Characters and their Tragic Flaws

I think you're mostly on the right track.

I would say that the theme is "connection", though.

McCauley and Hannah connect with each other, recognizing kindred spirits. They could be brothers in arms if they weren't mortal enemies. They respect each other. I don't think it's homoerotic, though.

McCauley and Hannah both struggle to connect to people. When McCauley reaches out, he finds Eady, and realises that his philosophy of "no attachments" isn't fulfilling. Hannah, meanwhile, struggles to connect with his romantic partner, pushing her away and making his life hellish. Tellingly, however, the most rewarding and valuable things Hannah does is in regards to Lauren, his step-daughter, who he always does the right thing for.

Chris and Charlene are having a hard time connecting with each other. They get a bittersweet ending, but that's not about them becoming more separated, but closer together. Distance? Sure, they're apart (for now), but Charlene's hand gesture indicates that she has gone from being willing to turn him in to being willing to give it another try.

Isolation is an important part of the film, but it's more about reaching out.

As for tragic flaws, well, those are applicable in tragedies, especially tragedies in the Greek tradition, but Heat isn't really a tragedy. It's a drama. So it's not about "Oedipus was brought down by his hubris!" but about people living their lives and trying to find each other amidst L.A. sprawl...

Tempted to call it homo-erotic? Are you for real? The movie definitely has isolation at its core for sure. But I wouldn't call any off it homo erotic. It's about family. And yeah, the pitfalls of crime and crime fighting. I love this movie, but every character deserves everything bad that happens to them in this movie. Thems the breaks.

All art is open to interpretation, but I've never regarded anything in this film as homoerotic. I think it's a very human thing to want to comfort someone in their final moments. I once saw an accident where one man cradled another man (total stranger) as he took his last breaths. After the ambulance left, the man walked back to his wife and said simply, He looked so scared.

I don't think Hanna grows from the experience. McCauley is just another in a long line of criminals that he's determined to stop. His job is his entire life. As he says in that great diner scene...I don't know how to do anything else.

I don't see it.

Vincent probably regressed and eventually fled his soon-to-be-ex-wife's ex-husband's deadtech, post-modernistic, bullshit house. His stepdaughter would be sent to a mental facility where she eventually converts to Buddhism and she migrates to Bali where she opens up a therapy resort for troubled rich kids.

It's not Dostoyevsky. ;-)

Thank you for the interesting observation and comments in the thread. I can certainly see where you're coming from, as there are scenes which, perhaps if taken at face value, can have certain erotic implications.

I believe the relationship between the Neil and Vincent is not so much homoerotic, but is rather homosocial, as the film explores not only how the McCauley and Hanna interact, but how the men in the film act (Neil with crooks; Vincent with cops). While I agree that the film's main theme revolves around isolation and loneliness, I feel Heat explores deeper themes as well, especially as they pertain to modernity (e.g., emphasis of postmodern architecture, Vincent cursing Justine's postmodern home).

"At the end, both Neil and Vincent are alone, less, I think, to showcase the “final showdown” to which the drama has been moving than to emphasise their alienation from domesticity and forms of male organisation alike" (Christopher Sharrett, 2007). The females in the film assume a peripheral role. They do not participate in the compulsions of the men and, upon scrutiny, hinder Vincent and Neil from fulfilling their roles more efficiently (Vincent having to constantly justify his work; Neil having to explain the detour before killing Waingro to Eady). The mutual respect between Vincent and Neil is an implicit acknowledgement of where they both stand, as men, in the grand scheme of the contemporary and vacuous world—disconnected and alone. The characters have, in one form or another, forsaken domesticity: Vincent and Justine, Neil and Eady, even Donald. The domestic scenes are shown as suffocating and tainted by the ills of the postmodern world.

And so the film, set in 1995, marking film's centenary, accentuates that the codes of conduct which govern Neil and Vincent are on the "verge of collapse" (e.g., Vincent remarking on his step-daughter's father's absence; Neil and Waingro). Waingro is the postmodern hero (e.g., Anton Chigurh), having a different set of mores that he follows, alien to Vincent and Neil (both respectively representing the traditional and non-traditional hero).

The culminating shoot-out and subsequent hand-holding is not an erotic moment, in the conventional sense, but is rather a mutual understanding between men who operate within a framework, having a codex. All of this now is juxtaposed with the secondary focus of the film (e.g., Waingro, an individual who does not operate under a set of rules; and the postmodern architecture/city sprawl—empty and spiritually unfulfilling).

Isolation and loneliness notwithstanding, Heat also functions well as a civilizational survey of an era of ideals violently becoming a shibboleth as the cultural shift takes root.

I've turned to ChatGPT for the answer on tragic flaws...

Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino):
Obsession: Hanna's tragic flaw is his obsession with catching criminals. While his dedication to his job as a detective is admirable, it leads to a lack of balance in his personal life, including strained relationships with his family. His obsession with catching Neil McCauley drives him to the brink and ultimately affects his mental and emotional well-being.

Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro):
Isolation: McCauley's tragic flaw is his inability to form meaningful connections with people. He leads a life of extreme professionalism and emotional detachment. This isolation keeps him from experiencing the kind of personal relationships and connections that could bring him happiness or a sense of fulfillment. It also ultimately leads to his downfall as he is unable to trust anyone, leading to his final confrontation with Hanna.

So Hanna's obsession isolates him. He can't hold down a marriage. When the call comes in for Neil at the hotel, he leaves his soon-to-be-ex-wife at the hospital. There's some push/pull in that relationship because when he's there, he's pretty great, but he's rarely present.

Neil's isolation is supposedly borne out of professional obligations. I think a lot of movies falsely romanticize criminals. Scott Rosenberg talked about this when researching the remake for Gone in 60 Seconds. He did the movie in part because he knew some guys in Boston who met every week to talk about cars. They had a passion for fine automobiles. Then he talked to thieves who had no romanticism. I've seen the same with professional card cheats. "This gets you the money." Their technique isn't even outstanding, but they're ballsy enough (and immoral enough) to do it. For McCauley, robbery is a means to an end.

I'm reminded of the old Internet joke, "Isn't it ironic pirates travel shore to shore looking for buried treasure when the REAL treasure was in the friendships they forged?"