The sound of Heat

Like far too many film dorks in this world, I've watched Heat dozens of times, and still thrill to the cops and robbers action, the extraordinary acting right across the ensemble, and the way Wes Studi blows the bloody door hinges off with his shotgun.

But it is also full of incredible noises, beyond that pulsating score, with some of the best sound design heard in modern films. The LA that Hanna and McCauley and all their crews inhabit is a dark one, even if the cold glare of daylight. It has streets and industrial areas full of treachery and danger, and you could feel it even with your eyes closed.

It's there in the buzz of a neon light as a camera pans over yet another violent crime scene, or the lazy flap of bunting that is coming down after truck has just smashed into another vehicle. And it's there in the ominous throb whenever McCauley is confronted or feels threatened, and the way it ebbs away when he realises Amy Brenneman really is just a nice person, who only wants to know what he picked up at the bookstore.

And as impressive as the big gun battle after the main robbery is - and it remains deeply impressive, all these years later, with vivid editing giving it a realistic intensity - it's the sounds of the shots booming around the modern skyscrapers that really lingers. It's not just the bangs, it's the endless echo.

Mann uses sound like no other action filmmaker in the world, and not just in Heat. Every sound in Thief is as efficient as James Caan's movements, the eerie silence of the frontier is broken by the booms of cannon in Last of the Mohicans, and the pings of high caliber bullets sparking off metallic gravel in Miami Vice's big gunfight. 

It's all so immersive, while remaining inherently cinematic, like the battle between chaos and efficiency seen throughout Mann's films. And even after watching Heat dozens of times, I'll still hear a new sound that I never noticed before, invisible in its perfection until you go listening for it.