Virtual Feeling

Phenomenology and Virtual Feeling In Heat

Throughtout the film Heat, but specifically in the particular scene under analysis here, Heideggarian, hermeneutic phenomenology and the concepts of Dasein (paritcularly), being, and death are embodied in the characters and the words throughout the script. "Dasein is not isolated. Dasein's discovery of the world is simultaneous with the discovery of Others that are the same as himself yet distinctive. (109, Ferrara)" I do not know how this could be presented more clearly than in this diner scene in HEAT. They examine the structure of their own ontological worlds and eachother's ontological worlds. The concepts of being and time, right out off the title of Heideggers' major essay on phenomenology, are the core issues of the scene. Clarity as to the nature of each characters' being is the primary topic on the table. Pacino and Deniro's characters are searching through the entire film for their "Being or is-ness of man ...like searching for a foundation of (their) human existence. (104, Ferrara)" The conversation in the Diner is one that embodies the meaning of Dasein, that "man alone is the being that can pose the question of Being. (105, Ferrara)" In the diner Deniro and Pacino connect their "worlds" and become aware of eachother's "being." They become "in" or "with" eachothers "world." Yet at the same time, they never connect beyond this sort of resonance of worlds. They remain the only being which can illuminate for themselves their own beingness. This duality is shown by the fact that they smile but not completely or at the end they remain firm but understanding. This unresolved yet resonant mood between the two also exemplifies the character of Dasein is always unfinished. They bring up death at the end of the conversation. As Heidegger says it should be treated, the two do not treat death as something to fear but acknowledge the anxiety of the nothing and at the same time that they are aware that they are always on the path to this completion (especially in their line of work). They acknowledge understandingly with their partial smiles at the end of the scene the "future as coming towards (112,Ferrara). In the last scene of the entire film, death becomes the resolution which Heidegger speaks of. Deniro's death exemplifies the "completion" of Dasein where Deniro's being has coincided with his Dasein and his inauthenticity evaporates like the cold breathe coming from his mouth: