ROUNDTABLE
The ‘Heat’ Around the Corner Nearly 30 years on, esteem endures for Michael Mann’s masterpiece among Florida politics insiders
By Jesse Scheckner
“Don’t let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk away from in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.”
PHOTO: The Workmans
L
ess than a day after he broke the news that the FBI was searching Donald Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago, Florida Politics and INFLUENCE Magazine publisher Peter Schorsch had already moved on. There was
something else happening he was far more excited about: Filmmaker Michael Mann’s “Heat 2: A Novel,” the literary sequel/ prequel to the epic crime drama that truly brought Al Pacino and Robert De Niro together
onscreen for the first time, had just dropped. Schorsch, who considers the film among his two favorites, was enthused. He was hardly alone. Since its release, appreciation for “Heat” has only grown.
Its cultural impact only deepened. On the surface, the movie is about a team of LAPD cops led by a fast-andloose Pacino trying to catch a gang of deadly thieves whose leader, a buttoned-up De Niro, adheres to a rigid discipline meant to prevent his recapture. His most explicit rule: “Don’t let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk away from in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.”
The film’s two centerpieces, a bank robbery scene that spills out onto the streets of downtown Los Angeles for a cacophonous shootout and a muted but no less riveting coffee shop tête-à-tête between Pacino and DeNiro, are revered by cinephiles and have inspired myriad filmic imitations. But the movie’s staunchest adherents will tell you it’s the nuances throughout its nearly three-hour runtime that keeps them coming back for repeat viewings.
To commemorate the film and celebrate the release of “Heat 2,” which Mann plans to adapt for the screen, Schorsch sat down with Florida League of Cities Associate Director of Communications James Miller, James Madison Institute Vice President of Policy Sal Nuzzo, Stearns Weaver Miller Director of Governmental Affairs Marco Paredes and Brad Swanson, president and CEO of Florida Internet & Television.
This crew is good: Brad Swanson, Sal Nuzzo, Marco Parades, James Miller discuss Michael Mann’s crime drama, “Heat”
Fall 2022
INFLUENCE
|
25
>