Elliot Goldenthal: "Hand In Hand"

Heat: one of the most snubbed masterpieces of modern cinema that can only fail to impress the deeply vain or impatient. Script, cinematography, cast, merchandising…you name it, Heat accomplished it in style. With De Niro as the grey-suited samurai recidivist and Pacino as the cop who’d cross oceans to stop him, the formula was a strong one from the start—less a case of cat and mouse and more a study of shark versus octopus. In the hands of visionary storyteller Michael Mann the resulting mural excelled technically too, with the director’s trademark blue-hued photography and SAS-choreographed gunfights showing us the lethal duality of life in LA. Rarely have so many far-flung elements tessellated to illustrate man’s addiction to pursuit so perfectly.

The soundtrack to Heat can be seen as the deck of the overall project, with the then up-and-coming composer Elliot Goldenthal selected to contribute original material as well as provide ideas for other artists to work off. Goldenthal, who received something of a bum start in Hollywood thanks to the mauling of Alien 3, contributed an obtuse and striking score to the movie, recently leaked for all to enjoy in its expanded bootleg glory.

“Hand In Hand” was one of several takes salvaged from the cutting room floor, designed to air over the cathartic finale but rejected acrimoniously by Mann in favour of Moby’s “God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters.” It’s easy to spot the synchronicities in the two movements, and while it’s a push to imagine a more fitting accompaniment to the landing lights and tarmac than the bald programmer’s signature symphony, you can’t help but imagine what might have been had the producers gone with their first choice. Goldenthal’s suite ploughs a more brassy, gothic furrow than its eventual replacement, defiantly scaling the noirish cityscapes that Mann used as the stage for his duel. Pained strings crest around bars of hopeful horns, rich in lashings of dark pomp and every bit as poignant as the mood of the scene they were formed for. Maybe one day _Heat_’s popularity will climb to the point where an Assembly Cut of the film can be passed, but until then, you’ll need a copy of iMovie and a voluminous hard disk if you want to see how the film could’ve ended. As Righteous Kill sees its two leading actors get panned for becoming their own characateurs, it’s nice to remember that, not so long ago, Pacino and De Niro’s collective chops helped build one of the most auspicious legacies in contemporary film, and one whose soundtrack is infinitely more prophetic than being tarred with the “OST” brush.