Michael Mann’s movies are appraised by many critics and audiences alike as movies for men. It’s easy to understand why: His gangsters and crime fighters are gruff and self-important, dominating the screen with close-ups of their deathly serious expressions. Though his movies often feature compelling female characters, the typical Mann plot involves a man—or two, or three—hashing out some plan of action.
But these men are also compelled by love—and without the push and pull of romance, there would be no deeper story within many of his films. If many cinematic romances imagine how two people can overcome adversity through love, a Mann romance is more about how love itself can be the adversity. Were it not for their relationships, the highly skilled professionals in his movies might endlessly and easily rob every bank or catch every criminal.
No Mann film exemplifies this more than Heat, which was released 30 years ago, in 1995. By then, Mann had explored romantic tension in Thief and Manhunter, movies in which the protagonist’s love life helps shape their motivations and moves the plot forward.
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