I'll shut up at this point. This movie is three hours long. I suspect the first cut ran to seven or eight hours. The result is a film littered with loose ends. Characters are introduced, followed for a while - and then simply disappear.
Heat is two movies in one.
Nonetheless, the acting is superb, and while it sags from time to time, the pace is usually brisk - no mean feat for 180 minutes. There are interesting parallels. I rather suspect that Heat is what Mann wanted Thief to be in 1981. John is a writer based in Northern California and involved in a number of activities visible on the Web .