One reason the new thriller Heat is in a class by itself is that it refuses to remain in any other. To say it is a mano-a-mano, cops-and-robbers movie is to more or less give away the entire plot. Yet it moves for over three hours like an epic saga, through gradual character development, intense relationships, and moments of psychedelic introspection. It is both more and less than an action movie; clearly it has something to say, though most viewers, and a few disgruntled magazine critics, seem to have given up trying to figure out what that is.

In the end, Heat proves to be an original ‘90s movie. It belongs to a revolutionary genre of entertainment along with such unlikely bedfellows as TV's Seinfeld and Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers. In a nutshell, it