The Missing Link Between Melville and Nolan...

Rating: 9/10 (20 October 2016)

What makes "Heat" such a unique crime film is that it is both a gangster and a cop picture, which means that it spans an equal amount of time in both sides of the law and still manages to be original and compelling when they go toe-to-toe.
This is a film that is obviously addressed to viewers who are familiar enough with heists, shootouts and police procedural to believe they've seen them all, but Michael Mann made a 180-minute script, as methodic, intelligent and articulate as its characters. And speaking of characters, they're not defined by some narrative status, sure, the criminals are the bad guys and the cop the heroes, but the film mainly shows them as men, with lives, wives, girlfriends, motives and weaknesses, and it takes all the time needed to do it in the most absorbing way. After all, you don't just make a character-driven picture about five or six people in ninety minutes. Now, let's get deeper in the film.
Generally, in cop movies like the 'Dirty Harry' films, you have the central protagonist and the 'charismatic' villain. Gangster movies are centered on a specific operation and the gangsters' personalities generally undermine the outcome. "Heat" works on these two levels but with one pivotal difference: the cop and the bandit are not portrayed in a way that would influence our empathy. The cop, Vincent Hanna, is a tormented guy who can't handle his third wife and depressed stepdaughter, and Neil McCauley is a solitary criminal who lives by a code. His golden rule is not to depend on something he can't get rid of in less than 30 seconds. Did I mention that Al Pacino and De Niro play these guys?
Of course, everyone knows but does it matter? These two actors are my all-time favorite, but the story is so engaging and well-written that I'm sure any other actors would have made it work. "Heat" is so good that even the Pacino-De Niro pairing (the first since "The Godfather Part II") almost feels like a publicity stunt, as if the film needed that little kick. Well, I'm glad they picked these two actors, and their confrontation in the coffee scene, halfway through the film is a highlight and the best illustration of the film's central theme: men who live for their job and don't know whether they enjoy the action or they're entrapped in the impossibility to live a 'normal' life because of their jobs. They have more in common than they think, and they're both atypical even within their crew.
Still, from the way the conversation ends, we know their worlds tightly interact but don't mix. There will be a confrontation sooner or later. The film doesn't sugarcoat the criminal doings, nor does it ridicule the cops and that's important. The character of De Niro outshines the others because of his no-nonsense professionalism, beautifully echoed by the more volatile and dangerous personality of the villain within the villains, played by a convincing Kevin Gage. Now, that Waingro is a creepy criminal who adds his little spice to the film, and whenever he's is on the screen, you know there's trouble coming. He's a disturbing human being but crucial to the film, we know McCauley is on the wrong side of the law, still, he's closer to Hana than to Waingro.
"Heat" is a patient and serious epic-scale crime drama that borrows many elements from a director I admire: Jean-Pierre Melville. There's a Samurai-like quality in McCauley and maybe a little something from Lino Ventura, physically. Here is a tough guy dedicated to his job, and nothing else, which means no girls but if he finds the right one, he might change his mind, for better or worse. "Heat" is about many men who end up acting according to their nature, even if it implies a price. And while the main focus is on Pacino and De Niro, it would be unfair to ignore Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd, Jon Voight and Natalie Portman who seemed to have gained in maturity ever since "Leon". If Melville inspires Mann, he distances himself by giving a more substantial role to the women, the film features many domestic scenes and marital arguments and overall, the women are not just used like props to their men's macho appeal.
But I make the film sound like some existential journey while it also a school-case of thrilling action sequences and a bank robbery providing the most spectacular shootout you'll ever see, it is long but you never feel anything happening there gratuitous, from the first moment where they enter the bank, the way they handle the robbery and leave the car, you almost feel sorry for the cops' arrival, not because you root for the criminals, but because the real chaos and loss of lives result from the shootout. And some deaths come as unexpected and shocking but they're here to show how random and cruel life is, after all, the whole chain of events started with a miscast criminal, who was lucky enough to escape from his execution. Karma is also an important character in the film.
So we have one of the greatest shootouts of cinema's history, one of the most elaborate criminal operations and equally gripping police investigation, an intelligent drama about men ruling their lives according to what they do the best and we don't necessarily enjoy what we do the best. And we have a director who seems to have embraced the professionalism of his characters to make his personal masterpiece, perhaps the ultimate cop/gangster picture and it's only fitting that the film confronts the actors who played more gangsters and cops than any others.
And if "Heat" is a inspired by classic Melville film-noir crime flicks, Christopher Nolan admitted to have borrowed elements from "Heat" to make "The Dark Knight". See, the torch was passed and "Heat" is now a milestone.