Heat

Description

Product Description DVD Special Features Interactive Menus Scene Access Language in Dolby Digital 5.1: English/French Subtitles: English/French/Arabic/Spanish/German/Romanian/English for the hearing impaired desertcart.co.uk Review Having developed his skill as a master of contemporary crime drama, writer-director Michael Mann displayed every aspect of that mastery in Heat, an intelligent, character-driven thriller from 1995, which also marked the first onscreen pairing of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. The two great actors had played father and son in the separate time periods of The Godfather, Part II, but this was the first film in which the pair appeared together, and although their only scene together is brief, it's the riveting fulcrum of this high-tech cops-and-robbers scenario. De Niro plays a master thief with highly skilled partners (Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore) whose latest heist draws the attention of Pacino, playing a seasoned Los Angeles detective whose investigation reveals that cop and criminal lead similar lives. Both are so devoted to their professions that their personal lives are a disaster. Pacino's with a wife (Diane Venora) who cheats to avoid the reality of their desolate marriage; De Niro pays the price for a life with no outside connections; and Kilmer's wife (Ashley Judd) has all but given up hope that her husband will quit his criminal career. These are men obsessed, and as De Niro and Pacino know, they'll both do whatever's necessary to bring the other down. Mann's brilliant screenplay explores these personal obsessions and sacrifices with absorbing insight, and the tension mounts with some of the most riveting action sequences ever filmed--most notably a daylight siege that turns downtown Los Angeles into a virtual war zone of automatic gunfire. At nearly three hours, Heat qualifies as a kind of intimate epic, certain to leave some viewers impatiently waiting for more action, but it's all part of Mann's compelling strategy. Heat is a true rarity: a crime thriller with equal measures of intense excitement and dramatic depth, giving De Niro and Pacino a prime showcase for their finely matched talents. --Jeff Shannon Review: Twice as nice - I've watched this gripping, fascinating movie a few times since its release, but recently decided I wanted to know more about how it was made, and so bought the two-disc DVD edition. The film itself is a masterpiece: an expertly-wrought portrayal of two men in conflict: Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino), a tenacious, idiosyncratic police officer, and Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro), a smart, calculating thief. The story is ostensibly about Hanna's pursuit of McCauley and his gang following an armed robbery on the streets of LA, but the other components which have been added - including depictions of their women and private lives, their colleagues, the city and environments in which they work - make this a fully-realised, three-dimensional epic which repays repeated viewing. For example, I hadn't previously noticed the link between McCauley's dismissive response when Hanna asks him - in that justly celebrated face-to-face encounter over a cup of coffee in the middle of the chase - whether he'd ever wanted a normal life ("What the f*** is that? Barbecues and ballgames?") and the moment in their next meeting in the parking lot of a downtown supermarket when McCauley's shooting at Hanna, but hits... barbecues (amongst a lot of other things). In addition, there's the pleasure of watching great actors (which includes a very strong supporting cast, featuring Val Kilmer, Ashley Judd, Kevin Gage, Hank Azaria, Dennis Haysbert and others) making their craft appear effortless. In particular, Pacino plays Hanna as a man apparently (or pretending to be) just on the edge, especially in interrogation scenes: there's a classic moment when he does something unexpected when talking to Hank Azaria's character, and Azaria's look of unsettled astonishment is totally genuine. De Niro's reading of McCauley is someone who doesn't want to be recognized or remembered, but who's surprised to find himself making an emotional connection with the innocent Eady (Amy Brenneman). And then there are the intensely realistic action set-pieces - especially the bank heist with the unforgettable sound of gunshots echoing off the sides of the crystal canyons of downtown LA - which make everything else you've ever seen in this genre appear stale or derivative. The extras on this set include a detailed audio commentary film track from director Michael Mann, three trailers, an hour-long documentary about the making of the film, and two short features about the Pacino / De Niro coffee scene and the scouting of locations for the film. They provide a lot of entertaining and interesting detail about how the film came to be and how it was made, so if you're as much a fan as I am, it's a recommended purchase. Review: Hot action - Although Manhunter is my favourite Michael Mann film, Heat is a far more polished exercise in movie making. Stylish, well photographed and fast-paced, but with elements of slower, more thoughtful action. You can often feel more empathy with the villain than the hunter at times. Despite their limited screen time together, you'd feel that Pacino and De Niro had been action opposite each other for years, even though this was their first joint effort as far as shared screen-time goes (they were never together in Godfather II). Val Kilmer receives a lot of heat (pun intended) for his performance, but I feel that is unjustified as his character isn't fleshed out enough, possibly deliberately so as not to detract from the two main stars' roles. The primary extra (along with Mann's commentary) is a hour-ling making of documentary. It's interesting but not an essential watch in my opinion. The picture quality is (as you'd hope) a big step up from my old VHS copy, which I'd never replaced with a DVD. All in all, a very enjoyable watch which should lead to repeat viewings for most people.