HEAT

Comments to mentalblog.com: to faruq:

Tony Montana: Did you ever see Michael Mann's Heat? If you did, I think it would be a good springboard for tying up some issues that are floating around right now on the blog.
Tzemach Atlas: Deep Cover themes?
Tony Montana: Yeah, Deep Cover themes. But it gets more into the cop-criminal as alter egos of each other. It explains, to my thinking, the inevitable dehumanization of would-be moral leaders.
Tzemach Atlas: Why inevitable?
Tony Montana: It's inevitable because to catch the bad guys you have to enter their world. To survive there, you either have to be lechatchilah an insensitive jerk, or, farkert, hyper-sensitive. But then, you can't have a real life of your own. I believe this is why most cheder rebbes who can stay in the business for the long haul are shallow people. Michael Mann's Manhunter is also about how the one representing morality becomes inhuman, but there, the bad guy is already inhuman. In Heat, the "good" guy and the "bad" guy are both struggling to hang on to their humanity.
Tzemach Atlas: You often use the word "humanity". What does it mean for you?
Tony Montana: First let's explore the antithesis. Being inhuman is generally accepted to mean lacking compassion. Cruelty is considered inhuman. Thus, humanity means the ability to feel things deeply and to empathize with others. But it also means to be rational, to be a dreamer, and to seek out communication. Humanity is the ability to feel passionately about things you cannot see.
Tzemach Atlas: How does hyper-sensitive survive? You said that the machine will not accept human categorically. The hyper-sensitive can't change his essence, he can't become inhuman. He can only die.
Tony Montana: The hyper-sensitive cannot survive. Yeah, you're right. It's like how the Eibershter took Chanoch from the world alive, before he could die morally. When the sensitive man is insurmountably threatened with becoming inhuman, he finally just dies. A chosid once told the Tzemach Tzedek "I'm afraid (because of the responsibility) to be a melamed." The Rebbe answered, "Davka someone like you should be a melamed." It is only the hyper-sensitive person who can fight for humanity, but in the end, the battle zone strips him of his humanity. He is a korban.

Tzemach Atlas: I actually ordered the DVD last week and watched it tonight. Much has been written about this movie. I will only attempt a personal reflection. Technically the Heat is a very strong film. The musical score is superb. Almost most of the movie with the exception of the opening scene consists of night shots, perhaps reflecting thematically the dark side. I am amazed by the incredibly strong Shakespearian dialogue. The scene where DeNiro and Pacino sit by the coffee table is profound.

The premise of the movie is the juxtaposition of the mirror images of the cop and the criminal. Both desperate to salvage their dreams and loves yet both are slaves and junkies to the routines that drive their pursuits. Anyone who has crossed the line of creative heroics has sailed the waves of consuming addictions. Even when the redemptive freedom was close for DeNiro, he had to settle a score that ultimately brought his death. Every creative genius is in the end a junkie; for some the substances are the substitutes to dull the pain of living uncreatively but for all the gates to self realization are through surrender to the addictive passions. Here are the two men on the opposite sides of the good and evil and both are unable to curb the addictive settings of life for what they know to be happiness. This is the great trick of existence that doesn�t leave room for compromise of being true to yourself and being simply happy. I have struggled with this myself and I observed this in other people. I see this movie as a tale of man�s passions against the odds of love and family. This is what humanity is for me, a struggle not to surrender your passions to the custom duties that we have to pay to life and love.