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Heat
Starring: Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Al Pacino, Amy Brenneman
Also Starring: Ashley Judd, Hank Azaria, Mykelti Washington
Director: Michael Mann
Box Office Gross: $174.4m (worldwide)
DVD release date: 7/27/1999
Special Extras: 3 theatrical trailers
Options: Subtitles in French and English, soundtracks in French and English. Widescreen only. 5.1 Dolby.
Summary: De Niro is a career criminal defined by his precision, while Pacino is the volatile detective out to finally bring him down.
Review:
The
highly anticipated movie of 1995, HEAT teamed together a cast of acting
power houses and for the first time in years put De Niro and Pacino on
the same screen at once, as adversaries in a movie that was sorely
overlooked at that years Academy Awards.
Featuring powerful back up performances by a then relatively unknown Tom Sizemore (Best Supporting Actor nominee for Saving Private Ryan) and more prominent actors such as Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Amy Brenneman (Judging Amy and NYPD Blue) and Wes Studi (Last of the Mohicans), HEAT shined with memorable moments.
Pacino
plays the vice cop Vincent Hanna who takes his job too seriously,
sacrificing his social life and marriage to nab his last big adversary
Robert De Niro. De Niro on the other hand plays the cool mysterious
master thief Neil McCauley. Level headed and street smart, McCauley
heads his “crew” which is anchored by the demolition skills of Val
Kilmer (Chris Shiherlis) and the computer hacking of Tom Sizemore
(Michael Cheritto). Rounding out the “crew” are Jon Voight, and
Danny Trejo (Trejo). Voight, in a typical character role for him lately,
plays McCauley’s inside man, the one that plans and gets De Niro’s
crew the big scores.
What
is so great about HEAT besides the dialogue and the actors is the
script. Penned by Michael Mann and directed brilliantly by him, the
movie focuses on both sides of the law…the good and the evil. While
doing this, the plot shifts to marital problems, loneliness, risk and
death very smoothly, and by the end of the movie you get to know each
character well. Especially in focus is Kilmer’s gambling addiction and
his volatile marriage, Pacino’s addiction to his job bordering on
psychotic, and De Niro’s lack to be involved with anything that he can’t
walk out on “in 30 seconds if you spot the heat coming around the
corner.” HEAT certainly should be watched in one sitting, not an hour
here there, to be appreciated.
The
DVD of HEAT was a long awaited release, and Michael Mann is in my
opinion one of the best directors ever. From his early control of Miami
Vice to The Insider (again with Al Pacino) Mann has firmly established
himself as the king of gritty crime drama movies. Don’t forget he also
directed the prequel to Silence of the Lambs, Manhunter. He also shined
as the director of Last of the Mohicans, now out on DVD also in a
special edition.
Who can argue that HEAT contains one of the best, if not the best, gunfight scenes in movie history (although I still think the Wild Bunch wins this title). After a robbery attempt, the entire crew of Neal McCauley (De Niro) gets involved in an automatic gunfire exchange in downtown L.A. Mind you this thieving crew is not some pistol wielding crop of outcasts. They are high tech and equipped with the best arms…so you can imagine what happens to that downtown street. The DVD shines here as well, providing the best demo experience for newbie DVD player owners this side of the lobby shooting scene in the Matrix. Done in surround sound the gunfight is amazing on a pumped up sound system, the way it should be.
The
DVD features excellent film transfer quality and superb visuals, but the
extras are very skimpy, not like Last of the Mohicans with its animated
menus and extra scenes inserted in movie. Featuring only trailers and
scene selection I was disappointed, but being one of my favorite movies
of all time, I would have paid for the disc and a piece of cardboard to
put in. Lets hope that Mann decides to release all his movies (The Keep
and Manhunter) soon on DVD so that the collection can be complete. To
sum up: the best crime drama movie ever and excellent sounding and
looking DVD. Although 3 hours long you wont want to miss a minute.
DVD Rating:
Look: 5/5
Sound: 4/5
Extras: 1/5
Total: 4/5