The Best Movie Of Each Year From 1925-2025

Honourable Mentions: Dead Presidents, Se7en, Toy Story

Although very much a defining creative force in the pop culture of the 1980s - thanks most notably to the TV series Miami Vice, which he produced alongside creator Anthony Yerkovich, as well as the aforementioned likes of Thief and Manhunter - Michael Mann's evolution in the subsequent decade was arguably even more impressive. The Last of the Mohicans came first, with Mann taking his emotive flair and redefining an established classic of American literature, but his next effort would take him to more familiar ground - of cops and crooks and a yearning for escape.

This time, though, he'd be bringing a generation's two most acclaimed actors along for the ride.

The end result was Heat, a remake of Mann's own TV film L.A. Takedown, inspired by a case worked by former Chicago cop Chuck Adamson, whom Mann had worked with previously on Thief. The key players were Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, the former playing the role of the Adamson-inspired LAPD detective Vincent Hanna, and the latter as professional score-taker Neil McCauley, two kindred spirits separated by profession and doomed to collide by their very nature.

Heat really is a thing of beauty - a film that exemplifies Mann's gift for deafening silences and technical detail, as well as his ability to tap into the elemental qualities of America's urban landscapes and the isolation they can often impose. By the time the rapturous final scene hits, and Moby's "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters" starts blaring, it's impossible not to be moved by Mann's orchestration, which dials into the frequency of feelings unspoken in a way only he can.