Heat

Year: 1995 Rating: R Overall Evaluation: 9.5 Significance Suppositions Story Style 10.0 / 10 9.0 / 10 9.0 / 10 10.0 / 10 Click HERE for evaluation criteria.

Style

Rated R for violence and language - none of it gratuitous in the sense that it is there for thrills and not realism. No nudity. Basically it does what it needs to to communicate the lifestyle of the various characters and is quite believable. Neither the good guys or the bad guys are unrealistically good or bad.

Story

This is a heist movie on the surface. A crew of top notch thieves are preparing for one last job while a cop on the edge (of course) follows close on their heels in an attempt to catch them in the act. OK, no surprises here. What is surprising is the depth the movie takes us to. It's three hours long so there is plenty of time for character arcs and subplots, of which there are plenty. We have the dedicated cop who is losing his family both emotionally and physically, more than one estranged wife, the brilliant thief who thinks he can make it on his own but longs for a relationship, various social ailments on both sides basically. These elements come out in a brilliant scene where the cop and the thief discuss them over coffee! In the end we are treated to the very realistic and poignant outcomes of all these intersecting storylines

Suppositions

The movie asks little of the audience as far as realism goes. It is a tad over the top dramatically, but that seems more for atmosphere. The difficulty with most heist movies is that they make you root for the bad guys - this one avoids that problem with a much more realistic view of the lifestyle - even of successful crooks.

Significance

What comes out in the myriad sub plots is much more significant than the main cops and robbers storyline. We see the lack of attention to a daughter lead to tragedy. We are shown the devastating results of a one-sided marriage. We get glimpses of the glamorous of a life of criminals which only covers up their social and psychological problems as their lives crumble under a veneer of success. We see the ravages of war that crime begets. All in all a very powerful set of messages that those who think it preferable to live life on the edge of society would do well to consider.