Monday, June 27, 2011

What about "Heat"? (repost)

Asked here.

I'm loathe to recommend Heat to you because I'm invested in it and don't want to see the negative (or even lukewarm) reviews later. I have the DVD and I have a place in my movie buff heart for the movie and while it is readily available, I feel I want to be stingy with it, like I own it, and see if the potential viewer is really interested and in the right mindset and likely to love it and join the club before I screen it, because as well-reviewed as the movie is, it's not guaranteed. It's moody and it is a Mann film and it's a long one. You choose to watch Heat, you're making a commitment.

That said, there are some movies that are like canonical milestones and cultural touchstones, like The Godfather, and Heat is one of them. Some say it is one of the best cops-and-robbers films ever made. DeNiro, Pacino and Kilmer, three of the finest actors in recent time, are in the movie interacting with each other and playing off each other in a kind of testosterone-fueled artistic tango (a big deal at the time and still a big deal now for movie buffs, like seeing Johnson and Jordan shoot hoops together). The characters are complex, as is the story and the dialogue. The look and feel of the movie is pure magic Mann. A lot has been said about the "chicken and the egg" dynamic to DeNiro's and Pacino's acting and the directing of Coppola and Scorcese. Do they portray criminals exceptionally well or do criminals play them (modeling themselves on DeNiro and Pacino and characters in the films of Coppola and Scorcese)? This movie would be one of the essential supporting arguments in an essay on that subject. Serious cinephiles have seen and talked about this movie. DeNiro fans have seen this movie. Mann fans have seen this movie. Guys who use movies as a model for adult masculine behavior and quote lines from The Godfather when giving advice have seen this movie. Also, Ashley Judd is in the movie and she is stunning. (The cast list is impressive and interesting.)


Heat cast list from Wikipedia:

Cast
Links:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19951215/REVIEWS/512150302/1023
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117904741?refcatid=31
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1068182-heat/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_(1995_film)
http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC43folder/Heat.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113277/

*Waingro is a separate and interesting story all its own.

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