare themselves to rob a vehicle(secured by 3 policemen) of some protected valuable information. They block the vehicle in the middle of the road, break open the back door, and enter into the vehicle. The robbers act fast to finish off and leave the place within 3 minutes(reaction time of Police force). They do everything correct and near perfectly have finished the job right at the time, but with one of the gang man being a freak, the job is yet to be finished perfectly. This freak has the 3 policemen in gunpoint, just having them in their toes, but freaks out and shoots a policemen in the heat of the moment. Consequently now the remaining two policemen are also killed to eliminate any valuable witness. The gang escapes. Heat begins with this robbery.
Very less movies stage a robbery with malfunction at the first scene, most others have a robbery that is nailed, but in Heat the shooting of the police shows the false execution by the robbers, creating interest in a different way at the very beginning.
The main cop-man who is gonna search these criminals is Al Pacino, and the main criminal here is Robert Di Nero, two actors who have given so much to the movie world with their talent. Its a treat to watch them handle their situations and the confrontation scene in the restaurant is of pure class, watch it to feel it.
The main motive here is whether Al Pacino catches the Criminals or do they escape, and how it happens. Please watch it to know it.
The family and lover relationship that the cops and criminals share is portrayed with more emphasize and shows how it affects their public life. Al Pacino's wife does not like his day and night works as a cop-man, and many a times seems to be wishing that he works in some other job rather than being a cop-man. One of the criminals, Val Kilmer is having a troubled wife who wants to separate from him, she in-turn has interest in a different man and seeks a divorce from Val. Robert Di Nero gets attached to a stranger he meets, falls in love with her but hesitates to marry her for life. All these men cannot have the comfortable families as any others could have, they are meant to be alone, meant to be in the streets. Even Di Nero emphasizes this while advising Val Kilmer in a scene:
"You Wanna be making moves on the street, have no attachments, allow nothing to be in your life that you cannot walkout in 30 seconds flat if you spot the heat around the corner" Di Nero's relationship with Amy Brenneman shows his fear of getting attached to her and his lack of clarity in choosing either of the ways.
Al Pacino makes you believe that he is a bad-ass cop, with a lot of attitude, but still in few scenes the performance seems to be overdone, especially in the initial scenes, but then he is into his own. Di Nero nails it where ever and what ever he does, so good to see them on screen with not much fuss and still lot of command in every shot they appear.
Heat is more of an experience rather than entertainment, cop and thief character studies that are to be absorbed as an audience. The complex story-line is simple to understand, but still strong in nature. Michael Mann has already been known for his movie "Thief", and in Heat he just added the cop factor equally. Mann stretches the climax effectively in such a way that it strengthens the string to the end, giving the audience few surprises. The music score is so apt, especially the robbing sequences and high tension scenes.
Heat is a definite must watch for every movie fan, it brings a different flavor to the storytelling table which a movie watcher will definitely remember for sometime. Note: Please watch-out for the gun fighting sequences.