Heat: The Cop/Criminal Drama of the 90s

Few movies can have truly climatic, gripping conversations between two characters over a coffee at a diner. Yet Michael Mann's Heat pulls off just that. Al Pacino is on one side as Vincent Hanna, a dedicated detective who obsessively tracks criminals while his marriage becomes more and more distant. On the other side is Robert DeNiro as Neil McCauley, a professional thief with rigiourous descpline and skill for armed robbery. They talk, drink their coffee, and part ways. They don't bond, yet you feel they already have.

The movie is based on true stories and true characters. Neil McCauley is the name a real thief. He has the same motto as DeNiro's character: don't get attached to anything you can't leave in 30 seconds flat. Pacino's Hanna is based a cop who went through three divorces over the course of his career and did bump into McCauly at one point, had a similiar conversation, tracked McCauley for some time until a shoot-out left McCauley dead.

Ultimately, this conversation is the center of Heat. Hanna says he doesn't know how to do anything else. McCauley says, "Me neither." Hanna says he doesn't want to do anything else. McCauley says, "Me neither." Cops need criminals, just as criminals need cops. Hanna is compelled by subtle guilt that he could have prevented the victims of McCauley's crimes when things go bad. McCauley is compelled to keep doing scores by the challenge the cops make it. Nothing else would be so interesting to either.

The second subject is women. Hanna's marriage is falling apart. McCauley is slowly finding a woman that may take more than 30 seconds to walk away from. Val Kilmer plays Chris Siherlis, McCauley's second-hand man, who's marriage becomes an issue of work whenever she threatens to leave him or, in a powerful scene of character developement, McCauley catches her talking to a rich man who may set her up away from Siherlis.

It's an age-old story showing parallels among a variety of characters. Men's work get in the way of the women trying to get them to admit their age and retire to home's while they're still warm. Hanna's wife understands him, and she loves him because of the work he does, knows she can't change him, but loves him still. McCauley is finding an exception to the rules. Siherlis has domestic problems complicated because of his line of work.

Work, women, and the forces feuling for and against the men involved. We see they're not so different. The final scene is one attesting to the Red Tie Law #2, Strangelove. McCauley is shot down by Hanna. As McCauley dies, he says to Hanna who is holding his hand, "I told you I wasn't going back." The dance the two played with guns and scores, they loved more than any woman.

As Dane Cook said in one of his jokes, Heat is the movie that makes you want to make a score. DeNiro, Kilmer, and Tom Sizemore are a crew that knows there stuff. It's entertaining to watch how professional and detailed they are, even creative in their methods. A more realistic viewing of stealing than Ocean's 11 where we watch and wonder what is happening, realizing the detailed planning as everything unfolds. On the other hnad, Pacino is equally energizing as the person predicting McCauley's next move. At times he outbursts like a cocaine addict (Pacino admits a crack addict is what he thought of for his improvished lines), other times he combs every detail as he goes through a crime scene, telling the story in reverse with greater accuracy than the camera.

A final commitment to the greatness of the film is the acting in every character. It was advertised as a match-up of Pacino and DeNiro, but Val Kilmer is equally important. Every actor went through gun training with actual guns before taking up the fake ones. Kilmer reloaded an assault rifle so fast, one marine drill sargeant uses a scene from the movie as an example, "unless you can reload your rifle as fast as this actor..." Amy Brenneman, Ashely Judd, and Diane Verona star as McCauley's, Siherlis', and Hanna's women, giving well-rounded cast to every character makes no scene seem unimportant. Even Danny Trejo, the wheelman for McCauley's crew, was a former convict.

An unspoken character exists in L.A. The scenery and shots were set up with great attention. The cafe shot alone (see top) created controversy. The actors are in the wide ends of the shot, but when the tapes were released in full screen, people were outraged because there is no shot where Pacino and DeNiro can clearly be seen together in a fullscreen shot. This movie is my argument for widescreen.

Until the Departed came out in 2006, Heat was the film that defined cop/criminal drama. With an emphasis on drama, it may still. It made Michael Mann's career, as he would later direct Collateral (a great exercise on climatic characters and plot), and Miami Vice. He would produce the Kingdom, Ali, and a pair of Academy Award-winning films, the Insider and the Avaitor. Throughout all of these, you can see the themes and subjects, as well as the eye for detail and character that is found in Heat.