
Having developed his skill as a master of contemporary crime drama writer-director Michael Mann displayed every aspect of that mastery in Heat an intelligent character-driven thriller from 1995 which also marked the first onscreen pairing of Robert De Niro & Al Pacino The two great actors had played father & son in the separate time periods of The Godfather Part II but this was the first film in which the pair appeared together & although their only scene together is brief it&s the riveting fulcrum of this high-tech cops-&-robbers scenario De Niro plays a master thief with highly skilled partners (Val Kilmer & Tom Sizemore) whose latest heist draws the attention of Pacino playing a seasoned Los Angeles detective whose investigation reveals that cop & criminal lead similar lives Both are so devoted to their professions that their personal lives are a disaster Pacino&s with a wife (Diane Venora) who cheats to avoid the reality of their desolate marriage; De Niro pays the price for a life with no outside connections; & Kilmer&s wife (Ashley Judd) has all but given up hope that her husband will quit his criminal career These are men obsessed & as De Niro & Pacino know they&ll both do whatever&s necessary to bring the other down