Heat (1995) Review

 

Heat (1995)

Heat follows Neil, a criminal trying to execute his last big heist before retiring, while being pursued by Lieutenant Hanna, who is having trouble dealing with issues in his own life.

I have heard great things about this movie and put it off for so long because it seemed like another average cop chasing a criminal story, but it’s so much more. We get a look at the lives, the stressors, and the feelings of the criminals, making them feel innately human. Which is even better considering the film uses the lives of Neil and Hanna and their parallels to show how one is finally getting it together, while the other’s life is falling apart, and then reversing again at it conclusion. Its subtle and implies things, that when realized, make it so much deeper and more profound of a movie on its’ surface. Building up with certain lines and sprinkling in the idea that they will betray their values, but neither ever doing so, is the ultimate twist.

We also get an awesome cast for such an action packed and multilayered movie, featuring Val Kilmer, Kevin Gage, and Amy Brenneman, with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro as the stars. I’m also not usually big on Pacino because he is a heavy over-actor, and he is for a lot of this, but when he’s good, he’s goood. De Niro is also fantastic, being so calculated and hyper aware, with revenge and retirement driving him in much of what he does.

Directed by Michael Mann, Heat is an interesting cat and mouse game, where good and bad is relative to the situation and the person, often being foggy in terms of morality. These two men, so closely paralleled in their lives and slight actions, find themselves at odds, where they otherwise wouldn’t, harboring such deep, emotional connections that tie them together as pieces in an ever changing puzzle, where one slight action could either kill them both, or set them free from the bonds that hold them down to their lives as they know them, something they know deep inside.

8.8/10