Heat

by Nick James

Robert de Niro and Al Pacino have acted opposite each other only once, in Heat, Michael Mann's operatic 1995 heist thriller. De Niro is Neil McCauley, a skilled professional thief at the centre of a tight-knit criminal team; Pacino is Vincent Hanna, the haunted, driven cop determined to hunt him down. Boasting a series of meticulously orchestrated setpieces that underline Mann's sense of scale and architecture, Heat also presents a rhapsody to Los Angeles, as Hanna closes in on his prey.
For Nick James, the pleasures and virtues of Heat are mixed and complex. Its precise compositions and minimalist style are entangled with a particular kind of extravagant bombast. And while its vision of male teamwork is richly compelling it comes close to glorifying machismo. But these complexities only add to the interest of this hugely ambitious and accomplished film, which confirmed Mann's place in the front rank of American film-makers.
In his afterword to this new edition, published to coincide with the film's 30th anniversary, Nick James reflects upon its lasting impact and on Michael Mann's subsequent film-making career.

Genres: Film

144 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 12, 2025

About the author

Editor and Illustrator

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Provides a small amount of historical context for Mann's career up to and around Heat, but the critical analysis is paltry, surface, written in an ostentatious style like a grandstanding college sophomore's. The arguments read more like a defense of the choice to write a book about Heat, than a book about Heat.

[Michael Samerdyke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book does what a book about a movie should do -- make you want to see the movie again.

"Heat" is the only Michael Mann movie I really like. Nick James clearly likes Mann's films more than I do (but we both agree that "The Keep" is a dud), but he is not obnoxious about it.

This book provides a close reading of "Heat" and interesting points of comparison with "L. A. Takedown," a made-for-TV movie Mann made in the Eighties based on the same script.

[Gavin Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

“You see, for me… the action is the juice”

A very fun and interesting read about a great movie I love by someone who loves it more than I do. I wish it was a little more detailed, and I wish it was just longer, but what can you say that hasn’t been said about Mann’s 1995 epic?

[Trevor · Rating 3 out of 5]

An in-depth analysis of what makes Heat noteworthy. There was perhaps a bit too much summarization of the plot, in my opinion.