his archnemesis De Niro in what history will regard as one of the most frenetic scenes in the history of film. The dialogue in this scene at the very end of the first tape, if you own the VHS version sets up the last half of the film beautifully, as our two rivals come to the joint realization that they have no hand in choosing the paths that will lead them to their ultimate confrontation: their very natures so define their respective actions that any attempt to do otherwise would simply be a waste of time. While I have heard others who I am ashamed at times to call close friends say that Heat drags in places, I will concede that there are moments in the film that require more than the cursory attention that they give to the movie they happen to be watching at any given time I'm sorry not every director is Jerry Bruckheimer , there are poignant developments of character in Heat that many would casually disregard. I am thinking of the interaction between the ex-con who finds conditional employment in a diner with an opportunistic scum of a boss, and whose girlfriend is so proud of him for swallowing his pride and not simply giving the sonofabitch a good pummeling. But there is a catharsis that I felt for that same ex-con when De Niro's character presents him with the opportunity to take just one more score, for old time's sake. Who doesn't feel for this guy - this minor character in a film with big-time heavyweights who gets to shine for a few brief moments. That's what Heat is really: a series of brief moments, some touching, others traumatic, and still others incredibly horrifying in the feelings that they inspire in the romantic who, like me sees not black or white portrayals of protagonist and villain, but a montage of grays that combine to create a vivid spectrum of film characterization that could not be found in hundreds of films combined. One of my five favorite films of all time, Heat is a cinematic banquet of intense imagery and pulse-pounding action. Come hungry.

doesn't want to lead. Pacino's cop is less easy to sympathise with, but he too leads an in-escapable life of guns and crime. What really stands out is the climax. On the whole, Heat has to be the best cops n' robbers film ever made, indeed, one of the best films. An epic, wonderful, sad, adrenaline-fuelled exercise in scale and grandeur.

outbursts,arms flailing? It wouldn't work. We know these men now.We know neither will stop at what they do.And yet there is no way either would stop the other.Unless they had too. Which leads us too the characters. All of them.This is an extended family where you feel you know all of them without knowing anything at all. The cops are similar to the robbers and vice-versa. Perhaps Mann is telling us were all the same.Except in what we do.Every speaking part holds substance in this movie, and the support cast is astonishing when you actually read the caliber of who appeared in this film.Tom Sizmore, Val Kilmer,Ashley Judd,Ted Levine,Wes Studi,Hank Azaria,William Fitchner,Henry Rollins,Dennis Haysbert,Tom Noonan. And Natalie Portman, for chrissake! Try getting that cast again.A real 10/10 film. And that Moby song at the end God moving over the face of waters gets me every time.

hunter Vincent Hanna Pacino and the hunted Neil McCauley De Niro separately throughout much of the film. Underneath a hail of bullets Mann is able to paint both lead characters with the same brush by delving into the similarly tragic and chaotic personal lives of Hanna and McCauley, allowing for the final epic scene, which would have been too pretentious if it were not for the excellent performances of Pacino and De Niro.Bottom Line: Not having seen this movie is akin to idiocy for anyone claiming to be a fan of movies. 9 out of 10

