It’s sort of improbable that Michael Mann was able to
make Heat the way he wanted to at the
length of nearly three hours. How did a studio greenlight that decision? Mann
was not a known director like a Scorsese or a Spielberg. Crime drama was not
exactly a genre that typically lent itself to epic scope and length. I can only
surmise that it was on the strength of having Robert De Niro and Al Pacino as
the two leads that made executives believe that people would come to this
movie. It didn’t hurt, I’m sure, that the movie is exceptionally well-made.
