Michael Mann’s crime epic, Heat, is declared as one of the best heist films ever. Utilizing the chemistry between two superstars from the genre and containing one of the greatest shootouts in cinema history, Heat’s résumé definitely has all the right stuff for being an essential Blu-ray to own, but as with the recent Michael Mann film “Public Enemies” sometimes a poor sound mix or poor video quality might make the disc unworthy of a Blu-ray purchase. How does Heat stack up?
Film 
Michael Mann has always been a household name in the action genre; the man simply knows how to film high octane action scenes that get your heart racing. However, there’s a great writer within that action-packed mindset that provides with an interesting film experience.
With well-rounded characters, great archetypical journeys that they’re set forth on and accurate dialogue between them; we get this double edged sword. His films aren’t mindless action films, they’re movies with depth… And it started with Heat.
Originally Mann had been trying to make this film for quite some time and as it seems in Hollywood, the stories that take longer to be told are usually the ones that will strike the right chords (See Inglourious Basterds). Mann originally tried to make a condensed version of his idea for Heat into a made-for-TV film in 1989 called L.A. Takedown, due to the fact his previous attempts to get Heat made were unsuccessful.
Thankfully he tried again in 1995.
Heat seems like one of those ensemble pieces with multiple storylines, which it kind of is, but it doesn’t fall victim to the downfalls of having tangent scenes that lead nowhere and filler that drags the story on. Every path the film takes us on is clear and distinct and you never fall by the wayside trying to keep up with the story.
The acting in the film is great, sure Pacino plays a hot head as well as he always has, but it’s the performances that may seemed underplayed at first that really hold their place through time as the movie comes towards its 15 year anniversary. The role I’ve always loved was Dennis Haysbert (The Unit, 24, All State Commercials) playing Donald Breeden, a recently released inmate who’s now working at soul-crushing fast food joint for a mean boss.
At the time the film was big due to the fact that Pacino and De Niro were sharing the screen for the first time since Godfather 2 (although they were never in the same scene), however now that time has passed and Righteous Kill has plagued theatres, I believe that it’s not that big of a deal anymore. Besides that, this film hasn’t lost any of it’s great qualities and still holds up as one of the best action films of our time.
If you haven’t seen it, rent it.
Video
Heat‘s presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.4:1 and uses the 1080p/VC-1. Michael Mann is often known for his unique looks in films, such as very extreme color grading and his very grainy shots (mostly due to his use of both low-end film cameras and digital cameras that aren’t as great in low-light).
Although Heat does have that grainy look, it doesn’t distract from the film, it gives it that gritty feel that really actually adds to the film. The Blu-ray transfer in general does make the grain more noticeable, but it also makes the picture a lot clearer in general.
Details are sharp, the colours come through truly and any quick camera movements are very smooth, which is important with such fast paced cinematography.
Audio 
Heat‘s audio comes at us in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround Sound in English and uses Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround for French, German, Spanish and Portuguese. There’s also subtitles for the aforementioned languages as well as Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Finnish.
Heat has often been noted as having an amazing audio mix, Michael Mann in particular knows his way around great foley and mixing. Every explosion, every gunshot, every screeching tire and every clink of a spent shell hitting concrete comes through so clearly that it really makes up for Mann’s mixing screw-ups in Public Enemies… This mix proves that he knows his way around an action movie’s audio.
With early DVD releases of the film, most notably the snap-case bare bones edition from many moons ago, the dialogue quieter than the rest of the mix, which made it hard to listen to, you were constantly turning the film up and down and if you forgot you either missed some dialogue or perforated an ear drum when a gunshot surprises you. I was happy to see that they fixed the mix with the Two-disc special edition DVD so to those who may be looking at whether or not to replace their old copy of heat, the audio is worth the price alone.
Special Features 
I doubled checked and all of the special features of the Blu-ray version of heat match the recently released two-disc special edition that came out on DVD a while ago. Regardless this is still a step-up from the barebones snap-case version, which I’m almost positive was one of the first DVDs released.
Although there is a great selection of special features, none of them are HD, which makes my rating a little lower. However the features available are still a great watch.
They include 3 “Making-of” featurettes which cover everything from real-life criminals who inspired the movie to all the great locations in L.A. that were used for the film. There’s also a great featurette discussing Pacino and DeNiro’s characters and performances, which is simply called “The Conversation”, which refers to the classic scene where the two are face-to-face for the first time in the film. There are also a slew of deleted scenes and theatrical trailers to round out the selections.
This is definitely one of the better selections of special features I’ve seen and if only it was in HD, then it would get a higher rating.
Final Thoughts
Heat definitely gets a respectable Blu-ray release and even though the special features are nothing new, the sound mix and picture quality really makes up for that. If you have yet to buy Heat or own the original DVD release, I strongly suggest picking up the Blu-ray for the sound mix alone.
A great film and a great Blu-ray overall!
