Dish of the Day
Just some film musings of a more succinct, spontaneous and sometimes seditious nature:
Monday, August 12, 2024
Recently in our film related chat room (readers are welcome to join here), a member made a post asking What purpose did Natalie Portman serve in the movie Heat????…
Natalie Portman as Lauren in Heat (1995)
… which prompted a wide variety of responses, some of which were quite thought provoking, and included:
“To add another dimension to Al's [Al Pacino’s] character.”
“To show Al's wife isn't all that, to reflect he IS a good father figure and wanted what's best for his adopted family and that the daughter preferred him over her real dad, who was also a reflection of the other bad dads in that movie. So her character was quite important I must say.”
“I've said this all the time. She's a distraction in the movie for me. I'm not the biggest fan of Heat. It's okay just not what it's hyped up to be for me.”
“Natalie’s performance in Heat was subtle and it gave the film an emotional charge and she was the only kid in the movie. I wouldn’t touch any of her scenes. They had dramatic and interesting moments.”
“She trusted Vincent Hannah [Al Pacino’s character]. It was a cry for help and she chose him to rescue her, because that’s what men like Hannah do. No whining. No hesitation. No existential ambivalence: What is one life in a city of millions? Why is she more important than the baby in the microwave? Why is it always me? It’s as important as Hannah putting one in the face of ‘the action is the juice’ child kidnapping human shield wielding Slick.”
“For Al Pacino's character to help her, without any thought of reward, or reconciliation with his girlfriend. That made it firm that his character was the good guy.”
“She’s a representation of the innocence that Vince can’t rescue. Ties into the dream that he had where he sees all of the people dead who died in the crimes that he worked on. She’s just another example of Vinces inability to stop the tide of bad shit that Vince witnesses every day.”
“She anchored Pacinos character to humanity. She was without a doubt the only person that could snap him out of his daily routine. It’s very likely that after the events of the film he would still keep an eye on her even if things fell apart with his wife. Cause he still cares, but he wasn’t the person his wife wanted him to be.”
“To be another force pulling Vincent in different directions. Between trying to catch the crew of bank robbers to halfassingly trying to keep his marriage together to trying to be a father figure to a girl whose father is absent in every way. The fact that she went to his hotel room to attempt to kill herself is one of the many aspect that weighs on him.”
“Heat isn’t about the criminals or the caper. Its about the life and the damage it causes to those around them.”
“Nothing… that whole entire story arc added nothing to the movie.”
“To show Pacino's character's vulnerability, to show that he cared about her more than her own POS biological father. Just like how Pacino as Vincent tried to shield the mother from seeing her daughter the prostitute who was murdered by Waingro.”
“Nothing other than to justify the final scene. A poor choice for the movie and an even poorer choice for Natalie.”
And here, as you probably anticipated, is my response to the question raised:
Natalie Portman’s Lauren in 1995’s Heat, like the other integral supporting characters, contributes to a special type of victim and victimiser mosaic depicting desperate lives caught up in a maelstrom of criminal activity. Aside from what her character’s relationship with stepdad Lt. Vincent Hannah (played by Al Pacino) further illuminates regarding his thoughts and behaviour, her story is so terribly poignant without a trace of forced sentiment. In lesser hands, this film would have looked like a soap opera with all of its numerous secondary participants and situations examined, however, nothing remotely close to that happened with Michael Mann at the helm, utilising maximum assurance and stylistic efficiency. All of the threads merge thematically and seamlessly, culminating in deep intimate revelations amidst grand explosive spectacle.
(From left) Robert De Niro as Neil McCauley and Val Kilmer as Chris Shiherlis in Heat (1995)
(Some further thoughts on Heat can be read in my review here.)
All responses are not only welcomed but encouraged in the comments section below.
Hope to see you tomorrow.
A.G.