Aesthetic Deconstruction: Color and Character Contrast

It is interesting to note Michael Mann's use of color and visuals in the film, which serve to enhance the primary theme of loneliness set against the backdrop of a densely populated Los Angeles. While Neil and Vincent are on opposite sides of the law, there is a discernible aesthetic prevalent throughout the film: Neil, while representing the villain, is always shown wearing a white shirt. This is symbolic of his attempts to blend in with the everyday world. Vincent the good cop, by contrast, is always wearing a black shirt, illustrating how often he interacts with criminals in the underworld.

Both characters in the film are shown during formal dinner scenes alongside their respective team. Just as Neil and his crew attend a dinner at a restaurant, so too does Vincent and his crew. In both scenes we see that Neil and Vincent, despite differing circumstances, are lonely. As Neil glances around the room to see everyone with their wives or girlfriends, he is ultimately all by himself. By contrast, as Vincent is alone with Justine, despite being together, he is just as isolated. While the dinner scene with Vincent is shown in a high-rise, Neil's is on street level, highlighting the oft used motif of evil lurking down in the streets.

Mann's use of color is important to consider. The excessive use of blue correlates strongly with the theme of loneliness and isolation. The early scene of Neil's home is saturated in blue, reifying this idea. This is further evidenced by his postmodern home and minimalist furniture. In the postmodern landscape, the object serves as a reflection of the subject; Neil's home—symbolically mirroring his inner state—is empty, "suggesting the emotional bankruptcy of bourgeois life in the post-industrial moment" (Christopher Sharrett, 2007). Similarly, Vincent's home has nothing that attaches him, save for a portable television. Vincent's police station extends this postmodern architecture, with an office that is more reminiscent of a prison with its "concrete and grey slabs" (Craig Ashley Russell, 2015) than any conventional office.

Another interesting color juxtaposition occurs toward the end of the film: As Neil is driving toward freedom with Eady, he enters the tunnel, submerged in a white light. The intensity here suggests themes of redemption and tranquility; yet, as soon as he exits the tunnel, he unduly decides to make a detour to take care of Waingro. As this decision leaves him once again on the run, we see Neil and Vincent, depictions of subjective shifts of focus, running toward an airport with intermittent bright white lighting from the airplanes taking off. The airplanes serve as dramatic intensifiers, as the audience views each one as Neil's hope for escape, and yet the longer Neil lingers, the more intense this feeling becomes. We see that just as Neil's hope for escape becomes bleak, so too does the audience's hope for a balanced resolution. In the final scene before the shoot-out, Neil's end comes set against the backdrop of white lights, mirroring the scene in the tunnel where his decision lead him to the film's denouement.

Heat's use of color and aesthetic conveys each character's internal struggles, accentuating its primary theme of isolation and loneliness, while never detracting from its lesser observed elements of homosociality, male domesticity, and the decaying capitalist project.