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.