Heat

‘Heat’ is one of those films that promises so much. With Al Pacino and Robert de Niro in leading roles, the standard of acting was always going to be ridiculously high. The film focuses around a policeman and a group of criminals, and sees Robert de Niro as the ‘bad guy’ planning a bank job with a group of friends. There are (as I remember) two scenes where de Niro and Pacino actually talk, but they are the best scenes of the film for me.

As far as the plot goes, it’s not a great film. In my opinion, the storyline is distinctly average, and it is the two leading actors who complete the film. However, I do like that Heat is not just about the crime, as the two leading characters both have a family life of sorts. For Pacino this revolves around his wife and her daughter (a young Natalie Portman no less), and for de Niro, there is a young woman who he feels strongly about. While the criminal activities of the group bring an element of enjoyment to the film, and both the opening crime and the bank heist are fantastic, I got the feeling that the whole film was geared towards the final scene where Pacino and de Niro face off.

However, nothing can take away from the performances of either actor in this film. Pacino once again displays the tendency that he has to be ever so slightly psychotic in the role that he plays. His policeman character is seen to be ‘close to the line’ on more than one occasion. The scene where he walks in on his wife alone with another man just displays this perfectly. He is fine with the cheating, but takes issue with the man using his television. Nevertheless he also has the tender side that often comes across in his films. His care for Natalie Portman’s character is exceptional, and the emotion he displays when he finds her in his bathtub is magnificent. He is portrayed as the antithesis of de Niro’s character, and is the policeman who is leading the investigation into their criminal activities.

While Pacino is a joy to watch, he is in my opinion, over-shadowed in this film by de Niro. Regular readers will know that I love Robert de Niro. For new readers, I consider him to be the greatest actor I have ever seen. Heat is by no means his best performance, but he is electrifying, once again embodying every aspect of his character. His attention to detail is perfect and the subtleties of his character are beautifully exposed. The line that stands out from Heat is “Don’t get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner”. This quote has grave consequences for de Niro’s character at the end of the film, and this was my favourite aspect of his character. Despite all of his criminal activities he still cares for this woman, and leaving her is obviously a big struggle.

Having just talked about Pacino and de Niro I’m probably going to be quite unfair on Val Kilmer. He is very enjoyable in this film, but he is massively overshadowed by the other two. He is an instrumental part of the crime gang, and is almost as enjoyable as de Niro when it comes to watching him rob the bank and hold up the armoured truck. He too suffers from the quote above, and the scene where his girlfriend betrays him to the police has emotion which Kilmer does immensely well to pull off. It’s quite difficult to talk about a supporting character in a film with leading actors such as those in, but Kilmer is an integral part of the film. Alongside de Niro and Pacino he is the only other character whose name I can remember, and whose face I can picture. Although that probably has more to do with his hairdo than anything else, he is no doubt one of the positive things about this film.

It does seem to me, that Heat isn't a great film with two great actors. For me it comes across more as a good film in which two great actors star. The two characters are definitely the stars of whichever scene they are in, but this could have more to do with the actors playing them than their importance in the film. I feel that if you removed de Niro and Pacino then Heat would be distinctly average, with very little going for it. If you like Pacino, de Niro or general gangster films then you should give it a watch, but if not then I should probably avoid it.