The spirit of crime action inherited from “The Town” and the masterpiece “Heat”

' Heat' love grows so much that the movie itself appears in the main story

By the way, there are other parts of ``The Town'' where Ben Affleck's love for `` Heat '' overflows. In the theatrical version, Jeremy Renner is shown casually watching the movie on TV, and in the "extended version" of the DVD, there is an additional scene in which Ben Affleck is casually watching Heat on TV. It's being done. Here, too, you can see Affleck's typical "Those who understand will understand, right?" look.

“Heat” preview

Also, the home of the FBI agent played by Jon Hamm in "The Town" is "empty" with almost nothing inside (this scene was created using advice from J.J. Abrams). (That's right), but interestingly, a similar ``empty room'' appears in ``Heat.'' This is the home of Neil, the boss of a group of robbers played by De Niro.

This is an accurate representation of Neil's life, whose motto is ``Always be prepared to jump high within 30 seconds,'' and at the first glance, the audience can feel ``inside his heart.'' ” can be known. When he meets a woman, a faint feeling grows in his empty life, and before he knows it, he longs to live together "somewhere but here ." It's the same journey that Ben Affleck and Rebecca Hall take in ''

The meaning of the empty room and the waterfront

There's another thing worth noting about De Niro's empty home in Heat . It has a truly unique structure with the seashore right next to it. This feels somewhat similar to ``The Town,'' which depicts life on the same waterfront (Charles River).

As I touched on in the Mystic River section, waterside locations can have various meanings as ``boundaries''. And in the end, the endings for De Niro and Affleck, the two who played criminals, are starkly contrasting. The former is unable to cross the water's edge and is killed by a bullet, while the latter crosses it and departs from the city. Or perhaps De Niro died and crossed over to the other side, and Affleck never crossed over.

Am I the only one who thinks that director Affleck decided to have his character take a different path from ``Heat'' at the very end? The main character's destination is the coast. It's by the water again. Although they survived, the hardships will continue. He will no doubt continue to spend his life crossing rivers, or being blocked from reaching them. This image also echoes that of Ben Affleck as a director who has been released from his love and admiration for ``Heat'' and other masterpieces and is now moving on to the next stage. Indeed, it was from this waterside location that he began his journey to the top of the film world with `` Argo .''

Text: USHIZU ATSUNOBU

Born in Nagasaki in 1977. When he was 3 years old, he saw ``Superman II'' with his father and became fascinated with movies. After The Graduate from Meiji University, he worked for a movie broadcasting channel and then became a movie writer. Currently, in addition to writing for Eiga.com, EYESCREAM, Real Sound Movie Club, etc., he also contributes to media press and theater programs.

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"The Town"

<Extended version> Blu-ray ¥2,381 + tax / DVD ¥1,429 + tax

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