Heat

1995 crime drama

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Cops try to catch bad guys.

"Cause she's got a. . .GREAT ASS! And you had your head all the way up it!"

Find me another actor who can deliver that line like Al Pacino delivers that line. Actually, I'm not sure "deliver that line" is the most accurate description for what's going on here because you can tell from Hank Azaria's face that the line was improvised and that he had likely never encountered a force like Al Pacino before.

It's so much fun to watch Robert De Niro's mouse to Al Pacino's cat in this. Both performances are great in completely different ways, but both are masters at creating characters who are in control. Pacino on the brink of a sexual experience isn't the movie's finest moment, but once the character's in his element at the scene of the armored car heist, watching him take charge as he's chomping on that gum is magic. De Niro demonstrates the control that his character has in a much different and much calmer way. There are scenes where the character gets violent, but it's never an unhinged violence. He can throw a "this motherfucker" at Waingro before pounding on a Waingro face a bit and look like he's in complete control of his faculties. Pacino's character can't even order a cup of coffee without seeming like he's about to explode. It's not just the characters who have contrasting forms of control. Their contrasting acting choices demonstrate that, too. With De Niro, his emotions are all submerged. He's such a good actor that you know they're in there, but they just barely come to the surface. Take a look at a scene when he's driving in a car near the end of the movie and has a bit of a decision to make. He doesn't say a word, and the passenger in his car doesn't say a word. Still, you can almost follow an entire internal monologue during that scene. Pacino, right around the same time, has a choice to make as well. He can't sit still, and, once the choice is made, he runs down some steps like an excited little boy running to check out what Santa Claus brought him. Both actors control that screen and demand the viewers' attention, but they do with with a contrasting quiet and bombast.

"Give it all ya got! Give it all ya got!" Or, to Tone-Loc: "Killed walkin' your doggie!" Or, "What are you a fuckin' owl?" Or, "You're a hot dog, a regular rodeo rider." Pacino's one of a kind.

That scene where Pacino and De Niro first get to act together is something, of course, but you have to admire an earlier scene during a second attempted heist where the two face off without actually facing off--De Niro on this infrared image, staring with suspicion into the night; Pacino staring right back, looking like he wants to eat the soul of anybody who happens to be watching him watching his rival. The scene naturally climaxes with De Niro calmly departing and Pacino seething.

But I do love that diner scene, two characters on opposite sides of the conflict getting a chance to share some dreams they've had. But here's a question--why is there music during that scene? That scene needed diner ambiance only. The score was superfluous.

It's not just those two in this movie though. In fact, everybody's in this movie! Val Kilmer is in this movie, most of it with the kind of hair that could make even the most heterosexual man fall for him. His best moment is when he shows off this unnecessary roll before he starts shooting at somebody from a roof. Hank Azaria's best moment has already been mentioned--the expression he gives Pacino after that "GREAT ASS" line. MAGA casualty Jon Voight brought a hair game, actually somehow looking like a withered Val Kilmer. I love how it doesn't seem like Voight is trying to do anything at all with his character. The great Ted Levine's in this, his best moment an improvised story about a kid he knew in school with a finger and eyelid trick. Dennis Haysbert has maybe three scenes in this entire movie, but his story is almost like a mini-movie within the movie. I like the depth with that story. William Fichtner, Tom Sizemore, Tom Noonan, Danny Trejo, Henry Rollins, Jeremy Piven, Tone-Loc. Everybody's in this movie!

And holy Harold, guess who else in this movie? Bud Cort! He gets his own paragraph.

The women don't fare so well, but I imagine that would be tough in a movie with the types of men who make up the rest of the cast. Ashley Judd's in there trying to decide whether it makes sense to cheat on Val Kilmer when he was studly enough to play Batman or Hank Azaria. Diane Venora's not very good, and young Natalie Portman has the unfortunate task of playing a character who probably doesn't even need to be in the movie. I really liked Amy Brenneman, but the developing romance between her and De Niro's character never feels like anything that should be real, and there's the music gets really tacky every single time she's on the screen.

The action scenes in this have an authenticity, and there's this visceral thrill with the way the editing and the sound work. Michael Mann knows how to film a nocturnal urban environment (Josh, who lent me a copy of this movie because he wanted my thoughts, said that), and he knows how to film a shoot-out. A bank robbery scene with this Brian Eno (ok, and members of U2) music is terrifically tense, but every movie would probably be better with Brian Eno's music in it. As good as those action sequences are, the very best one is likely the one where Pacino takes on a television.

There are a few storytelling issues. I didn't like anything that had to do with Portman's character, especially her dopey final scenes, for example. But I like how underneath all this crime drama, there are 2 1/2 character studies. There's a great moment when they converge as we see the effects of their careers and obsessions on their romantic relationships.

But that's too deep. I'm just going to admit that I only love this movie because it's got the greatest ten seconds in the history of cinema when Pacino delivers that "GREAT ASS" line.