Saturday, September 27, 2008

Heat (1995)

A masterpiece. A mindblowing film. A brilliant piece of art. No words or phrase can do this film justice. If I could give this film an 11 out of 10, I would, but that would make no sense and just simply violate the purpose of ratings. When I started watching "Heat", I wasn't even in the mood for a movie. I had nothing to do and I wanted to kill time. Everytime I decided to turn it off and go do something else, I found myself drawn into the character's plight and the coming sequence of events. By the time I was 10 minutes into the movie, I was completely soaked in "Heat". "Heat" is a movie that is hard to describe. It would be such an terrible understatement if I called it an action film because even though it touches only the surface of many different genres, it succeeds with incredible direction.

"Heat" is a robber and cop drama that tries on a very different approach. It brings in many support characters, all with good purpose and detail, to spin an epic yet personal tale of passion and principles. Although "Heat" does focus on the robber (Robert De Niro) and the cop (Al Pacino), it would not be fair to discredit the role of the support of the characters in this film as doing so will take away the epic magnitude of this film. Having said that, I am not going to talk much about the actual plot of this film as there would be too much to write without giving away the whole story.

The leads in this film carry it as their roles bring everyone together, they are like the medium that channels the strength of all the supporting characters into a huge cesspool of brilliance. Even though Robert De Niro plays a villian, you can't help but feel for him, wanting him to get away despite his deeds. In my opinion, he is what every man should be; decisive, smart, fearless and compassionate to those he know. Al Pacino plays a less likable character but equally understandable. Both of them have dedicated their lives to their own line of work and when they finally meet, they can't help but have admiration for each other. "Heat" isn't an idealistic drama about good vs bad. The cop isn't trying to catch the robber simply because the robber is doing bad things. The cop enjoys his work and is very good at it, it's his life's passion and he doesn't want to stop. When he meets someone who is equally good at robbing things, they form a unspoken bond of respect.

With a cast like Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, it's almost impossible to go wrong. Throw in an epic plot, great directing and powerful editing, you get a film that jumps into the league of movies like "The Dark Knight". "Heat" is easily one of the best films I have seen and anybody who isn't just there for the "guns and cars" will appreciate it very thoroughly. "Heat" is easily a 10/10 in my books.

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