Two acting giants meet for the first time: Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino bring Michael Mann together on the screen in this neo-noir thriller - the first duel is talking, the second is shooting. "Heat" is one of the most important films of the 20th century, but it wasn't even nominated for an Oscar in 1995. The story is actually quite simple: a cop is chasing a gangster, but when the two look at each other, they are looking in a mirror image. In his almost three-hour film, Michael Mann shows a Los Angeles as we have never seen it before: this merciless city shimmers gray-blue and is characterized by total individualization. "Heat" is first and foremost a film about loneliness in the modern age, halting and obsessed with something they cannot name, the protagonists move through the streets. Both De Niro and Pacino have long since lost sight of their goal, but it is too late to turn back. What else could they do? Watch sports on TV and prepare barbecue in the evening? The cop and the gangster are afraid of boredom and ordinariness, but they pay a high price for it. Michael Mann not only draws multi-layered figures within a complex web of economy and crime, but he also shows a masculinity that many current discourses do not even want to perceive.
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