Heat

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by Nick James

Type: Studies
Subject: One Film > Heat
Keywords: Michael Mann, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino
Publishing date: 2025 (June 12, 2025) (Upcoming)
Publisher: BFI Publishing
Collection: BFI Film Classics
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 112 pages
5 ¼ x 7 ½ inches (13.5 x 19 cm)

ISBN

978-1-83902-789-5

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Book Presentation:
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.

About the Author:
Nick James has written for The Guardian, The Observer, The London Review of Books and American Vogue, and was for a time TV Editor at London's City Limits magazine. He was editor of Sight and Sound for over twenty years.

See the publisher website: BFI Publishing

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