Movie of the Week: Heat

Alexa: “Heat” is a good movie that could have been a great movie with some tighter editing. The things the film does well, it does really well. Michael Mann’s artful direction instills the movie with an almost noirish mood, and he creates an impeccable sense of place with his careful crafting of the LA crime scene. Al Pacino and Robert De Niro give outstanding performances in their own right, but there is something magical about watching these two greats act opposite each other. During the scene when Hanna and McCauley confront each other in the coffee shop, I couldn’t look away. These are two men who are more alike than not but they’re consumed by divergent paths, and Pacino and De Niro truly mold them into complex characters. The action sequences are expertly choreographed and shot, with the climactic bank heist an exceptionally visceral experience. But between all of these compelling moments are long slogs of relationship building and character development that drag the film down and make the plot feel disjointed. Some of that material is essential. Neither Hanna nor McCauley had to follow through with their final showdown. Both men had significant personal reasons to move on but they didn’t because their work is at the core of who they are, and the more character-driven aspects of the film are crucial to understanding those motivations. But “Heat” accomplished nothing in its nearly three-hour run time that it couldn’t have achieved in two and a half at most, and the film ultimately suffers because of that.

Joel: Clocking in at almost three hours, Heat is a really long movie. That in and of itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are four hour movies with the right editing and pacing to where they feel like they move quicker than some ninety minute movies. And to be fair, Heat has a lot of that. There are plenty of moments where the movie zips along, and you feel like you’re on the edge of your seat, trying to keep up. But then there are other moments in the movie, where something is off. The pace of the movie slows to a crawl and you really start to feel that runtime. In a different movie the occasional slow scene wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but here it’s frustrating because it keeps a really good movie from getting to that point where it could be a great one.

What’s frustrating is that there’s so many good qualities in this movie. The cast of A-list stars are all at the top of their game for this movie. De Niro and Pacino both put in career defining performances, but the supporting characters deserve to be commended as well, especially Val Kilmer who gets to create a really great character in this movie. It’s clear that director Michael Mann has created one of the defining examples of the crime genre with this movie, and you can see it’s influence from style to plot trickle down through more recent films. Some of the best scenes, the ones that make the movie feel like a tight, well edited action thriller, more often than not just feature a few people talking to each other. Mann clearly knows how to craft a scene to bring the tension to the forefront and is able to pull it off time and again here. These moments are what make this movie one that’s truly worth experiencing, it’s just a shame that the movie’s runtime ends up feeling overly padded, and that maybe a tighter edit could have made this movie a contender among the greats.

Chris: It would be hypocritical of me to complain about a mojos being long after I picked all three Godfather movies earlier in the year but the difference is that Heat has so many unnecessary plot points that do little to contribute to the overall story. Yes it’s neat to see a young Natalie Portman in the movie but the sad stepchild story felt out of place to the rest of the movie. Yes, the kid’s suicide attempt brought Pacino’s character and his wife back together but they ultimately come to the conclusion that they don’t work as a couple, something the two came to the conclusion to already a few scenes earlier. Beyond that, Heat became the blueprint for the modern crime drama/action movie especially those that have a large cast where each character’s connection to each other becomes increasingly apparent as the movie progresses. And finally, was it just me or were the guns in this movie absurdly louder than they realistically should be? Also it’s good to see where the Al Pacino “great ass” sound bite came from.

Jason: I finished this film about 15 minutes ago. If you were to ask me what the plot was, I would not be able to give you much of anything. So much happened but none of it seemed to be connected in any meaningful way. While the tone remained pretty stable, the pacing was all over the place. Loud, fast, and exciting shoot-outs were followed by quiet and intimate conversations that felt like they dragged on forever without leading anywhere. There was a lot of emotional acting by an absolutely star-studded cast but again, it didn’t lead to anything meaningful by the end. Lots of bad stuff happened. Lots of people died or were hurt physically or emotionally or both. But all of that stuck together in a mixing bowl with a heaping spoonful of cops-and-robbers drama didn’t leave me with much to say here. I feel like an hour could have been shaved off of this one to leave a more decipherable story. I think Pacino has it in his contract that he can’t be in a film unless it is longer than two and a half hours.

This one had a lot of great element. It just never came together for me. That being said, no one can drop and F-bomb like Al Pacino or Robert De Niro.