You looking to become a penologist?

Once Mann’s interest awakened, he spent 20 years researching Chicago’s criminal underworld: specifically, studying the lives these people lived - their origins, codes of conduct, and the consequences of their actions. This gave birth to a script which began as LA Takedown (1989).

Initially devised as a TV series, LA Takedown was a pilot containing some of the characters and set pieces of the later film, but minus the complexity and deeper meaning. Post release of the pilot, it would be 6 years before Mann took another shot at it. In those intervening years, he continued researching and refining, working with the likes of Charles Adamson, Denis Farina (former Chicago cop turned actor) and Eddie Bunker (former criminal who was the basis for Jon Voight’s character Nate). The sheer scale of the research created a tapestry of deeply structured characters, the likes of which had never been seen before on film.

Heat was a film over 20 years in the making, by a thoughtful and meticulous director. This would not be a simple genre flick about cops and criminals.

Heat had something to say.

Looking at the poster above, the film could be mistaken for a glossy thriller populated by rough and ready action men; however this couldn’t be further from the truth. Heat was one of the first films of the genre to show a fully rounded cast of characters, with neither side completely good or bad. In fact, there are a elements within the film which show the contradictory nature of both sides – cops blackmailing civilians, criminals showing kindness, ‘weak’ women showing strength, and ‘strong’ men showing vulnerability. As an extension of the previous point, Heat recreates the Adamson - Macauley real-life conversation almost word for word, resulting in a deep meditation on what it is to be a man in the modern world.

Like the best films with something to say, Heat doesn’t preach or force a perspective on its audience, instead it presents a moral dilemma and invites reflection. The audience takes from it what it brings, and like the very best films, it rewards repeated viewings.

The duality of Heat extends into its categorization. There’s not enough action for it to be an action movie, and there’s not enough crime for it to be a crime thriller. However, what it does contain is a cast of characters who are fully realized: each with a function, reasons for their behavior, and in turn, consequences to their actions.

Much like Adamson’s real-life meeting, Colville’s Pacific, and the view from Macauley’s condominium, Heat is vast, complex, alluring and haunting.

It’s time to understand why.