Saturday, September 7, 5:00 p.m. | A story of two men and their distinct yet fascinatingly parallel lives, families, comrades and personal compulsions, Michael Mann’s 1995 revelatory thriller HEAT is a work of lasting power. Set in a Los Angeles crackling with tension, it centers on a ferociously driven police detective (Al Pacino) and his equally hard-charging, enigmatic doppelganger, a master thief (Robert De Niro). David Bordwell called Mann’s film an “enduring modern classic,” observing that it blends two crime plots, “the heist film and the police procedural.” Like other Mann films, HEAT is about work and specifically the struggle between work and love. And while both its two stars and dynamic action scenes wow you, so does Mann’s lush romanticism. Pacino’s cop and De Niro’s thief are hurtling toward an inevitable confrontation. Yet partly what distinguishes these characters are their respective romantic partners (Diane Venora and Amy Brenneman), women who offer them another path forward – if only they would take it. (Manohla Dargis, chief film critic for The New York Times)

Awards & Nominations

Nominee - Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Diane Venora), Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Chicago Film Critics Association Awards

Remembering David Bordwell: David Bordwell (1947–2024), a beloved film scholar, passed away earlier this year at the age of 76. Bordwell’s impact and legacy is widespread: film curators and critics, cinephiles and casual viewers have been shaped, educated, and invigorated by Bordwell’s perspectives. With this series, we invited friends and colleagues of Bordwell’s to select a film that was special to him, in the hopes that, through these titles, we can pay tribute to his enthusiasm for cinema through our own. Read more

The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu