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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood_shootout
LA cops are literally just like that
I had heard of this, but didn't realize, these guys pulled off like five successful heists before this. Apparently they grabbed like 1.6mil in unmarked bills before this went down.
Damn, I would have fucking retired if I managed to net that much, go to Costa Rica and just live in a shack on the beach bro!
1.6 million in 1997 no less
It wasnt just them either, LA in the 80s and 90s was like the bank robbery capital of the world.
https://crimereads.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-bank-robbery-capital-of-the-world/
Los Angeles was on the brink of the greatest bank robbery epidemic ever seen. Between 1985 and 1995 the approximately 3,500 retail bank branches in the region were hit 17,106 times. 1992, the worst year of all, there was an almost unimaginable 2,641 heists, one every 45 minutes of each banking day. On a particularly bad day for the FBI that year, bandits committed 28 bank licks. There were years during that stretch when the L.A. field office of the FBI, which covers the seven counties in the Los Angeles metro region, handled more cases than the next four regions combined....“Of all the bank robberies in the nation over the past three or four decades, at least 25 percent of them have gone down within commuting distance of the soaring white spire of City Hall"
I might be in the minority of people who think Heat is a bit cheesy and dumb. I get it's more meant to be about two obsessive guys that are the best at what they do coming head to head, but it just feels so silly.
The ending is a cop-out as well. De Niro's gun jams? It feels like they wanted the cops to win but couldn't figure out how to make that happen. Den Niro's character isn't the sort that would let his gun jam, you know he'd keep that shit clean and ready to go at a moment's notice.
For your 'Shakespearean epic told through the guise of a crime movie' I much prefer Animal Kingdom. I feel like it does all the non-crime parts better to make you care about the characters
Den Niro's character isn't the sort that would let his gun jam, you know he'd keep that shit clean and ready to go at a moment's notice.
Tbf jams just happen sometimes, it isn't really possible to eliminate it as a possibility. Though if you're really obsessive you can use a gun that is already less likely to jam than most and then work to get the spring pressure and everything just right to minimize the possibility as much as possible.
But yeah narratively, a gun jamming is pretty much the same as the guy slipping and falling over, or rocks falling on him, or God descending from the sky and taking his gun away. Unless it was already foreshadowed with neglect of the gun or some damage or whatever.
God descending from the sky and taking his gun away.
That why heat works as a Greek tragedy more than a shakesperean one. It's a tale of hubris and mundanity, in my opinion. Everything is so spectacular but it's just another Tuesday for these people. DeNiro was never meant to leave the life of crime, and Pacino will continue to be an asshole and bad stepfather as he was before catching the bad guy of the week.
No one in this film is capable of changing, the only transformation they can go through is death itself.
I send the gunfight clip to new people who join the Arma group so they know how to do a fighting retreat
this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2026
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