What else can be said about this perfectly conceived and executed crime drama?

Rating: 10/10 (9 May 2011)

I would like to think there is something to add to the accolades this ultra-violent, deeply character-driven crime drama has received over the 15+ years since its release, but it should be enough to say this is a movie that has to be seen, to be watched, to be studied and examined as an example of truly artful direction and powerfully delivered film-making. All the actors and the director are at the peak of the creative power and authority here, never missing a beat, never chewing on a scene too long, never overstaying their welcome.
Mann engages us intimately with the characters. We grow most sympathetic with DeNiro's Neil Cauley, an anti-heroic bad guy we can't help but hope will get away and get out of the game (even though we know they never do) but we are given an almost equal treatment of Cauley's nemesis, an over-achieving major crimes homicide detective, Pacino's Vincent Hanna, a cop who never sleeps, never stops thinking, never gives up. He's a gum-chewing New Yorker ADD case transplanted to the L.A. underworld he must deal with.
The violence and the heists is crucial - this is the criminal underworld we're looking at here after all, one full of treacherous, twisted, and thoroughly untrustworthy people - but Mann goes a step further and makes them knowable, sympathetic, three-dimensional people with real problems (not the least of which is the lifestyle they've chosen for themselves).
Much as I found "Reservoir Dogs" initially breathtaking in its depiction of hardcore violence, violence that was bloody and terrible and full of complications - not the Cowboys-and-Indians gunplay of the '50s and '60s where a gunshot to the gut didn't seem to really do much - I found the violence of "Heat" equally breathtaking. I'm not sure if it was the choice of guns or simply the way they were recorded, but the semi-/full-auto Colt rifles used in much of the movie are astonishingly loud. Even the sound of the guns makes them a part of the cast and gives a realistic scope to the violence, a nearness and a real impact that makes "Heat" unique among its counterparts.
"Heat" and its fully-rounded characters are an amazing achievement that is rarely seen in film: We care about the good AND the bad guys, we want to learn more about them and the director and cast delivers, again and again and again. The film MAKES us want to know more about them. I suppose there are some visual and film and plot clichés common to many crime dramas, but it doesn't feel clichéd, doesn't feel time- or tread-worn.
If for some crazy reason you haven't seen this movie - and I can't imagine you haven't - be sure you do. And, if you haven't seen it in a while, please watch it again. Really watch it and observe what a fine film "Heat" is.