Michael Mann's new crime thriller 'Heat' is on
Michael Mann's new crime thriller 'Heat' is on
By Parvathi Nayar Narayan
JAKARTA (JP): Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) and Neil McCauley (Robert de Niro) are consummate professionals in director Michael Mann's crime thriller Heat. Intense and focused on their work to the point of obsession, theirs is an existential life where the heat of the action provides both motivation and meaning; if they believe in a god it is certainly the devil. Two very similar characters with one crucial difference: Hanna is a lieutenant with the LAPD, and McCauley is the crook he's chasing.
The story opens with the robbery of an armored van carrying bearer bonds. It is one in a series of minutely planned, professionally executed heists around Los Angeles organized by McCauley and his crew. This one, however, goes awry, leaving in its wake three dead guards.
Hanna takes the case but there is very little evidence. Interestingly, leads emerge not from physical clues, but from the interactions of the characters -- policemen, informants, crew members, their families, all of whom form an extensive interlocking network. They impact on each other like intersecting ripples spreading outwards in a pond; a potpourri of emotions arising from plans, meetings, failed dreams, and details from people's lives that are coming apart -- or coming inexorably together.
Hanna's and McCauley's first meeting is an intriguing blend of openness and undercurrents. Neil McCauley is the textbook professional criminal, whose formula for survival is to have nothing in his life that he cannot walk away from in 30 seconds. He is equally single minded in his determination that nothing, absolutely nothing, will put him back into prison.
Vincent Hanna is into his third marriage, which is crumbling around him, even as he pokes among the detritus of a crime scene for the elusive scent of the chase. De Niro and Pacino, two master-protagonists, make for compelling opponents in a duel that you itch to see unfold.
It is an epic chase with a panorama of 70 speaking parts. Among De Niro's crew there is Val Kilmer who plays Chris Shiherlis, a compulsive gambler hopelessly infatuated with his tough, street-smart wife Charlene (Ashley Judd). Other crew members are Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore and the rotten apple played by Kevin Gage. In small yet pivotal parts are Amy Brenneman as the lonely graphic artist who finds the proverbial chink in McCauley's armor, and Diane Venora as Hanna's articulate, unhappy wife.
Although this supporting assemblage of characters is drawn with very broad strokes, most, barring a few, emerge as real people. Mann pulls it off largely by cleverly casting actors who make an impact despite very little actual screen time. It is a tightly woven tale where every detail of character serves a function. Ultimately nothing is extraneous, every thread -- however predictable -- is pulled together to bring the story to its searing climax.
Fatalistic story
Heat brings to mind the fatalistic story of the scorpion. The scorpion stings to death the crocodile that's ferrying it across the river to safety, thereby resulting in its own death. The parallel being of course that people do things in a certain way because it is in their nature. They are driven by compulsions often beyond their control.
The move has the beautiful imagery expected from the man behind The Last of the Mohicans and television's trendsetting Miami Vice and Crime Story. Vast, empty spaces and water are especially well used to visually charge the atmosphere. This is a movie about mood, the fusion of bleak reality with visual beauty and flair. The air of heightened naturalism is partly due to the fact that it was filmed entirely on location, all over the industrial and urban landscape of Los Angeles.
Michael Mann's Heat is stylish with substance. It escapes being merely sick, which is the beauty of the film about the lives of a collection of interesting people. Make no mistake, it is a cops and robbers flick. There are no gimmicks. There are many twists, but few outrageous surprises. Heat doesn't stand the "cops and robbers" genre on its head, in the way Eastwood's Unforgiven did the western, but does depart from the set formula by not being about good and evil, but about character and choices. Character, it is said, is revealed under pressure, and Mann applies it relentlessly. The heat is on, and Mann's characters implode, explode or survive in character.