Before the lesser admirable (or downright not good) 2008 film Righteous Kill there was the 1995 Michael Mann film Heat. The film stars screen icons Robert Deniro and Al Pacino in arguably their last great roles. It also stars an angelical Ashley Judd, an awesome Val Kilmer, and the always supporting Tom Sizemore.

The film’s protagonist Lt. Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) is a workaholic L.A. PD detective with a family life that is almost non existent. He is on the “down slope” of his third marriage and spends most of his time chasing murderers and classy thieves like Neil McCauley (Robert Deniro), Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer), and Michael Cheritto (Tom Sizemore). Neil and company are as the classy describes: smart, swift, professional, and they mean business.

This is arguably Michael Mann’s best feature and certainly the one movie he is most credited for. It’s a long film, clocking in at 171mins, but it moves with at an expert pace, building up with tension and making each action sequence sustaining you with adrenaline. The best thing about these attributes is that they all feel genuine, everything feels real. Authenticity has always been one of Mann’s strong points, especially when set in Los Angeles, a town Mann captures excellently on screen.

Trailer


"Diner Scene" (both Deniro and Pacino did not rehearse this scene due to Deniro's insistence)


Previous Movies of the Week:

Spoiler: show

#1: Gladiator
#2: The Passion of the Christ
#3: Cool Hand Luke
#4: Fight Club
#5: American Beauty
#6: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
#7: Goodfellas
#8: Boogie Nights
#9: American Psycho
#10: Dr. Strangelove
#11: Dog Day Afternoon
#12: Unforgiven
#13: 2001: A Space Odyssey
#14: Do the Right Thing
#15: Reservoir Dogs
#16: Ferris Bueller's Day Off
#17: L.A. Confidential
#18: Big Trouble in Little China
#19: Out of Sight
#20: The Shawshank Redemption
#21: The Waterboy
#22: Field of Dreams
#23: The Godfather
#24: The Godfather Part II
#25: The Godfather Part III
#26: Network
#27: Die Hard
#28: Sin City
#29: Dawn of the Dead
#30: American History X
#31: Swingers
#32: Thelma & Louise
#33: Casablanca
#34: Independence Day
#35: Jaws
#36: Adaptation
#37: The Life Aquatic
#38: Rushmore
#39: The Royal Tenenbaums
#40: The Insider
#41: In the Line of Fire
#42: An American Werewolf in London
#43: Nightmare on Elm Street
#44/45: Evil Dead/Evil Dead 2
#46: The Princess Bride
#47: Stripes
#48: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
#49: Dead Poets Society
#50: Pulp Fiction
#51: A Christmas Story
#52: Lost in Translation
#53: The Thin Red Line
#54: Clear and Present Danger
#55: High Fidelity
#56: Saving Private Ryan
#57: The Hills Have Eyes
#58: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
#59: The Nightmare Before Christmas
#60: True Lies
#61: Tomstone

two things:

one, thanks for taking over the role of doing MOTM.

two, i remember seeing this movie once, and i remember hating it. but that was a while back and i don't remember one iota of the film. i should rent it and watch again.

Oh Righteous Kill was more than downright not good.


Heat is a wonderful film.

great movie. the shootout is EPIC. Mann's best work is Mohicians, but this is a close second. (manhunter being third)

Classic Pacino:

I fucking love this movie.

Everything about it. Even that thing on Kilmer's elbow.
And that shootout in the street after the bank heist is by far the best in any movie I've ever seen.

this movie is just "ok"

i wanted to like it more than i did...pacino kind of annoyed me

i really don't understand the love for this one. i've seen it at least 4 times and i STILL can't remember shit about it. i forget everything within a year of seeing it

this is a great movie. great performances, storyline, directing. some beautiful aerial shots of l.a. when pacino is riding on the helicopter. the soundtrack is awesome, like when pacino is tailgating deniro on the highway at night. the shootout is fantastic. i really like val kilmer's job on this movie too.

i like deniro's performance more than pacino's, but they are both great here.

i agree, i think their relationship is the best part of the movie.

i think the interesting think about this movie is that it has some odd things like a really dated cop movie soundtrack, and deniro's relationship. but its got a lot of great scenes that raise it well above the typical cop and robber film. i think it wins out as a very good movie, but yes does have some iffy elements.

I found it a bit convulted. A good ambitious movie, but thats it.

I saw it once. It was OK. I can't imagine watching it 4 times.

If ever "tl;dr" applied to a film, it's this one.

It was certainly very "thorough". I mean look at the depth and backstory that Mann came up with and dramatized even just for Dennis Haysbert's character, who it ends up has to wind up taking over the getaway driver duties when Danny Trejo gets taken out just before the job.

But wow I'm not sure I've ever seen in one place so many people describing this film is just "meh". I thought it was without question one of the best crime films of the 90's.

edit: oh also have to say, Moby's "God Moving Over The Face Of The Water" is an incredibly beautiful piece of music.

i concurr

i knew i could count on you

Yeah, I agree with everything you said, including Moby's atmospheric song.

The character development in crime films today are hardly as in depth as the one's in Heat.

Reynolds is untouchable as Nick Escaliente. It simply doesn't get any fucking hotter.

i bet you loved the GTA sequence "based" on it