Personal tidbits on Micheal Mann’s Heat

The time of writing is mid-August, 2023. One would consider it as late summer when the heat would wind down. Yet here in the city where miHoyo global headquarters is located, this year’s dog days have seemingly just begun. Taking advise from the formerly behind paywall Waypoint Plus podcast, I am fending off this renewed wave of summer heat by watching Micheal Mann’s Heat. Or maybe it’s just time to crack open that 2-disc blu-ray set branded “Director’s Definitive Edition” I got way back in 2019.

The Waypoint Plus episode on Heat certainly make the movie’s appeal to video game critics of different walks quite apparent. Its host Rob Zacny was working for outlet still quoted by Metacritc back then before Vice shut it down recently as the time of writing. Then there were already Nextlander’s Alex Navarro and free-lancing Dia Lacina. Of course, Randy Pitchford’s desire to make a Heat video game was mentioned, giving me flashback to his terrible presentation at Gamespot’s E3 2009 stage. The boss of Gearbox was supposed to promote the then new Boarderland, instead he just would not shut up about Heat even though he could not decide the genre yet.

As the title says, this is not a review. Just random thoughts popped into my mind written out after a recent viewing.

Old men and their long wars

My 18 years old self first watched Heat back in 2008, when pop culture could make a college freshman want to watch a 1995 movie. First there were Grand Theft Auto the Fourth and its bank robbery mission modeled directly after that particular Mann movie. Then Christopher Nolan listed Heat as the inspiration for his more city crime epic take on the usual Batman versus Joker tale. In between there was Hideo Kojima’s “swam song” Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of Patriots, where two old men waging war on each other not unlike Vincient (Al Pacino) and Neil (Robert De Niro) in Heat. 15 years after those, the year twenty twenty-three Common Era sure feels like a year of old men’s wars when it comes to American action cinema.

There are two aging action stars in Keanu Reeves and Tom Cruise, along with their collaborating directors for the last decade respectively in Chad Stahelski and Christopher McQuarrie. Both duos trying to bring their action heroes back on the saddle by having them literally on the saddle in the sand shooting people. Run time wise their collaborations for the year would have given the 170 minutes long Heat a run for its money, with John Wick Chapter 4 clocked in at 169 minutes and Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One at 164 minutes. Don’t mind the mere minutes long gaps, since John Wick 4 has an extended cut of toughly 180 minutes planned while Dead Reckoning has a “To be continued” dangling by its end promising yet another feature length globe-trotting adventure.

While Reeves and Cruise are both still in the raven-haired swashbuckler mold, in fact they were already older than Al Pacino and Rober De Niro back when Heat was filmed. Pacino was 55, the same age as Reeves when filming started for John Wick 4 though it was likely the latter celebrated his 56^th birthday before the filming wrapped up. De Niro was at the “tender” age of only 51 on the set of Heat despite Neil McCauley’s overall grey presentation in Heat. Then that daredevil Cruise can out-grandpa all 3, being already 57 when the long and troubled production of Dead Reckoning began in early 2020 and celebrating his 60th before all is said and done. Suppose that’s just the difference between high-octane action rides and Prestige film for the holiday season: the former would not show or focus on the milage of a dangerous career while the latter would be mostly about it.

A thief bidding farewell to his wife

It would be fair to say that Heat did not break any new ground in terms of story. For Micheal Mann himself this was already a second chance for doing a cops pursuing robbers in Los Angels story. As a heist movie, Heat simply went through the full circle of the genre. A full circle involving crime committing cool guys eating shit by the end, arrested, killed or maybe worse. A full circle that got ignored by action comedies like Once a Thief of the world, where dashing thieves can drive into the sunset with their loot as the credits roll.

Well, only “killed or maybe worse” in the case of Heat with all robbers gunned down except one got away heart-broken. The one got away is Chris Shiherlis played by Val Kilmer and there is a weird link to John Wick there. Keanu Reeves was cast in this role, though I do think Kilmer was the better choice since Reeves would not have acted well in that scene where Chris had to say good-bye to his wife. Still, it’s hard not see Chris Shiherlis here as a proto John Wick.

Scott Adkins, underrated action star and cast member of John Wick 4, started a video podcast series titled Art of Action in the last couple of years interviewing people working on action movies. The latest as the time of writing is a feature length one with Reeves himself. Whenever Adkins gets to talk about cinematic firefights, he would list the following 3 as milestones: John Woo flicks’ high style, Heat’s realism and John Wick’s “gun-fu”. Seeing Kilmer’s performance during the famous LA street shootout after 4 John Wick flicks sure makes one wonder if Reeves signed on to the Wick series simply because of the weapon training he could have received 2 full decades earlier. Though one can argue against Adkins’ statement by pointing to Linda Hamilton and Robert Patrick preparing for Terminator 2 way back when.

