I would listen very carefully to anyone claiming "Heat" is better, or
much better, than "Miami Vice". "Heat" and most of Mann's other films
have far better character development, that is true. Is character
development a necessary condition for a movie to be good? I don't
think so.

The films are shown with intermissions in Turkey (The first time I've
seen the film was a press screening: there were no intermissions). The
second time I've seen it with my father and the third time with a
friend. On both cases they were disappointed during the intermission
that comes just after Sonny and Isabella have sex and fall in love. I
couldn't stop myself from telling them that the movie is building
towards something and that the "real thing is only beginning". I don't
mean it literally, I think the whole film is great but the film is
primarily a love story, almost all of Mann's films are...

By the end of the credits, both my friend and my father were
overwhelmed by the film's power and its beauty. The ending is so
precise, there is so much attention to rhythm and the film is so well
built up to that point that every moment is very precious. I would
argue it's more profound than the meeting in "Heat".

Just look at the left-to-right pan, showing us the bed, where they had
their last sex. We didn't see "the action", there was no point in
showing that, we are so well involved with the characters, and what
they represent, etc. it's better left to our imagination. Kind of like
that great camera move on Hitchcock's "Vertigo" informing us that
Scottie saw Madeleine naked.

Also, the last shot is unbelievable, perhaps not on its own, but in
context. It's simply Sonny walking into the hospital where Ricardo's
girlfriend is. There is openness, a lack of conclusion, an unending.
It reminds me of the beginning in some ways.

By the way, I made two factual mistakes in my last post on "Miami
Vice": 1. The low-angle shot of Sonny comes AFTER the wide shot
looking at the ocean so in fact, the first time we see that image we
do not really know why we're looking at it. 2. There is no bike
passing by behind Sonny and Isabella in Cuba, there are people running.

Seems like nobody else in a_film_by has seen the film... It's not even
worth criticizing?

Yoel