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— Jeppe Kleijngeld
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Michael Mann’s Heat is mostly known for the pairing of screen legends Al Pacino and Robert De Niro (who were also together in The Godfather: Part II, but didn’t share a scene together).
As expected, they are sensational. Total dynamite. But the movie has much, much more to offer. The screenplay, to begin with, is a masterpiece full of rich characters, deep insights into the world of crime and intelligent storytelling.
At the core of the story is the parallel between the lives of two men on opposite sides of the law. Neil McCauley (De Niro) is a master criminal who and his highline crew take down one major score after another. Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Pacino) leads the Robbery-Homicide Division of the LAPD and obsessively hunts down thieves and killers.
Both men are pack leaders, admired and respected by their men for their superior skills and leadership abilities. They also both struggle with maintaining private lives as their chosen professions are all-consuming.
From the large number of memorable scenes, two stand out: McCauley’s and Hanna’s face-to-face in the coffeeshop, for the sheer acting power involved and the beautiful dialogues, ànd of course the massive shoot-out in the L.A. streets after the botched robbery.
Rather than dubbing in the gunshots, Mann had microphones carefully placed around the set so that the audio could be captured live. This added to the impact of the scene, because it sounds like no other gunfight before or after. Also, because you’ve become attached to the characters – both cops and robbers – it is an unbelievably tense scene. A truly heart pounding motherfucker if ever there was one.
And that is where Heat really separates itself from other crime flicks; it is surprisingly touching. Whether you watch Hanna comfort a woman whose daughter is just found murdered, or at the end in the final scene when he is holding the hand of a dying McCauley, you will truly feel that apart from a hyper cool crime movie, Heat also has a really big heart.
Quentin Tarantino’s sledgehammer arrival in cinemaland is a terrific crime thriller. The screenplay is the stuff of dreams with too many memorable dialogues and scenes to mention. And the non-linear storytelling is absolutely brilliant.
The video clerk turned filmmaker Tarantino managed to assemble an exceptional cast for his project: Harvey Keitel is solid as a rock, Steve Buscemi is funny as hell and Tim Roth is seriously convincing as the tormented Mr. Orange.
Then there are two actors portraying very realistic ánd very scary psychopaths: Michael Madsen as Mr. Blonde and Chris Penn as Nice Guy Eddie. The scene in which the terrible Mr. Blonde tortures a police officer is still extremely hard to stomach.
What is so special about Reservoir Dogs is that it is a very clever homage to heist films, but outclasses many of the films it pays homage to (while they are really good films).
At the same time, it has the impact of an extremely hard hitting horror film. Without a doubt, the most sensational debut ever in Hollywood. If it wasn’t for Michael Mann’s Heat, this would be the top heist film on the list.
Director: Brian De Palma Writers: David Mamet (screenplay), Oscar Fraley (book), Eliot Ness (book) Stars: Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Andy Garcia
In the 1970’s, Francis Ford Coppola reinvented the Gangster genre with his two brilliant The Godfather movies. In the 1990s, Martin Scorsese reinvented the genre again with his masterful GoodFellas and Casino. The 1980’s belonged to Brian De Palma who delivered two absolute classics to the gangster genre that decade: Scarface (1982) and The Untouchables (1987).
The Untouchables was originally a successful television series in the sixties in which treasury agent Elliot Ness took on Al Capone and other famous American criminals in the prohibition era. The villains in this show were always deliciously cast and over the top, while the G-men were pretty boring. De Palma prevented this by creating a memorable government team featuring strong performances by Kevin Costner, Andy Garcia, Charles Martin Smith and an Oscar winning Sean Connery. Still, De Niro steals the show as Al Capone. Typical of the actor, he really becomes the hot headed gangster in his performance.
The movie is set up as a typical cop versus robber story, with the gangsters being framed as pure evil in the beginning when they blow up a bar and kill a young girl in the process. De Palma takes mob violence to a next level here. The blood in The Untouchables is deep red and the amount of it spilled during several killings is shocking.
What makes this such a fantastic film is the many brilliantly executed sequences. Just one example is the suspenseful set piece at the train station in which Elliot Ness and Andy Garcia’s character try to apprehend Capone’s bookkeeper. Every shot is a little masterpiece in itself. This scene especially put De Palma in the same league as Hitchcock as an inventor of highly effective thrillers.
The epic score by Ennio Morricone and some pure poetry in the script by David Mamet ensure that this is the definitive film adaptation of the story of Al Capone and Elliot Ness.
Director: Sergio Leone Writers: Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, Enrico Medioli, Franco Arcalli, Franco Ferrini, Sergio Leone, Harry Grey (novel ‘The Hoods’) Stars: Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Treat Williams
After making some of the greatest westerns ever in the sixties, Italian maestro Sergio Leone takes on another genre that features outlaws: the gangster film. The nearly four hour lasting epic – told non-chronologically in three segments – tells the story of four Jewish ghetto youths who grow up in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and make it big during the prohibition era.
It is not a typical American gangster movie, but sits closer to a European art film. The crime and violence often take a backseat while Leone explores other themes, like masculine friendship, love, guilt, regret and betrayal.
The main character Noodles (De Niro) is also not the typical gangster protagonist. He’s not very successful in his trade for one thing. His best friend Max played by James Woods is more the business mind of the group. Noodles is more concerned with pursuing the woman of his dreams: Deborah. But when she’s about to leave New York to follow her dream to become an actress, he violently rapes her and destroys their long-lasting relationship.
Then, after betraying his own friends to save them, he goes into exile for 35 years only to discover he’s been duped by the people he loved the most. It’s an extremely melancholic story that lets you experience the passage of time like no other work of art.
This mood is helped greatly by one of Ennio Morricone’s most emotionally moving scores. Leone has a unique vision, and while some choices may put off viewers (what’s with this endlessly ringing phone and stirring in a coffee cup?), it is a stunning movie in terms of cinematography, rhythm and mise-en-scène.
The ambiguous ending in which Noodles visits an opium den to forget his misdeeds for a while, opens the door to a double reading of the story: did Noodles fabricate the entire sixties segment out of guilt?
Leone turned down the offer to direct The Godfather, in favor of working on this project. He devoted 10 years of his life to this movie, and sadly it was to be his final one. He died of a heart attack in 1989 at the age of 60.
Luckily, with Once Upon a Time in America, he did get to complete his Once Upon a Time Trilogy, which also includes Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Duck, You Sucker!(1971), a series of movies about American and Mexican mythology taking place in different eras.
Originally, the film was heavily edited by the US distributors without Leone’s involvement, which caused him a lot of pain. But when the original version of the film was released on home video in the US, it received the major critical acclaim it deserved as this is obviously a masterclass in filmmaking.
Welkom op Fragmenten uit het Schemerland, mijn persoonlijke website en content-verzameling. Je vindt hier veel artikelen over films en series in de FilmDungeon. Ook vind je op deze site mijn achtergrondverhaal, een selectie van mijn professionele werk, en een groeiende collectie blogs – fragmenten genaamd – over uiteenlopende onderwerpen. Veel leesplezier en bedankt voor het bezoeken van mijn blog!
