Heat -- the epic poem of heist films?

Perhaps Pacino was going for the poetry with that turn. Consider his reading of "Cause she's got a GRRREAT ASSSSS . . . andyou'vegotyourheadallthewayUPit!"

I quote that line daily.

there is a scene where he takes off his shirt and if you look at his elbow, it has some kind of gnarled, twisted tumor on it that is incredibly realistic. You can only see it in one shot, it never comes up again. It's just a nice touch.

1) it is called 'collateral'
2) it stars tom cruise
3) it was cowritten by frank darabont
4) the plot is as follows: 'A cab driver finds himself the hostage of an engaging contract killer as he makes his rounds from hit to hit during one night in LA. He must find a way to save both himself and one last victim.'

reasons not to fear michael mann's next film:

1) it is michael mann's next film

I think the sentiment is exactly similar to The Wild Bunch, where all throughout the movie, William Holden's character plays it pragmatic and wouldn't go out of his way to save anybody, then at the very end he leads them back to go get Angel (knowing it's suicide) even though they could get away scott free and that would have been truer to form.

Heat has lots of terrific moments/dialogue:

- "He was a makin' a move, man, I HAD to get it on!", DeNiro slams the psycho's head onto the table and up against window, Sizemore stares down the customer.

- Pacino's scene with Tone Loc is great.

- "I'm talkin' into an empty telephone...because there is a dead man on the other end of this fuckin' line." CLASSIC.

- "I'm very angry, Ralph." and "But Ralph, you do NOT [punch] get to watch my television set!!"

I believe there is a significant difference between Holden's actions at the climax of "The Wild Bunch" and Deniro's in "Heat," in the fact that Holden witnesses an appalling moral transgression in seeing one member of his gang sadistically tortured by the Mexican army. Also, leading up to that point Holden and the others react to signs all around of an increasingly modernized world and the death of western individualism (their own eventual extinction). I found completely compelling and beleivable that Holden and co. would take an an action motivated by something other than money for the first time in their lives.
Of course I should probably see "Heat" again, it's been a few years, but I don't recall any moral, personal imperitive or even bloodlust imbedded in Deniro's character to warrent such a sacrifice of self or risk of seperation with the woman he falls in love with.

i still think this film is less 'poetic' than really well put-together

And Heat does look like a Bruckheimer film (literally), in a way. Mann basically invented the formula many Bruckheimer films are predicated upon. The heavy use of filters, the constant gloss, the obsession with lighting, the existential heroes - compare Bad Boys to Miami Vice and the similarities are frightening....

There are also parallels with Peckinpah in the romantic idealisation of the lonely man, the absense of humour, the expertise with the depiction of violence. ..

i guess what i react to with skepticism is the idea of mann as a stylist in the european auteur mode, where some french critics and some american critics have placed him, using catchwords like "minimalism" etc. i think they focus exclusively on where mann seems to part from his contemporaries, which misses, i think, mann's achievement (or a big part of it), which is using a very contemporary style in unusually expressive and concentrated ways.

i don't really like al pacino very much in general, but he works perfectly in this film even while playing "al pacino."

the other thing i like is how the "just one last thing, then i'm out" here carries with it this sense of history, like everyone knows that's what you're supposed to do, and it never works, and you might as well go through with it anyway. unlike, say carlito's way or any other flik where you really have this sense the main character is being delusionally stupid, there's a sense of purpose and deliberation that's pulled off almost just by deniro's acting.

1) Its Miami Vice
2) It stars Colin Farrel

What happened to the guy who made awesome shit like Thief, The Keep & Manhunter?

What I like about this film more than other similar tales is that Neal McCauley is portrayed as a total sociopath, as Mann goes on about in the commentary. Which is revealed in little bits, like grabbing David Palmer to drive the car right before the robbery, acting all buddy-buddy with him and really not even reacting when he gets killed. He used him and tossed him. And really, I think Pacino's performance is a great one. Sure, it's over-the-top, but I think it's great because of that, not despite it.

OTM. I distinctly remember being pleasantly surprised by that.

this sort of self-consciousness is already evident in melville's "bob le flambeur"

i just said that another thing i like is. of course this is a totally classic epic device -- which is sorta the point of the thread, no?

So good. It had been so long since I'd seen it that I forgot that Rollins is in it. lol.