ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 15, 1995 TAG: 9512150059
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
"Heat" is a long - really long - and intense crime drama that makes full use of an ultra-high-powered cast.
Writer-producer-director Michael Mann's story is nothing new. The similarity between cops and the crooks they chase is a standard theme of crime fiction. Its roots go back to the origins of the literature, but the story has seldom been told with such single-minded ferocity.
Neil McCauley (Robert DeNiro) is a thief who plans and executes ambitious heists with big payoffs. The opening stick-up is a wonderful set piece that's told with virtually no dialogue. Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) is the LAPD police detective who realizes that one gang is behind several crimes and decides to stop it by any means necessary.
Those two are at the center of a complex story involving dozens of other characters.
Gang member Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer) is following in McCauley's footsteps, though he's unable to stay so emotionally detached that he can walk away from anyone and anything "in 30 seconds flat," as McCauley puts it. Chris has a raft of personal problems including an unhappy wife, Charlene (Ashley Judd), and child. When it comes to relationships, Hanna is working on marriage number three to Justine (Diane Venora), a walking self-help book who worries about "closure" and can't deal with her teen-age daughter Lauren (Natalie Portman).
For his part, McCauley can barely manage to talk to Eady (Amy Brenneman), a bookstore clerk who notices his encyclopedic reading tastes.
Filling out the cast are Kevin Gage as Waingro, a psychotic murderer-stoolie; John Voight as Nate, McCauley's fence; Tom Sizemore as Cherrito, the other key member of the gang; and Mykelti Williamson, Wes Studi and Ted Levine as detectives on Hanna's team.
It would be almost impossible to put together a more talented cast of character actors, and this troupe does top-drawer work with serious material. It's that seriousness that sets "Heat" apart from most recent crime movies.
Perhaps in reaction to the technical trickiness of Quentin Tarentino's "Pulp Fiction," Mann takes a more straightforward narrative approach. And though this film is violent, the shootouts and confrontations are more naturalistic than John Woo's carefully choreographed ballistic ballets.
Mann's characters have depth and a degree of realism that's rare in Hollywood these days. In fact, "Heat" is closer in style and substance to Donald Westlake's icy Parker novels (written under the pseudonym Richard Stark) than to any recent crime films.
But where Westlake wrote short, tightly constructed caper tales, Mann takes almost three hours to tell his story. He gives his two stars all the room they need to flesh out their characters. Both deliver full-blown star turns with Pacino's loud, strutting bravado balancing DeNiro's tightly coiled, more introspective performance. At times, they almost verge on self-parody but the story is so strong and surprising, particularly in the final third, that they carry it off.
Like Michael Mann's other work, "Last of the Mohicans" and TV's "Miami Vice," the film has a highly polished look. In visual terms, it's always interesting. This time out, though, Mann has found some substance beneath that glossy surface. Yes, the characters are cold and violent; even the best of them are poor role models. But "Heat" is undeniably fascinating all the way through.
One of the year's best.
Heat *** 1/2
A Warner Bros. release playing at the Valley View 6. 172 min. Rated R for strong violence, language, sexual material.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Al Pacino plays a street-smart detective on the trail ofby CNBa cold-blooded thief in ``Heat.'' color.