When Michael Mann’s “Heat” was released in 1995, it was immediately lauded as a masterpiece of the heist genre. The cat-and-mouse game between master thief Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) and manic detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) had a novelistic sweep, encompassing not only cops and robbers but also their families.
In the succeeding quarter-century, its reputation has only grown, with numerous crime films attempting to mimic its complex heists and novelistic sweep. But have any of those succeeded in matching the original? Let’s look at four that come pretty close.
“The Town” (2010)
“The Town,” Ben Affleck’s Boston-set crime epic, isn’t quite a beat-for-beat remake of “Heat,” but the echoes are glaringly obvious, starting with the meticulous robber (Affleck) whose carefully laid plans spin out of control thanks to the avarice and stupidity of the criminals around him. That’s in addition to the messy romantic connections, messier family drama, a dogged cop (Jon Hamm as FBI agent Adam Frawley), and a climactic robbery that spills into a street shoot-out with an army of police and FBI agents.
When it comes to borrowing elements from “Heat,” just about the only thing missing is a semi-friendly cup of coffee between cop and robber, but Affleck and Hamm nonetheless have a short tête-à-tête that gives the latter a chance at some Pacino-style scenery-chewing:
None of that should take away from the film’s technical accomplishments—it’s slickly shot and extremely well-paced, and you buy the relationships that power much of its drama. But the debt to Michael Mann shadows virtually every frame.
“The Dark Knight” (2008)
When he set out to write and direct a sequel to “Batman Begins,” Christopher Nolan was overt about Michael Mann’s influence on the project:
“I always felt ‘Heat’ to be a remarkable demonstration of how you can create a vast universe within one city and balance a very large number of characters and their emotional journeys in an effective manner.”
It’s easy to argue the resulting film, “The Dark Knight,” does more than borrow Michael Mann’s propulsive sense of story, or even visual aesthetic (although it does both, especially the latter); he also snips some story beats directly from “Heat,” especially the conceit of antagonists sitting down in a neutral spot to discuss their respective worldviews. Here’s that iconic scene from Mann’s film, which takes place in a diner:
There’s an equivalent scene between Batman (Christian Bale) and the Joker (Heath Ledger) in a Gotham City Police interrogation room, in which both characters (but mostly the Joker) talk through the practical and philosophical ramifications of what they do:
Mann’s influence is so outsized, in fact, that you can argue “The Dark Knight” is as much a crime flick as a superhero one—two men operating beyond the law’s outer fringes, working out their respective issues by tearing apart a gritty metropolis. Batman and the Joker just happen to do all that in costumes instead of nice suits.
“Den of Thieves” (2018)
While “The Town” has faced accusations over the years of parroting “Heat” too closely, it has nothing on “Den of Thieves,” which is virtually a remake. Both films open with an armored-truck robbery that descends into a bloodbath; both films feature a cold-blooded, fanatically driven robber facing off against a maverick cop with a collapsing marriage; both films have an elaborate robbery that transforms into a run-and-gun across greater Los Angeles, and climax with a one-on-one pursuit through a wasteland. Director Christian Gudegast lacks Mann’s icy meticulousness, but he definitely loves paying homage to Mann’s camerawork and electronica soundtrack.
That being said, “Den of Thieves” does offer some unique pleasures. Gerard Butler imbues the most cliché of hardboiled cops with a certain hungover nobility, and even a hint of sadness at moments; Pablo Schreiber, as the Marine-turned-robber, is a formidable presence. And the gunfights have a nice precision—you know everyone’s position amidst the chaos. A friend of mine once referred to this film as “Gym Bro ‘Heat’”… but is there anything actually wrong with that?
“Braqueurs” (“The Crew”) (2015)
Yanis, the central character of the French heist film “Braqueurs,” has a lot in common with Robert De Niro’s character in “Heat.” As portrayed by Sami Bouajila, he’s a cool and calculating professional thief who plans every robbery down to the last detail; he also keeps an extremely low profile in his professional life. But when the police begin tracing a gun used in one of his robberies, his careful existence splits apart at the seams, and his family is put at risk.
You could call the film “Gallic ‘Heat.’” It’s only missing a headstrong cop as a foil for Yanis. If you’re looking for a Mann homage in a different language, you could do far worse.