Shiherlis firing three bursts into the direction he needed to retreat to, then one burst opposite that and finally moving to a better cover is certainly tactics that makes sense. And Killmer’s reloading was so spot-on that it was shown to Marine recruits. Heat’s realism also came from the sound, since the echoes gunshot made in the street of LA or any other open space is hard to reproduce in the dubbing.

This realism also comes from the fact that even though this heist crew is seen as efficient without deadly violence, they would kill with the drop of a hat. According to Heat’s IMDB trivia, the total body count is 21 across several killers and scenes, making after bank hold up shootout more of a threat to public safety instead of a massacre. 21 is chap change compared to even 100 minutes long first John Wick’s still-in-the-two-digits body count. The under 10 minutes Red Circle shootout in the 2014 movie got 24 confirmed shot, 3 confirmed knifed, 1 implied knifed and one little shit named Victor killed with bare hands. High body count in relatively short time is the threshold between real and surreal here.

Ironically, the lack of blades in Heat does lead to some more disturbing results. Waingro in this movie got a side of a psycho-sexual serial killer, and his not using a knife can make things rather messier. Hell, if De Niro’s Neil had a knife and stab this psycho to death within the first act rather than not able to shoot him since there were patrol car around, this subplot can be cut out entirely, pun not intended.

A gift that keeps giving to the Chrises and one Donnie

Nope, not those 3 “stooges” of Marvel Cinematic Universe plus Pine. Just the aforementioned two writer-directors, Nolan and McQuarrie. One can pretty much say that those 2 had made heist movies under the disguise of spy thriller.

By the time Tenet came out, I think it’s fair to say that the twist of “man meeting his future self without knowing” is C Nolan’s shtick more than signature. One wonder casting another Robert to play another character named Neil is an homage to Heat. Well, using several different vehicles to box a mark in during Tenet’s Talin heist does look like something taken directly from Heat’s opening now I have watched both movies in the same week. As for McQuarrie, I think he fully embraced Mission Impossible’s heist movie nature by having 2 American spies in the mold of beat cops chasing Ethan Hunt’s dashing thief in Dead Reckoning.

But to have closer copy of Heat in these roaring twenties of ours, we must move our sight towards Chinese language cinema. Raging Fire is a 2021 copaganda summer block starring Donnie Yen. Yen is also credited as Action Director for this flick. Spoiler: a gang of ex-cop and ex-con Jokers along with their fence would be all be killed by the end of this one. The movie is directed by the late Benny Chan and released after his passing. The man did not have the habit of making sequels when he was still with us.

If you ever wonder how well would Heat’s storyline mix with material art action, stop wondering and just watch Raging Fire. Yen’s physical performance in John Wick 4 is actually bit disappointing to me with his usual more fanciful strike-based style, while in Raging Fire, he played a cop who throws down all the time. Well, I guess they just could not have he rehearse with Reeves like Common or Mark Dacascos.

Heat’s 170 minutes have been devoted to family lives of its cop and crooks, which is something none of its shorter copycats would ever do. Though Raging Fire managed to keep Heat’s focus on one single cop. Yen as Bang is only cop Raging Fire’s screentime shine light on, like how Heat’s murder-row of character actors were just there to pull the plot forward while Al Pacino as Vincent Hanna got a marriage and a step daughter to figure out. It’s not to say that the performance is not there especially compared to how one can only learn the nick or code names of cop through credits in Raging Fire.

Funny enough there is one thing the 2021 flick addressed better than Heat. Rob Zacny did wonder why weren’t Major Crime Unit members on suspense after that big shootout in LA street. In Raging Fire, Yen’s hero cop does come under the thumbs of Internal Affair afte some similar fiasco. Though the inquiry board gave him a stay of execution so the movie’s home stretch of action set piece can happen.

Bygone and remain

One could pretty much call Heat a reminder of bygone ears back in 1995. Its “no good deed goes unpunished” ending among heist flick of yesteryear and the fact it’s a remake of a Mann script already. Yet almost 3 decades later, certain features of its had since become product of bygone era.

In this digital age of post-producing blood and gunshot sounds, Heat’s terrifying echoes might never be repeated. And of course the final chase of Pacino after De Niro in an airport with gun has not been possible for more than 20 years now. Well watch it while you still got it I say. Or maybe the recent strikes can make things go full circles yet again.