HEAT
In 1995, Michael Mann released Heat, starring Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. The film was based on Mann's earlier TV-movie L.A. Takedown and featured a collision of two professionals, thief Neil McCauley and detective Vincent Hanna. Mann based these two characters on a personal friend, Chicago policeman Chuck Adamson, and the thief he pursued for a part of his career. These characters can also be seen to have roots in two of Mann's earlier films - Thief and Manhunter.
Just as in his lastest film, Public Enemies, in Heat, Michael Mann examines the notion of masculine professionalism that is through the comparing and contrasting of the chief protagonist and antagonist in the story. In both films, Mann avoids fixating on the virtuous notion of honor and the black-and-white separation of “good guys” and “bad guys” such morality creates. Instead, he and his characters operate in shades of gray thereby blurring the line between good and bad.
Robert DeNiro plays Neil McCauley, a professional thief who Mann has described as a sociopath because he holds no regard for his actions toward or against society and the common man. He and his crew are absolute models of efficiency. They have history and years of experience together. They have a clear pecking order and specific rules about everything they do. McCauley's number one rule is to hold no attachments so that you can "walk out the door in 30 seconds flat when you feel the heat around the corner." In Public Enemies, John Dillinger's crew tries to remind him of this rule, but he seems unable to live by it. McCauley, on the other hand, operates with such cool and controlled detachment at all times, he seems unlikely to break this rule.
Detective Vincent Hanna, played by Al Pacino, is assigned to track McCauley and his crew early on in Heat, after a score escalates to include homicide. Mann quickly paints the picture of Hanna as a very astute, yet obsessed cop whose personal life is an absolute wreck because of his inability to detach from his job. In fact, it becomes clear that he is much more intrigued by McCauley and his crew than he is by his wife and her needs. In the single scene the two actors share in Heat, Pacino's character encourages McCauley to stop taking down scores essentially because he doesn't want to have to take him and his crew down. The two characters act and react to each other, much like chess players, throughout this conversation and the film as a whole. They are both keenly aware that their intentions and goals are absolutely opposed to one another, yet they respect each other.