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| Heat 4 of 10 |
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| Directed by Michael Mann Cinematography by Dante Spinotti Al Pacino Robert De Niro Val Kilmer Jon Voight Tom Sizemore Wes Studi Ted Levine William Fichtner |
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| Michael Mann is well-loved in the industry because they say that he likes to make difficult films � films that other people are afraid to make. They say that he refuses to compromise. Unfortunately, he could have used a lot of compromising here. Actually, just using a pair of scissors would have been fine. It�s far too long, far too confusing, far too violent. To sum things up, the film is far too self-indulgent. Not compromising on films should not mean that you can keep everything, whether it makes the film better or not. Visuals are modern, with a lot of fast-cutting, and hand-held stuff. But the cast is very strong. De Niro is solid. Kilmer is solid. The women are solid. And Pacino was really great. I think he is growing on me more and more. But his character really emphasizes my main problem with the film. I didn�t like the way Mann, who wrote the story as well as directed it, was trying to force you to like the bad guys and hate the good guys. Pacino does a great job as the nasty, effective cop. But the problem is that the bad guys really are bad. And Mann can�t cover that up. (The justly famous shoot0out scene really shows this up. You simply cannot like De Niro�s character after you see that.) So the end result is that you end up hating everyone. And that�s sort of a depressing way to end everything.
�You don't live with me, you live among the remains of dead people. You sift through the detritus, you read the terrain, you search for signs of passing, for the scent of your prey, and then you hunt them down. That's the only thing you're committed to. The rest is the mess you leave as you pass through.� |
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