[Press <Play> above to jump straight to our Heat Movie Review.]
Onto our second crime drama for today, and it’s Michael Man’s 1995 masterpiece, Heat. A seasoned gang of bank robbers in Los Angeles run afoul of a gritty, determined police detective and his crew, setting in motion a frenetic game of cat and mouse:
The film features the cinematography of frequent collaborator Dante Spinotti. It’s a superb example of using location photography, framing and moody music to set a strong sense of place. I lived and worked in Los Angeles for almost a decade. Few films I’ve seen have ever really matched the way Heat recreates the feeling of what it’s like, to live in this city.
(Quick disclaimer: I never robbed a bank during my time in the City of Angels. Honest, GUVNA!)
Back to Heat, then, the movie is perhaps most famous for pitting Al Pacino and Robert De Niro directly against each-other, with a famous face-off scene in a roadside cafe. Val Kilmer, Amy Brenneman, Tom Sizemore and Ashley Judd join a raft of talented actors for this engrossing ensemble piece.
And to be sure, all involved are on great form, here. Pacino has uproarious fun in places, with his role as a relentless police detective. And Val Kilmer in particular gives a performance that’s oblique, yet strangely befitting the movie. It feels like no other actor could quite have filled his shoes, here. But the real star of the film is the city itself, which literally seethes with the sun-kissed, lazy, desert-like feel of an expansive urban sprawl carved out of that huge LA basin, as it is.
I still remember going to watch this film in the Odeon Cinema, in Oxford in the UK, back when it came out. That was a big auditorium with an amazing sound system. Fitting, because this movie features arguably one of the greatest shootouts ever committed to film. One of several excellent action sequences, this shootout in particular is staged at an unprecedented scale.
Check out the huge wide-angle shots and massive depth-of-field at work. The background of downtown LA is turned into a cavernous shooting gallery, in broad daylight. This still feels unparalleled, in modern film-making, it’s quite breathtaking. The film is more than worth seeing for this scene alone, and it should be noted that the director is careful not to over-glorify, here. The aftermath of the shooting is, once again, superbly edited and paced, by Michael Mann and his post-production team.
Themes include urban loneliness, one’s ultimate purpose in life, materialism and the perils of personal attachment in a harsh, cruel world. It all builds to a poignant emotional climax in the service lane of an airport hotel, of all places. And this, too, is amazing staging – check out the number of extras appearing for mere split seconds on the outdoor set, here. Tremendous stuff.
This remains an amazingly contemporary piece, it has aged quite superbly. Arguably one of the greatest neo-noirs of the 20th century, you really should cool yourself off in preparation for some very serious… Heat:
Movie Rating: 4.5 / 5
This Heat Movie Review was part of an episode of our movie podcast. Show Notes for this episode:
In this episode of More Than A Movie, we start by interviewing our guest, director Vanessa Vella.
We next review ‘Munich‘, Steven Spielberg’s powerful espionage thriller, that was partially-shot here in Malta. [jump to 14:47 above].
We then review our three main Crime Dramas That Let You Decide, for this week’s episode:
The Firm (1993) – [jump to 17:47 above]
Heat (1995) – [jump to 21:36 above]
The Captive (2014) – [jump to 25:30 above]
More Than A Movie is written and presented by Andrew Bonello. It was originally recorded and aired on Campus FM Radio, at the University of Malta.
Leave a Reply