My friend and I recently joked that I like watching the movie Heat whenever I’m chilling out, and listen to lo-fi music while doing so. I don’t actually know if my friend has ever seen Heat, but I really liked this concept, and the next day, sat down to rewatch the movie with the goal of actually accomplishing this new way of viewing.
It was a blast. I didn’t listen to lo-fi music specifically. Due to the three hour runtime of Heat, I had to break it up into two musical accompaniments. The first half I listened through the Tron: Legacy soundtrack. A really good electronic, atmospheric soundtrack by Daft Punk that really fits the vibe and pacing of Heat. The soundtrack of Heat is a mixture of an original score by Elliot Goldenthal, which has a vast feeling, and kind of lonely, matching its’ main characters emotions and journeys in that respect, as well as a few songs by artists such as U2, Terje Rypdal, and Moby. Accompanying the later half of this movie, I decided to find a playlist of Moby’s instrumental work, which is similarly atmospheric and melancholic and a bit sad. I figured since the film itself already used some of Moby’s work, it would be a fitting choice.
What this change in viewing experience led to was a new way of focusing on the movie. Without the audio, lines of dialogue that I have memorized and wait for in anticipation were gone, as was the soundtrack that I had placed to certain scenes. The movie was opened up, and all of the sudden I began to watch the pace of the cuts and the shots. Moments of violence suddenly weren’t as intense, because they didn’t have the accompaniment of gunfire or gruesome stabbing sounds. The performances of the actors, how they showed emotion in their eyes or facial expressions helped me read the scene and figure out how characters were feeling in these moments. A personal favorite part of mine was the shootout, which without its rattling gunfire, was this vacuum-sealed series of moments of death. A man would get shot, and bleed out, wordlessly.
Overall I came away really impressed with how Michael Mann focused on the subjects of his movie, how he portrayed them with the shot selection. I was also really captivated by the actors, who portrayed these characters as real people. It didn’t feel like a wall of belief had been shattered when the dialogue was gone. It was almost like watching the movie through a window or across the street. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the story still came across.