"Casino", Michael Mann's "Heat" positions itself as one of the first "neo liberal" gangster movies, all the others still caught in the old framework of mafia patriarchy, family values, loyalty, honour, total adherence to a distinctive creed, blood lines and tribalism. "Heat", in comparison, completely breaks away from these old-fashioned ways. In Mann's film, everyone is an individual in the most extreme sense. The gang is no longer a gang, but a crew of "independent professionals" who just come together for a specific job and then split. In this world, families and friends are non-existent or total charades.While Don Corleone hid like a king behind his armed guards and giant fences, Mann's gangsters are trapped in a state of perpetual mobility. Like a group of shareholders, they are held together only by the prospect of future revenue. Their arrangement is temporary, pragmatic and lateral. They know that they are interchangeable parts in a larger machine, that there are no guarantees and that nothing lasts. Compared to this, the gangsters of "Goodfellas" and "The Godfather" seem like stagnated sentimentalists, nostalgically trapped in dying communities. While The Corleone's fight over territory and family honour, Mann's guys are only interested in Capital. As DeNiro yells during a bank heist, "We're here for the bank's money, not your money!"Tellingly, the DeNiro character's creed is one of "zero loyalty". He has a 30-second rule of walking away from anyone, however close he may be emotionally or romantically. The message of the film is thus double edged. It isn't just that the film's final resolution is that "justice prevails" and the bad guys are put away; rather, it is that those who fall, who get caught, are those who failed to live up to the modern creed, which is actually repeated twice in the film: "Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner." In other words, late capitalism and attachment do not mix.So in this sense, a film like "Heat", though otherwise entirely predictable, essentially a bunch of little boys engaging in idiot machismo one-upmanship posturing Pacino's obsessive-compulsive manic cop vs DeNiro's cool sociopathic dedication, etc , nevertheless was one of the first films to manifest a fundamental social change. A series like "The Wire" then takes all of this much further, with its attempt to consciously map out the vast and unrepresentable complexity of contemporary neo-liberal capitalism. In fact, a series like "The Wire", with its sheer scope, complexity and writing credentials, renders ALL gangster and crime movies irrelevant to any serious viewer. And so today's gangsters are all "entrepreneurs", all so called "self-made individuals", the "self-employed Petite bourgeoisie", radically without any social links, even down to the kid selling crack to his buddies. This is all a million light years from the long obsolete world of "The Godfather", "Casino" or "Goodfellas". While those elegiac films are about moments that had long passed, Mann's is distinctively modern. This is a film about the 90s. This is a Los Angeles of polished chrome, designer kitchens, featureless freeways, fluorescent bulbs and late night diners. All the colours, sounds, aromas and cultural quirks of Coppola and Scorsese have been torn out, painted over, re-fitted and re-modelled. Mann's LA is a world without landmarks. A vast urban sprawl, all traces of Old Europe replaced by business franchises, multiplexes and multinational coffee shops. While Coppola's film centred around a family called the "Corleone's", their name itself a reference to the village in which they originated, Mann's criminals have bland names like "Neil". They are without history, culture or family ties. In a brilliant touch, Mann even has De Niro reading a book on metals when he first meets his love interest. The guy is a piece of cold, polished steel in a world that is likewise.Rather than a "rise/fall" structure we also get something a bit different. These criminals get no joy from their profession. Trapped in a world of paranoia, Mann's aesthetic is one of flat glass panes and expansive windows, his criminals always fearing exposure. For Mann, crime becomes a means of escape from the world in its entirety. Crime is total disconnection from both family, society and man, his criminals all looking to amass enough wealth to escape to some idyllic island on the horizon.But it's Mann's style itself that seduces us. This style, which I call "Armani decorum", owes much to Mann's fondness for such painters and architects as David Hockney, Alex Colville, Edward Hopper and Ed Ruscha Alex Colville's "Pacific" is visually quoted in one shot . Mann's thus trades the "old noir" look for 1950's modernism, block colours, expansive glass panes, geometric divisions and contemporary, linear houses. His frame is divided into flat surfaces, characters are dressed in pastels, scenes are assigned panels of light and buildings are relentlessly modernist, with fluorescent bulbs and geometrical, flat surfaces. Couple this with his unique choice in music minimalist, industrial and techno and you have a very sexy aesthetic.8.9/10 – Dismissed upon release, "Heat" achieved "classic" status a few years later due to young film buffs. As the star status of De Niro and Pacino fades, and films like "Dark Knight" rip off its style, the film seems to be on another downward spiral.Worth several viewings.

the best heist scenes and a city at night ever shot on film. 4. Characters - Not all of them, but the main characters are well developed and you understand their motivation, their actions, their thoughts. This movie will not let you down. Perfect to watch in any situation.

heartbreaking roleÂ… It's a tragic characterÂ… In his world, what he's doing, he feels justified in doing itÂ… McCauley has a quiet look at a thief who has a certain kind of lonely disregard for who he kills but yet somehow you're in touch with his humanityÂ… We can identify him when all that robbery turns out badly and when his lover Eady Amy Brenneman tries to escape from himÂ… Brenneman's part was the hope that De Niro's character could have of escape, and love, and forgivenessÂ… There's something so sad about these people and so poignantÂ… They are so lost, and they want to be found so badlyÂ…It's like a huge operaÂ… On one level, the film deals with a crime saga, on the other, with the interpersonal relationships that are woven all these charactersÂ…In the Pacino character and in the De Niro character you're basically seeing two sides of the same tough manÂ…

Pacino face off verbally against each other. They're both great and the sequence is crucial to their characters--but it isn't particularly well-written. Still this might be the only time we'll ever see the two together on screen They both starred in "The Godfather Part II" but shared no scenes .The movie is well-directed with constant close-ups for some reason and shot in washed out color with some truly incredible gun fights the last one is just jaw dropping . An ALMOST great movie.There are problems. There are too many story lines and the film becomes quite convoluted towards the end. For example--a subplot between Pacino and his stepdaughter comes up, disappears and pops in out of NOWHERE at the end. Also the film is much too long at 3 hours. This worked great in a theatre in wide screen and ear-shattering stereo the gun shots went right through you . It doesn't work as well on TV. Also avoid the edited for TV version which cuts out about FORTY minutes rendering the film incomprehensible. Worth watching...but it should have been tightened a little.

Vincents daughter a very very troubled girl. What a cast though! Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Ashely Judd, Tom Sizemore and many many more. That's what i call a great cast! Anyways, a brilliant classic and a must see.10/10