How ‘Heat’ perfectly captures the dynamism of Al Pacino
We most often relate the legendary and inimitable Al Pacino to characters of criminal enterprise, including his remarkable turns as Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Sonny Wortzik in Dog Day Afternoon and Carlito Brigante in Carlito’s Way. However, Pacino is versatile in that he also plays characters on the other side of the law.
The New York City-born star famously played the NYPD detective Frank Serpico in Sidney Lumet’s 1973 biographical crime drama, and two decades later, Pacino again returned to the right side of justice in Oliver Stone’s Heat, once again proving his ability to portray characters with genuine intensity regardless of their history or background.
Heat is a truly legendary crime film with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro finally starring on screen alongside one another with the likes of Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight and Danny Trejo in supporting roles. The film focuses on the intense relationship between Pacino’s LAPD detective, Lieutenant Vincent Hanna, and De Niro’s career criminal, Neil McCauley.
The scenes between the two legendary actors are absolutely scintillating, years after their first collaboration on The Godfather Part II, which featured no moments with them actually together, seeing as their storylines took place in different eras. Heat, though, is a truly memorable movie in that respect and a scene in which the cop and criminal sit down together in a diner and wax lyrical about life will live long in the history of cinema.
With Pacino in the role of Hanna, he delivers an acting masterclass, showing his trademark dynamism and intensity. Gravelly voiced with a gaze that goes on for lines, Hanna is determined to put his suspect into the arms of justice and will go to remarkable lengths in order to catch McCauley in the act. This kind of urgency is all down to Pacino’s sheer brilliance and the type of chemistry he’s capable of generating with his co-stars.
However, Heat is far more than just a standard crime drama. It’s a film that explores the impact that a life of crime, or chasing it down, can have on one’s personal and professional relationships. In that light, Pacino again shows his versatility and dynamism. He’s not just expected to run and shoot and shout but dive into the nuances of his failing marriage as a result of his relentless pursuit of his foe, McCauley.
There’s a humanity to Hanna that arises through Pacino’s portrayal, and it’s this psychological and emotional understanding that simultaneously compliments and contrasts with McCauley, whose cool attitude is diametrically opposed to Hanna’s intensity. The cracks eventually begin to show in Hanna as he throws himself further and further into his work, and Pacino shows enough chinks in the armour to reveal his deepest vulnerabilities.
The man is practically on the verge of breakdown come the end of the film as a life of police work certainly looks to have taken its toll, proving the physical qualities of Pacino as an actor as well as the emotional ones. As the stakes of the film grow in complexity, Hanna descends into obsessive madness, made all the more infuriating by McCauley’s affectless suaveness.
There are many Al Pacino movies that deserve acclaim and rightfully have achieved it. However, it’s Oliver Stone’s Heat that showed that even some decades into his career, Pacino was still capable of delivering a nuanced and magnetic performance that dives into the emotional complexities of a character. Heat is far more than just a crime film; it’s genuine drama, and with Pacino in the lead role alongside De Niro, it’s easy to see why the film is considered one of the best movies of the 1990s.
Check out a scene between Pacino and De Niro below.
