Heat

Wednesday 29 July at 7.00pm (note early start)

Michael Mann | USA | 1995 | 170 mins | R16 violence & offensive language

Mann’s epic crime thriller and meticulous character study pits brilliant detective Al Pacino against methodical career criminal Robert De Niro in a high-stakes, high-casualty battle across Los Angeles.

“Michael Mann’s masterpiece is a three-hour crime epic, a love/hate letter the city of Los Angeles, a scathing Balzacian view of a society corrupt from top to bottom, and a vision of the universe as a space contested over by the fractious armies of crime and the law. Opening with a spectacular armoured-car robbery that degenerates into mass murder, Heat follows the consequences of the raid, the plans for its successor, the response of the police, led by detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) and the consequences of it all for wives, families, girlfriends and innocent bystanders. The cops and the crooks are both constituted like armies, with generals, ranks and special skills assigned—and doppelgangers in the opposing team. Mann is less interested in moral questions than in professionalism as a code worth adhering to, no matter which side of the law one finds oneself on. Mann’s equal sympathies for both sides are always evident.” – John Patterson, The Observer

“Michael Mann’s painstakingly detailed cat-and-mouse thriller, in which an LA cop (Al Pacino) obsessively strives to nail the leader (Robert De Niro) of a gang responsible for a deadly armed robbery, makes imaginative and psychologically expressive use of locations, decor and lighting. From a simple conversation between two men in a coffee-shop to an extraordinary expressionist finale at LAX airport, this is virtuoso fare.” – British Film Institute