10 Essential Robert De Niro Performances

Heat showcases Robert De Niro's most "together" performance. Far from being unstable or unpredictable (as so many great De Niro creations have been) his Neil McCauley is a calculated career criminal, a man of surgical, strident precision. He famously states that there should be nothing you can't walk away from in 15 minutes, and, in a film full of great lines, it's this one that lingers most (other than Al Pacino's immortal line about the 'great ass') because it expertly condenses De Niro's whole character into a code. 

Heat also saw De Niro go toe-to-toe with the other great actor of the period - and the man other than Brando with whom De Niro is most commonly compared - Al Pacino. Though they are both in The Godfather Part II, the pair never share any screen-time, so Heat was the much anticipated coming together of two of the best three actors of the '70s (Jack Nicholson is the other). 

They did not disappoint, and De Niro and Pacino's tête à tête in the diner is easily one of cinema's great scenes. But it's their last scene together - with Pacino gunning down De Niro in the airfield - which stands out the most, as the film somehow attains an operatic, mystical awe that transcends its cops-and-robbers genre to lift it into something closer to art.