A group of professional bank robbers start to feel the heat
from police when they unknowingly leave a clue at their latest heist.
Director: Michael Mann
Writer: Michael Mann
Stars: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer
Storyline
Hunters and their prey--Neil and his professional criminal
crew hunt to score big money targets (banks, vaults, armored cars) and are, in
turn, hunted by Lt. Vincent Hanna and his team of cops in the Robbery/Homicide
police division. A botched job puts Hanna onto their trail while they regroup
and try to put together one last big 'retirement' score. Neil and Vincent are
similar in many ways, including their troubled personal lives. At a crucial
moment in his life, Neil disobeys the dictum taught to him long ago by his
criminal mentor--'Never have anything in your life that you can't walk out on
in thirty seconds flat, if you spot the heat coming around the corner'--as he
falls in love. Thus the stage is set for the suspenseful ending.
User Reviews
Micheal Manns'(director of 'The Insider', and 'Manhunter')
smooth, straightforward direction is studded with brilliant and very memorable
cinematic gems in 'Heat', A bullet riddled drama with, yes , Al Pacino and
Robert De Niro in their first on screen meeting.
What do you want to hear about 'Heat'. Is it DeNiro's best
performance? No. Is it Pacino's best performance? I'd be lying if I said it
was. Do the performances improve the story? Absolutely. Mann has written (he
wrote it as well) a complex and exciting two-sided story that develops the
hunter Vincent Hanna (Pacino) and the hunted Neil McCauley (De Niro) separately
throughout much of the film. Underneath a hail of bullets Mann is able to paint
both lead characters with the same brush by delving into the similarly tragic
and chaotic personal lives of Hanna and McCauley, allowing for the final epic
scene, which would have been too pretentious if it were not for the excellent
performances of Pacino and De Niro.