Examiner Essentials: # 10 Heat

Warner Bros.

The Examiner Essentials are the movies everyone should watch, know and love. And if you watch and know but don't love, it's okay because you will still be an improved person for taking part in your own betterment. But the chances are, you'll love these movies. A list of all the Essentials can be found here.

Title: Heat (1995)

Director: Michael Mann (Public Enemies, Manhunter, Miami Vice, Collateral, The Last of the Mohicans, The Insider, Ali)

Starring: Al Pacino (Devil's Advocate), Robert De Niro (Angel Heart)

ex-Factor: The Cast. Simply put, this is a movie cast of epic proportions. Pacino and De Niro headline the whole shebang, putting two of the greatest actors of all time together (long before Pacino would do forgettable films like 88 Minutes, Two For The Money, S1mone, The Recruit, Gigli and Righteous Kill, and before De Niro squandered most of his good will with bad comedies and equally forgettable flicks like The Score, City by the Sea, Hide and Seek and, uh, Righteous Kill). Joining them is a who's who of great supporting and character actors. This includes Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Danny Trejo, Dennis Haysbert, Hank Azaria, Jon Voight, Henry Rollins, Jeremy Piven, Tone Loc, Diane Venora, Ashley Judd, Kevin Gage, Wes Studi, Ted Levine, William Fichtner, Tom Noonan, and a 14 year old Natalie Portman. Just about everyone brings their A-game and the movie is stronger as a result, as people with very minimal screentime can still get a lot out of their characters.The Story: Neil McCauley (De Niro) is the leader of a small gang of professional thieves. The movie starts with his gang robbing an armored truck, which is no small feat. It helps to have scary looking hockey masks and assault rifles. The Heist doesn't go completely as planned, however, and the guards are killed, setting off a chain of events that will effect many, many people, most of them in very adverse ways. Lt. Vincent Hanna (Pacino) is in charge of bringing the gang down, while he deals with his own domestic problems with his third failing marriage (Venora) and emotionally wrecked daughter-in-law (Portman). This is a police drama, a cops and robbers type of deal, but what makes this one special is the time spent developing not only the police but the criminals as well. Hanna is the hero and McCauley is the antihero, and together the represent two sides of the same coin (also depending on your own perspective, the roles of hero/antihero can easily be flipped).Why It's Essential: Heat could have easily been "the another cop drama," but it has way too much going for it. Michael Mann's films have always been just the right mix of tough, slick and angst ridden. His leads are almost always guys that seem eternally cool and collected initially, but also have an emotionally turbulent under current that drives them to what they do. Hanna and McCauley are no different in their icy exteriors butting against their broiling emotions. And Mann doesn't just spend time with Hanna's domestic problems; he gets into McCauley's personal life, showing his difficulty in establishing new relationships. He knows what has to be done once he feels the heat coming from around the corner, which includes immediately and definitively walking away from whatever relationships he may have cultivated, and this mindset does not work in his favor when he is approached by a lovely young woman (Any Brenneman). And these two guys are not the only ones with problems. This is a movie about people and though they may be doing larger than life tasks, they are still people, with desires and goals and motivations, just like the rest of us.Memorable Scene: This one is pretty easy. About halfway through the movie, Hanna gets McCauley to humor him by having a cup of coffee together at a nearby diner. This is the one scene in the movie where Pacino and De Niro square off against each other and they are both pretty amazing as they talk to each other and see what things they have in common. Really can't go wrong with some vintage Pacino and vintage De Niro doing their thing while being directed by such a skilled filmmaker as Michael Mann.Fun Fact: Heat was filmed in 65 locations around the city of Los Angeles, without the use of single soundstage or set. Nifty, hunh?