04-07-2011, 08:35 PM
I watched Michael Mann's Heat, with Pacino and DeNiro, last night for the fifth or sixth time.
It's a starkly beautiful film.
The movie is a cinematic tour de force and, technically, the ending is executed supremely well.
Emotionally, it's never worked for me.
I will discuss the ending in this post, so if you haven't seen the movie, you may want to stop reading.
One of Mann's visual motifs in both Manhunter and Heat is bright white light and deep enveloping shadow.
Burnt Out Light and Amorphous Dark.
Mann uses this palette sparingly but always metaphorically.
Whenever the screen near burns out - car gliding through a tunnel, characters shot against a white light window, characters bathed in white neon liight - or a rich darkness floods, permeates, the screen, then Mann intends a symbolic, psychological meaning.
At one level, the light is the Fantasy, the Other Life that they can have if they leave this one behind. DeNiro and Pacino both dream of this World. At times they stumble towards it.
But does either actually want to live there?
Or are the enveloping shadows their natural home, their habitat, the space in which they live - every waking second, every sleeping breath?
This symbolic visual motif dominates the end scenes.
Mann and DeNiro conduct their inevitable Dance of Death amongst the airport storage trailers. They toy, almost tease, each other, firing off shots that have no chance of killing.
Always floating in the deep black background are defocused light sources, reminiscent of the City of Lights that forms the backdrop for DeNiro's Dream of Escape with his graphic designer girlfriend, Eady.
But it's a fantasy. DeNiro doesn't know or truly love Eady.
He loves the pretty, vulnerable, face on which he imposes his fantasy of Another Life.
So, DeNiro and Pacino dance amongst the airport storage trailers. Waltz in the shadows. In their world. The natural home of both ruthless crook and obsessed homicide cop.
Suddenly, DeNiro is caught in the bright white light of a jet flying over. He could soar away, to his dream world, but he chooses to slide back into the shadows, back into the Dance of Death.
Next, Pacino is illuminated by a jet flying over. He's a sitting duck, betrayed by the light.
The weakness.
DeNiro steps into the illumination just far enough to make the kill. But Pacino sees the shifting shadow of his dance partner. He's still in his terrain - the shadows are his friends - and he fires.
A direct and fatal hit.
DeNro: "I told you I'm never going back.".
Then the dying DeNiro holds out his hand and Pacino clasps it.
Yet the ending has never worked for me.
Perhaps because it's too explicit.
Perphas the ending should be DeNiro's words, and Pacino's tortured face looking on. No clasping of hands. Leave that footage on the cutting room floor.
DeNiro speaks. Pacino watches.
Cut to black and crank up the music.
Like the ending of Bladerunner's Director's Cut - stark and harsh.
---------------------------
Psychologically, DeNiro and Pacino are only alive in the shadows.
Just before the final climax, Pacino carries third wife Justine's daughter to A&E after her bloody, suicidal, cry for help. For love.
Then, Pacino (Hanna) and Justine embrace, his police bleeper rings, and they have this exchange:
Then he turns and starts running down the white marble corridor...
It's a starkly beautiful film.
The movie is a cinematic tour de force and, technically, the ending is executed supremely well.
Emotionally, it's never worked for me.
I will discuss the ending in this post, so if you haven't seen the movie, you may want to stop reading.
One of Mann's visual motifs in both Manhunter and Heat is bright white light and deep enveloping shadow.
Burnt Out Light and Amorphous Dark.
Mann uses this palette sparingly but always metaphorically.
Whenever the screen near burns out - car gliding through a tunnel, characters shot against a white light window, characters bathed in white neon liight - or a rich darkness floods, permeates, the screen, then Mann intends a symbolic, psychological meaning.
At one level, the light is the Fantasy, the Other Life that they can have if they leave this one behind. DeNiro and Pacino both dream of this World. At times they stumble towards it.
But does either actually want to live there?
Or are the enveloping shadows their natural home, their habitat, the space in which they live - every waking second, every sleeping breath?
This symbolic visual motif dominates the end scenes.
Mann and DeNiro conduct their inevitable Dance of Death amongst the airport storage trailers. They toy, almost tease, each other, firing off shots that have no chance of killing.
Always floating in the deep black background are defocused light sources, reminiscent of the City of Lights that forms the backdrop for DeNiro's Dream of Escape with his graphic designer girlfriend, Eady.
But it's a fantasy. DeNiro doesn't know or truly love Eady.
He loves the pretty, vulnerable, face on which he imposes his fantasy of Another Life.
So, DeNiro and Pacino dance amongst the airport storage trailers. Waltz in the shadows. In their world. The natural home of both ruthless crook and obsessed homicide cop.
Suddenly, DeNiro is caught in the bright white light of a jet flying over. He could soar away, to his dream world, but he chooses to slide back into the shadows, back into the Dance of Death.
Next, Pacino is illuminated by a jet flying over. He's a sitting duck, betrayed by the light.
The weakness.
DeNiro steps into the illumination just far enough to make the kill. But Pacino sees the shifting shadow of his dance partner. He's still in his terrain - the shadows are his friends - and he fires.
A direct and fatal hit.
DeNro: "I told you I'm never going back.".
Then the dying DeNiro holds out his hand and Pacino clasps it.
Yet the ending has never worked for me.
Perhaps because it's too explicit.
Perphas the ending should be DeNiro's words, and Pacino's tortured face looking on. No clasping of hands. Leave that footage on the cutting room floor.
DeNiro speaks. Pacino watches.
Cut to black and crank up the music.
Like the ending of Bladerunner's Director's Cut - stark and harsh.
---------------------------
Psychologically, DeNiro and Pacino are only alive in the shadows.
Just before the final climax, Pacino carries third wife Justine's daughter to A&E after her bloody, suicidal, cry for help. For love.
Then, Pacino (Hanna) and Justine embrace, his police bleeper rings, and they have this exchange:
Quote:JUSTINE (really questioning) ...Will things change between us?
HANNA (beat) I don't know...
(beat) Probably not...
(beat) ...but I am reminded of how much I love you. But that may not be enough.
JUSTINE (kisses him) You have to go to work, don't you?
HANNA (touches her face) Yeah.
As he's rising.
JUSTINE Be careful, Vincent. Be very careful...
(beat) Let's keep on trying?
HANNA
walking backwards, facing her, nods "yes." The last thing
in the world he wants to do is leave. Then he turns and
starts running down the white marble corridor...
Then he turns and starts running down the white marble corridor...
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War."
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."
The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War."
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."
The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
