Michael Mann's Heat Is Tearing Through Netflix's Top 10, So It's Time To Revisit This Masterpiece
Recently I was speaking to a friend, who's a few years younger than me, about our favorite movies. And to my dismay, it transpired that he'd never heard of "Heat." Not just hadn't seen it, but never heard of it. And honestly, I felt like I had to sit him down and have a little Al Pacino and Robert De Niro-style heart-to-heart after he dropped that bombshell.
Unfortunately, this was one of those moments when I realized that I am, in fact, incredibly old and that 1995 actually wasn't just a few years ago. To be specific, it was almost 30 years ago — more than enough time for the film to be obscured beneath several layers of cinematic sediment.
This is why it's so great to see Michael Mann's excellent crime epic (though the director doesn't consider it a crime movie) in the Netflix top 10 these days. It seems "Heat" is commanding some attention in the streaming age, as it damn well should. It's the perfect excuse to make time and go back and watch it again. Or go and watch it for the first time immediately (I'm talking to you, Justin).
The movie hit Netflix on May 1st and has been sitting at number seven in the U.S. top 10 ever since, even managing to squeeze into the number 10 spot on the global list for the week of May 8 — May 14, 2023. There's a reason why this not-so-modern classic is drawing in viewers, and it goes way beyond meme-able Pacino line readings.
'Dimensionalizing everybody'
For those still unfamiliar with "Heat," the film tells the story of LAPD Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) who's on the trail of career thief Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro). Hanna gets closer and closer to tracking down McCauley and putting an end to his crew's heists once and for all, prompting them to plan one final job that will allow them to walk away from crime once and for all.
But as you might have guessed, things don't quite go to plan, with the cat and mouse game leading to some intense moments such as the legendary downtown L.A. shootout scene, and of course the peak Pacino moment where he yells, "great ass" in Hank Azaria's face.
Imagine finally getting Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, who were already Hollywood giants in 1995 but had never been co-stars, to finally star alongside one another. Then, imagine writing a script so layered, thoughtful, and downright compelling that it actually lived up to the hype of having these two mega-stars share the screen. Well, that's "Heat."
Michael Mann made the film with two ambitious goals in mind: to write a "contrapuntal film in which there are really only two protagonists" and to "dimensionalize everybody." That second goal gets to the heart of why "Heat" is more than a crime drama, more than an action film, and basically transcends genre altogether. The writer-director tried to explore the depths of every character in this film, especially the "bad guys." In fact, it was the so-called villains that Mann was particularly interested in.
An action-packed crime thriller about human beings
Before "Heat," among numerous other things, Michael Mann worked on two specific projects that informed much of the script for his 1995 masterpiece, and his approach to writing about criminality in general. The director spent time at Folsom State Prison when he was conducting research for 1978's "Straight Time" and again while filming 1979's "The Jericho Mile," telling Vulture how those experiences gave him a sense of how some convicts were surprisingly erudite and "stunningly literate."
It was the recognition of this counterintuitive fact that seems to have animated so much of Mann's approach to "Heat," and his general interest in the human beings behind labels such as "criminal" or "bad guy." In "Heat," McCauley and Hanna share several similarities and when they're not conducting heists or chasing leads, face major struggles in their personal lives. That extends beyond the two leads, with Mann entirely living up to his ambition to "dimensionalize everyone."
For me, this is the main reason "Heat" transcends your standard crime drama or heist movie, and why Mann is right about this being more than a genre film. The script is more interested in the nuances of the human experience than it is in the good guy vs bad guy formula or big action set pieces — even though it manages to pull off those set pieces better than your standard action blockbuster.
"Heat" feels like a real insight into real people's lives, which always makes for the best kind of film. And if that's not enough to convince you, with news that "Heat 2" might actually be happening, you're going to want to catch up on the original anyway, and make sure you force your uninitiated friends to join you.