Heat
As Moby’s stirring ‘God moving over the face of the waters’ slowly begins, Vincent (Al Pacino) is standing, holding Neil’s (Robert De Niro) hand, facing the lights of the airport in the distance. The back of Vincent speaks the words which are swimming through my heart. My heart is awash with emotion, mainly because of the music, which slips under my emotional radar and touches something liquid inside my heart, jostling and making me want to hold onto someone. Moby is adept at eliciting your deepest feelings with some of his songs and the aforementioned song, in this particular context, is among his very best.
Heat is a mainstream Hollywood film with its heart in the right place. The uncommunicative silences of the modern world, the enforced distances, the forced loneliness, the inability to force change from something we believe in, love slipping through our hands like rain drops and crime seen through human eyes. It is a masterpiece of social observation in the vein of Altman’s Short Cuts, Anderson’s Magnolia or even the newest addition, Haggis’s Crash.
There is no good or bad. The world is a grey mirror reflecting our individual circumstances. We have the choice to change but we are stuck in a rut, unable to break out. We do what we think we believe in. Relationships begin to fade, wrongs pile up, and we still fail to effect changes. Life is not linear. Life is like a million little eddies uniting to form a single stream.
See it if you have not seen it already. See it even if you saw it when it first came out, you will find new ways to fall in love. For sometimes the intimacy of a private viewing is needed to create a bond between the film and you, an intimacy which a theatrical viewing lacks. Or just see it for that final scene I described above. It is worth for the rainbow of emotions it evokes. Arguably, Michael Mann’s best film to date.
September 27th, 2005 | Quote
I quite agree. I’ll admit though that I did not see the point first time I saw it. :)
September 27th, 2005 | Quote
I like the quote “I told you I’m never going back. “.. words i live by.
September 26th, 2005 | Quote
Anil,
Michael Mann was in terrific form both with “Heat” and with “The Insider”. Though I think you may turn off some potential fans with the words “social observation” and “Robert Altman” :) Just kidding, of course.
“Heat” is such an entertaining film and that diner sequence with De Niro and Pacino is some fine piece of film-making.
I didn’t know that piece of music was by Moby.
Krishna
September 26th, 2005 | Quote
[...] Anil recommends Heat - an old Michael Mann movie from 1995 that’s worth a watch. Heat is a mainstream Hollywood film with its heart in the right place … It is a masterpiece of social observation in the vein of Altman’s Short Cuts, Anderson’s Magnolia or even the newest addition, Haggis’s Crash … There is no good or bad. The world is a grey mirror reflecting our individual circumstances … Life is not linear. Life is like a million little eddies uniting to form a single stream. [...]
September 26th, 2005 | Quote
rusty & :A: ah, am glad that you both agree. The first time I saw it, frankly I did not follow it. It is only on a second viewing that the beauty of the film seeped into me…
finnegan: kick me if I make these sweeping statements again! actually, if I remember correctly I’ve seen only two films of his and none of his 80s work. so that last sentence should be more qualified! I’ve heard a lot about ‘Thief’…your comment reminds me to look for it again…thanks!
September 25th, 2005 | Quote
Yes, it is a lovely movie. I remember being amazed the first time I saw it. Your post reminds me, I need to see it again.
:-)
September 25th, 2005 | Quote
Although “Heat” does have terrific moments, I still find the viscerally sustained drive and dreamy beauty of Mann’s “Thief” to be his best. After all these years—it came out in 1981!—it still delivers that scintillating emotional punch.
And of course there’s that amazing soundtrack by Tangerine Dream…
September 24th, 2005 | Quote
Yeah….sometimes a private viewing is all it takes to let the movie undo your emotional barricades…and merge in your soul….Thats a grt flick btw….