Friday, September 21, 2012

...Get Out of the Kitchen

Film: Heat
Format: DVD from NetFlix on big ol’ television.

Some movies get an audience by trading on the plot, some on the special effects, some on a popular license. Plenty of movies gain an audience by shilling the stars of the film. Few had the sort of star bank as did Michael Mann’s Heat, the first film to feature Al Pacino and Robert De Niro on screen together. That’s the sort of thing that makes a film geek drool.

Fortunately, Heat lives up to the hype. But we’ve got a long way to go to get to the end of this. After all, this is a Michael Mann crime film, which means that we’re going to spend a good deal of time in the personal lives of the principle characters. It’s also a film that clocks in at just under three hours, so we’re going to get a lot of it. But, since it’s a Michael Mann crime film, we’re also in for a good ride.

Neil McCauley (De Niro) is a career thief. He and his crew plan and execute an armored car heist, working it perfectly. However, the new guy on the crew, Waingro (Kevin Gage), kills off one of the guards. Knowing that the crime has now become a capital crime, the crew knocks off the other two guards to prevent them from being witnesses. The upshot of this crime is that the armored car is carrying bearer bonds owned by a money launderer named Van Zant (William Fitchner). McCauley’s fence Nate (John Voight) offers to sell the stolen bonds back to Van Zant, allowing everyone to profit. To cover his own end, McCauley attempts to kill the renegade Waingro, who gets away.

Into this comes police Lieutenant Vince Hanna (Pacino), who is on the trail of McCauley and his crew. While he’s chasing down what he can, he also gets a murder in his jurisdiction; as it happens, the murder is committed by Waingro, who is a serial killer of prostitutes.

There’s also plenty of infidelity to go around. Hanna’s wife Justine (Diane Venora) is having an affair because he is distant and married to his job. McCauley’s number two Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer) is deep in gambling debt and isn’t aware that his wife Charlene (Ashley Judd) is doing the nasty with ex-criminal-turned-liquor salesman Alan (Hank Azaria). And McCauley himself starts up a new relationship with a graphic artist named Eady (Amy Brenneman). Somewhere in all of this is Hanna’s step-daughter, Lauren (Natalie Portman), who is depressed and frequently ignored by both her birth father and by Hanna.

The upshot is right out of the film noir playbook. McCauley wants nothing more than to get one last major score and be done with the life, intending to fly away to New Zealand with Eady. He plans one last major heist at a bank, which goes south quickly. We learn that it turns bad because Waingro informed on him to Van Zant, who wants him dead. Van Zant called the police in, which leads to a shootout, ending in the deaths of several officers, including Detective Bosko (Ted Levine) as well as several of McCauley’s men, namely Michael Cheritto (Tom Sizemore) and driver Breeden (Dennis Haysbert). Chris is wounded as well.

The third act of the film, more or less, is Hanna closing in on McCauley and McCauley trying to tie up all of the loose ends he can before fleeing the country. These loose ends include finding his old driver Trejo (Danny Trejo), who he thinks ratted him out, killing off Van Zant, eliminating Waingro, and finding Eady to get her onto a plane.

The big scene, naturally enough, is the conversation before the failed heist between Hanna and McCauley. They’re aware of each other, and more importantly are aware of each other’s position in what is going on. They sit over coffee and talk, and it’s evident that there’s a certain amount of respect between them. They almost like each other. And both say that if it comes to it, they’ll kill the other one without a moment’s hesitation, all things being equal. It’s a great scene, and one of the few (the ending features both actors as well) that puts both men on camera at the same time. It’s easy to imagine that in addition to having this conversation in character, they’re having it in real life. There’s a certain level of respect between them, but both really want to be top dog.

Heat is complicated and contains the sort of twists and turns that are part and parcel of Michael Mann’s better films. There’s a lot here, and I can’t help but think that not all of it was completely necessary. Some of this, some of these plot machinations could have been left on the cutting room floor without too much loss, and with a more streamlined film in general. What’s here isn’t bad, but it’s messy.

On the other hand, that’s one of the things that makes this film so successful. It is messy, just like real life. We come to a conclusion at the end of the film, but not specifically the conclusion. There are ends left untied and plots that could still be followed. Most are tied up by the end, but there are a few still hanging. But this messiness makes the characters far more real. Natalie Portman’s character is hardly essential to the plot—she’s always tangential, but she’s also important in giving Hanna something like a life outside of the job.

I do, however, think it’s too long. Coming in at 170 minutes makes Heat overstay its welcome a little. It might run more smoothly with 20-30 minutes excised from it, perhaps with one or two sub-plots taken out.

Why to watch Heat: Pacino. De Niro. Same frame.
Why not to watch: It’s probably a little longer than it needs to be.

13 comments:

  1. Alas, I couldn't stand this movie. I saw it, years ago, at Union Station's multiplex in DC. Mostly black audience, and I gotta tell you: black folks aren't shy about shouting their opinions at the screen. In this case, I agreed with them, especially when they shouted "Bullshit!" about that foot chase at the end of the film. De Niro had obviously lost Pacino, but Pacino somehow miraculously threaded the maze-like path De Niro had described and caught up with him. Bullshit!

    Heh.

    My take on "Heat": slow, drawn-out, over-hyped, self-conscious.

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    1. I'll give you the first two, but I'll disagree on the second two. It's too much, but I liked what was there.

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  2. It's an interesting watch, but I agree that it is too long.

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    1. I'm partial to Mann. I'm willing in general to give him a little leeway on length, but yeah, this one needs 20 minutes removed.

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  3. Unnecessary bloating is a problem not only with movies but with a lot of things these days – books, food packages, hard drives, etc

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  4. Good review SJ. It didn't really need to be over 3 hours, but still, a freakin' intense movie with stellar performances from two of the best. Not my favorite thriller, however. I actually liked Collateral a bit more believe it or not.

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  5. @Nicolas--true dat.

    @Dan--I can believe it, because I think I'm in the same boat.

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  6. I love this film,for me,it's the best crime in the last 25 years.It is one of the films Nolan showed to his casts before shooting The Dark Knight,I can see a lot Heat in the opening sequence in TDK.

    I enjoyed every minute of the film,the emphasis on the personal lives of the criminal and cop is what makes this film unique than other action-packed Hollywood crime films.

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    1. You got more from it than I did, then. I liked it fine, but would love it shorter.

      Still, I give Mann a lot of credit. He did manage to juggle a lot of balls with this one, and kept most of them in the air for the duration, which is pretty impressive.

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  7. I'm one of those people who watched this film solely because of the hype about Deniro and Pacino being onscreen together. I ended up disappointd because they never do share the screen the entire 3 hours of the film.

    Yes, there is a single scene where the two are talking, but they are never shown in the same shot. They might as well have been shooting coverage for one of them in January and the other in May for all the good it did them the way it was shot. They just kept cutting from one to the other. They might as well say that Deniro and Pacino shared the screen together in Godfather Part II, as well. I felt very disappointed.

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    1. Well, they are on screen together at the end.

      Still, I get where you're going here. I can see this as being disappointing. I wasn't disappointed with it, but I do think it overstayed its welcome.

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  8. Heat and Collatoral are my favorites that Mann directed.

    What impressed me the most about Heat is how Michael Mann can hold my attention despite the 3 hour running time. Could have done with a couple more moments with Pacino and De Niro, though, but I guess the limited screen time means, when they do finally meet, it stands out and is more powerful, than if they had been constantly conversing.

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    1. My favorite Mann film is still Thief. It's a slow burn, but so worth it.

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