RICHARD LUTZ is ripped from his mid summer torpor to check out tv’s best films this week
A good week for US crime noir- and a bit of movie history to boot.
Don’t miss the film where Pacino and de Niro share star billing for the only time ever.. Well, that’s the headline for Heat (Wed, Film4, 23.05) ). But, aside from that, it is also a very good modern crime thriller.
Pacino plays LA cop Vince Hanna (wasn’t that the name of a BBC political reporter?) who has to outwit mega crime genius Neil McCauley (de Niro) during a heist.
It is a stylish nighttime crime movie, filmed in 65 locations in the city without the use of a single sound stage. Does cop Pacino get his man? Does de Niro get away with the crime despite feeling the pressure…the heat..from the cops and ignoring a tip from his underworld mentor that if you feel the heat you should abandon everything in 30 seconds? And who is cooler, strides the night streets better: Pacino or de Niro?
Director Michael Mann knew he had no choice but to let both these New York Italian stars let it rip. The crucial scene is where de Niro and Pacino sit down in a nighttime diner- so reminiscent of Henry Hopper’s Nighthawks painting- to hash out a possible compromise. This is heat which is quintessentially cool. Mann realised that there should be no rehearsals and, no, not even a script for this emblematic scene. He just let it happen, let two fine actors rip.
Val Kilmer and Jon Voight lend weight in support. a 14 year old Natalie Portman offers a cameo as a teen. The film went on to win no awards which just goes to show how historic classic movies can be ignored by the gong givers.
A simple day later and the box offers up another superb west coast cop thriller. LA Confidential (Thur, ITV4, 22.00) came out in ’97, two years after the Pacino/de Niro bunfight. Director Curtis Hanson re created that noirish grubby sheen and the black and white genre burst into gaudy colour. It’s all packaged right. A great story about police brutality, rampant cop corruption, sleazy Hollywood murders and a sterling cast: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Bassinger, Danny Devito and James Cromwell.
The recreation of the 1950’s is spot on and through the eyes of straight cop Guy Pearce you can almost smell the sex, the violence and the evil poison within the LA police.
It is based on noir- king James Elroy’s own novel, re-worked by him for the screen.
Both films bring LA to you: LA heat, LA sleaze, LA stories.