Heat
Does it rank with the greatest heist films?
I’m not going to waste time; Heat is one of the greatest crime films ever. Definitely one of the greatest films of the 90s. Some list it as one of the greatest films ever.
But is is a great Heist Film?
It has not one, but two heists. The film opens on the robbery of an armored car. Robert DeNiro’s gang closes in on the vehicle with split second precision, smashing it with a stolen truck wrecker while the rest of the group pulls up in a stolen ambulance. They swarm the wreck and find their target: $1.6 million in bearer bonds. Their movements are timed to the police response time of three minutes. They lay down spike strips to slow up the initial pursuit and escape.
For all the precision, it’s still just a smash and grab.
The second heist, which takes place about 2/3s of the way in, is a basic bank robbery. There is a prior brief reference to the disabling of the alarms, but we never see that unfold. The gang just walks into the bank armed with assault rifles and loots the vault by...violently taking the key from an employee. There’s no safe-cracking, no highly skilled specialist, no drilling of locks, just brute force.
Does a great heist movie need to have an intricately planned and executed theft at the center of it? Or can an otherwise great movie with a robbery in it be considered a great heist movie?
In my opinion, you need a balance of overall excellence – great characters, surprising twists, tense direction – and a fascinatingly technical heist sequence. For that reason, for me, Heat doesn’t make the top of the list.
This has been an admittedly brief review of just 10 films. While looking for titles to review I searched for ‘Heist’ in Tubi and Jesus Christ, I got like 50 results. I never realized there were so many heist movies out there. It would be a months long project to try and review every heist movie ever made. So I limited my search to several commonly listed classics and a few lesser known examples.
At the end of it, I have to put the original heist film, The Asphalt Jungle, at the top of the list, followed by Rififi. John Huston got everything right the first time and it would take a really exceptional film to top it. It’s the blueprint for everything that followed. Rififi has maybe the most riveting and clever heist sequence and the rest of the movie holds up to that dazzling 30 minute sequence.
If I was to make a list of the top ten heist movies, Heat would be on it, just because it is such an exceptional film. The dynamic of DeNiro and Pacino elevates the film into epic territory. The bank robbery shootout is one of the greatest actions scenes ever. But it’s a great movie with some robberies in it. So is Bonnie and Clyde.
I started this whole thing by make the half-serious comment that Kelly’s Heroes was the greatest heist movie ever. After this series, I can’t seriously say that any more. But...I would put it on that hypothetical top ten list. Think about it, the score is fantastic: robbing a bank miles behind enemy lines, guarded by SS panzers. Kelly masterminds past all the obstacles: gathering up Oddball’s Shermans, bridging a river, arranging a getaway. It doesn’t get enough credit for a great heist because of the comedy, but it’s a way better heist than Heat’s.
Anyway, here’s my favorite moment from Kelly’s Heroes, where the biggest problem of the heist is solved by Don Rickles:
The lack of an intricate plot is what I most love about Heat. It feels real. I've never robbed a bank or been in a shootout with the police, but for all the times I've seen it happen onscreen, it was while watching Heat that I thought to myself that it thought, "this must be exactly what it's like." If that realism disqualifies it as a heist film, so be it. I don't make the rules, but when I watch something like Ocean's 11, where everything comes together perfectly-- every participant performs flawlessly, every adversary behaves exactly as expected, every obstacle is overcome, and nothing goes contrary to the plan-- I don't feel I'm watching something plausible. Heat not only feels plausible, it plays almost like a documentary at times.