A Masterpiece.

Rating: 10/10 (16 December 2000)

Five years ago to this date, I was pretty tired from working all day at my job at the cinema. However, I did manage to stay awake for a almost three hour epic that blew my mind away and saw a different way to look at the cinema. Before this film, the director Michael Mann, has shown the life of crime in THIEF, terror in THE KEEP, suspense in MANHUNTER, and a historical epic with LAST OF THE MOHICIANS. But Mann's film were going on a upswing, and with HEAT, Mann reached peak level. This is a film that will go down in history. Granted, it's not as much as a classic as SCHINDLER'S LIST and GOODFELLAS. But HEAT will give future generations a example of what the world and life style was like in the 1990's. Where NASHVILLE is for the 70's, and film by John Hughes is for the 80's, HEAT is for the 90's.
While living in central Los Angeles for over three months, the images and scenes from HEAT couldn't leave my mind. Mann did a fabulous job by shooting the film on the actual streets of L.A. The film shows the dark and gritty world where we are use to the palm trees and beaches. Mann's L.A. has some fancy art deco buildings mixed in with decaying buildings. The streets of Koreatown where all the signs are in Korean, the run down coffee shop that is hidden among giant skyscrapers. If anyone wants to know what L.A. really looks like, this is the perfect film that shows the viewer the real world of L.A. There's the brilliant plot. Some would say that it's a remake of Mann's eariler work, L.A. TAKEDOWN. But Mann took a simple story and turned it into a epic, and that is exactly what HEAT is, a epic. Multiple characters, multiple stories, different conflicts and situations and adding a blend of fantastic action into it. I love the way the characters and story works. Al Pacino playing Vincent Hannah, the lead detective who is tracking down a group of professional thiefs led by Neil McCauley played by Robert DeNiro. Unlike any other crime-action film that I have seen, HEAT has both the police officers and criminals being highly intelligent! No bad doughnut jokes, no bumbling crooks, no "I'm getting too old for this" lines, etc. The thieves use clever plans to stage and work out a robbery, while the officers use clever actions to identify and gather evidence of the criminals. The look by Dante Spinotti is beautiful. The L.A. skyline with his famous tint shade of blue makes L.A. look like a million stars in the sky. His shots of the empty apartment that McCauley owes with the Pacific Ocean in the background. The music by Elliot Goldenthal is also fantastic, it has a techno beat that adds to the suspense and excitement that the film is showing. But it's the score by famous artist Moby that rises above the rest of the film's music. With Hannah speeding down Interstate 5 while "New Dawn Fades" is blasting on the soundtrack, and the magical and beautiful "God Moving Over the Face of Waters" being played at the ending credits. Moby was quoted recently that "God Moving" is his favourite song that he has composed, he says that it brings tears to his eyes whenever he hears it. While I listen to it, the song gives me goosebumps and I can not think of the blue Pacific Ocean with the lights from the L.A. coast. And should I mention the acting, which is the best casting in the history of film. Not only do you have two of the best actors working right now, DeNiro and Pacino, but here is a small list of who else is in this classic: Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Diane Verona, Amy Brenneman, Ashley Judd, Mykelti Williamson, Wes Studi, Dennis Haysbert, Hank Azaria, William Fichtner, Henry Rollins, and Natalie Portman. If you're going to have two fantastic actors in the lead roles, then you need to have a strong supportive cast with them, and that is what Mann does. But it's Pacino's and DeNiro's performances are the strong stand-outs. The scene where Hannah and McCauley are sitting down at a table in a coffee shop is of equal rank as Moses parting the Red Sea in TEN COMMANDMENTS. Or Indiana Jones running away from the giant boulder in RAIDERS. Yes, these are bold statements to say, but if you have ever been to Los Angeles, you would understand. And I don't mean the tourist city of Anaheim, I mean the real streets of L.A. COLORS and BOYZ N' THE HOOD do show a pretty realistic L.A., but it's HEAT that shows the real Los Angeles. This is a film that when you first see it, it's good, but the more you watch it, the more you love it. That is why I an not going to say to just see this film, but you should buy this film! Believe me, for the last four years, I've been buying this movie on video or DVD for friends of mine. It's become my own personal chain letter, and every time I give them the movie, they come back telling me they loved it. Please do yourself a favour, and see this film that is the ultimate image of the last decade of the 20th century. ***** (one of the top 10 films of all time!!!!)