“Heat” is one of those rare movies that promised the moon and the stars and delivered in every imaginable way. And yet, its status as a truly great film, on par with its main protagonist’s best efforts, derives from something deeper, as it tends to occur with features of this caliber. Like Robert Rossen with “The Hustler” many years before, here is another director achieving moviemaking greatness by making a film about people who have a knack for perfection, regardless of the worthiness of their profession or whatever side of the law they just happen to reside on. This attitude runs so deep that Pacino’s character just can’t help sharing his most personal stories and philosophies with an opponent who is clearly a sociopath.
“Heat” is the greatest heist movie ever made. It includes the best bank robbery scene ever filmed (by far) and also the most influential (think of “The Dark Knight” and “The Town”). Every part, no matter how small, is cast with a great actor. Mann drops them into the most believable environments with hardly (if any) filming taking place in studio sets, achieving a level of authenticity not unlike that which Spielberg once accomplished by dropping his plastic shark into the real ocean. In "Heat," Mann displays an uncanny ability to capture the sights and sounds of places and situations that make his characters and their activities utterly believable. He conveys an incredible knowledge and level of research on how his characters came to be: the cell block where they met, the particulars and drawbacks of the jobs that they are forced to take on, the bars where they come upon their next assignments and so on. Watching “Heat” recently, I was struck by how very little of the film has aged: not the fads, the pace, or the attitudes. It is 25 years old and it looks as if it could have been made yesterday.
Mann deals in excruciating detail with a good amount of his characters, even most of the supporting ones. Case in point, it’s hard to believe that with such a busy finale the director would still find the time to deal with the plight of Vincent’s stepdaughter, a relatively minor character. But this scene is crucial in order for him to reach closure with his third wife Justine (Diane Venora). Maybe Mann goes a little too far when he includes the timeline of a serial killer into an already convoluted movie, but the upside to this approach is that we really get to know these people. Take for instance the much anticipated first meeting between both leads halfway through the movie. This scene obviously provides some excellent dialogue and truly memorable quotes, but it's the great sense of anticipation that Mann has achieved beforehand that endows it with that electricity in the air.
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