HEAT (1995)
I don't know if this is the absolute best film that I've ever seen, but it's still one I remember as a pivotal moment in my appreciation of film. Despite being made in Hollywood, it aspires to a more European treatment of some very American people and places.

I have never been to Los Angeles: from what I have heard over the years, it's a sprawling hellhole, a vacant fool's paradise of poverty, violence and decadence. It's where the sun sets on the civilised world, where Hollywood movie studios project their DayGlo realities on the rest of the city, while the Beverly Hillbillies throw money at every problem.

That is why it was refreshing to see a more artistic portrayal of LA, one that escapes the studio, where the city is as much of a leading character as Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. It's a concept that director Michael Mann would revisit in 2004's Collateral, but I think he got it right first time.

The central conceit of Heat is simple: cops and robbers can have more in common with each other than with "normal" people. Al Pacino plays Vincent Hanna, a LAPD detective whose third marriage is on its last legs. After a non-stop stream of murder victims, everything else - and everyone else - appears inconsequential. Robert De Niro plays Neil McCauley, a criminal specialising in high-profile robberies: banks, armoured vehicles, and so on. He has a policy: "don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner."

The set pieces are spectacular, especially the opening armoured car robbery, an ambush at a deserted drive-in cinema, and the perfectly-executed robbery of a bank in downtown LA. The shootout that follows is scary in its realism: it looks and sounds more like downtown Beirut or Mogadishu than the typical Hollywood shootout.

Without giving too much away, the film has conflicting but thought-provoking stories about obsession, redemption, about what is too much or too little, about when to persevere and when to walk away - if you can. It's a tough yet subtle film, and some reviewers didn't quite get every subplot, such as the importance of Hanna's stepdaughter (Natalie Portman) as a symbol of what has gone wrong in the lives of everyone involved. As her mother says: "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. "

Lastly, I must mention the soundtrack; a mix of strange metal-orchestra original music by Elliot Goldenthal, and ambient and electronic work by the likes of Moby, Brian Eno, Terje Rypdal and Michael Brook.
( bnt what, me worry?, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 18:23, 4 replies)

huh?
wow that is the weirdest description of la I have ever read.
It's like any major city but you occasionally see a famous person.
Like London but with less squat raves and more beaches.

Lolz, a vacant fool's paradise? A sprawling hellhole? Most of la is upper middle class suburbia. With the ubiquitous ghettos that you get in any city.
(little fawn, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 18:59, closed)

-
the most realistic portrayal of los angeles that I've ever seen is Crash (2005 version)
(little fawn, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 19:00, closed)

well...
... that's how I hear it described by some, usually Brits. I thought Michael Mann's portrayals of LA are more artistic than realistic. I expect the reality is more prosaic than this, or Sunset Boulevard, Chinatown, or Bill Hicks' "Hell-A".

I mentioned Brian Eno was on the Heat soundtrack, yet he puts "Mr. Eno shall not be required to visit Los Angeles" on contracts for soundtrack work. 8-!
( bnt what, me worry?, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 23:43, closed)

Bank Fire fight
An ex-SAS soldier apparently advised the film makers on the Bank get-away fire fight scenes. It is how Special Forces teams would keep moving and firing, well keeping larger conventional forces pinned down so they can get away or extracted from trouble.

Which is why I think it looked so real. In my opinion that scene is still one of the best shoot-out scenes ever made.
(Marshall Law, Mon 21 Jul 2008, 0:42, closed)