By 
Body Heat is a seminal film (both ways, I guess). It’s a key entry in the neo-noir, erotic thriller genre and paved the way for movies like Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct.
I never saw Body Heat. It’s one of those films that slipped through the cracks for me. This weekend changed that, however. I rescued a used copy of Body Heat from Goodwill while picking up used underwear for Stark, Boba, Hawkzino and DrunkenYoda.
Let’s take a look at it — Body Heat, I mean, not Stark, Boba, Hawkzino and DrunkenYoda’s used underwear. Although, yes, it is as frilly as you can imagine…
Body Heat
Body Heat was the brainchild (or is that brainwhore in this case?) of Lawrence Kasdan. You may have heard of him. He had a hand in writing little films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, The Big Chill, Silverado and more.
Looking at that list, one can tell Kasdan is a fan of the Old Ways and looked to update the thrilling stories of yesteryear for the modern audience. Body Heat was his spin on the noir genre. One can imagine the pitch meeting…
“All the same tropes…but with nudity!”
I will not go into the plot of Body Heat, however, in case there are other folks out there who missed the film. Suffice it to say, Body Heat is similar the stories of Jim Thompson. You have a guy, a girl and a crime. It’s all wonderfully lowbrow with just enough flashes of intelligence to make it all somewhat respectable in the end.
In this instance, Kasdan didn’t only sit in front of the typewriter. He sat in front of the camera. He fulfilled directing duties on Body Heat, as well.
Kasdan brings a reasonable amount of style to the proceedings. The story takes place during a Florida heatwave, and the TV fogs up with the steaminess of it all. Visually, Body Heat is not particularly noteworthy. One gets the sense that Kasdan’s direction consisted of nudging his DP for suggestions of camera angles. Nevertheless, there is no denying that Kasdan succeeded in bringing a palatable tone of hot-and-bothered to Body Heat.
Kasdan’s dialogue also exhibited an enjoyable degree of hard-boiled crackling, even if the performers deliver it with more matter-of-factness than zing.
Invasion of the Body Heat Snatchers
Speaking of performers, Body Heat was made in 1981. That means it came before the Body Positivity Movement. Hence, attractive actors and actresses were used. Pretty crazy idea, that.
Kathleen Turner moisturizes the proceedings as Matty Walker. Body Heat was Turner’s breakout role. Her husky voice and sweaty gams serve her well as a bird with a broken wing. The thing about Turner that works so perfectly onscreen is that her sexuality is frank and accessible. She’s not a pedestal beauty. She’s a down-and-dirty beauty.
As an aside, I once knew a girl with a face that very much resembled Kathleen Turner.
Pervert in the back row yells out: “What about her body!?”
Yes, said girl also had the body of Kathleen Turner…four of them to be exact.
Now, before any white knights get offended by fat jokes, let it be known that this girl was very much a militant member of the Body Positivity Movement and often leveraged sympathy from folks about her weight struggles while insisting that true beauty was on the inside.
Whether she was talking about quality of character of pastry filling is debatable…
But seriously. She wasn’t that bad. I’m sure if a political fugitive ever came to her for help in evading the thought police, she would hide said fugitive.
In a big pot on her stove…
Body Double Heat
William Hurt (RIP) stars opposite Turner as Ned Racine, a lawyer of dubious reputation. Hurt’s performance in Body Heat seems to channel Jeff Bridges in manner and voice (Bridges also delved into neo-noir three years later with Against All Odds). Hurts is also well-watered in Body Heat. One imagines the spritz person got a hand cramp from working the spray bottle.
Hurt’s most interesting filmography is his 1980s filmography, from Altered States to The Accidental Tourist. Although, I am partial to his turn as Kevin Costner’s Id in Mr. Brooks. I would not have minded a sequel to that film.
But I digress, while the first 45 minutes of Body Heat are slow set-up, the movie moves fairly briskly after that. The bulk of that time belongs to Hurt as he puzzles out the caper.
Kasdan works in a nice writing wrinkle regarding Hurt’s character. Hurt is not a mere patsy. He is proactive in his descent into noir hell.
Richard Crenna, Ted Danson and Normal Mickey Rourke fill out the rest of the main cast. Danson in particular surprises and steals his scenes as a cynical prosecutor with a penchant for Fred Astaire dance moves. This kind of acting decision screams of an auteur “who has an idea,” but Kasdan let Danson run with it, and it mostly works. In a way, Danson is the audience surrogate, dancing on the graves of those who die within the film, because, frankly, that is why people watch noir. They want to see plans unravel and characters get in over their head.
The Three Body Heat Problem
Upon its release, Body Heat was touted for its sexually explicit nature. However, Kasdan is mostly content to dance around the edges of adult content when it comes to what he shows onscreen. Honestly, what nudity Body Heat does present is unnecessary. Turner and Hurt do such good work that the erotic content is more of distraction than titillation.
Body Heat shines a spotlight on how modern actors are not doing it right. This generation of actors/actresses present the audience with an uncanny valley to cross by over-emoting. I can’t stand all of the crying, screaming and angst in today’s movies. It’s all theater kid performance.
By contrast, everyone in Body Heat looks and acts so doggone normal despite the situations they find themselves in that it is a bit of a temporal shock. It took my brain a bit to recalibrate to people who are acting instead of ACTING, DAMN IT!
John Barry’s score should also be mentioned as a pillar that helps hold the performances up. Often, I can recognize Barry music, but he did a nice job avoiding Barry’isms and fully embraced moody noir music. In fact, his score is so on-the-nose that it could be used during the Frank Drebin monologues in The Naked Gun movies. Top marks!
Jennifer’s Body Heat
Now that I’ve seen Body Heat, it is easy to spot its influence on the erotic thriller genre. For example, I did not realize that Basic Instinct cribbed directly from it on a couple of things. Really, the needle on the erotic thriller genre has not moved very far since 1981.
This is understandable, considering the genre’s noir foundation. What makes noir work so well is its familiarity. The plots are all the same. It is really only the voice of the individual writer that gives each entry a distinct flavor, along with how the twists are delivered.
In this regard, the hinge on which Body Heat swings on is nicely done. Everything is comfortably lowbrow, and all of a sudden fancy lawyer stuff upends things. Then the plot truly moves into motion, and it is off to the standard denouement.
Pondering the evolution of erotic thrillers brings to mind something Jack White said about his preference for vintage guitars. He explained that guitars (and everything, really) reaches a point where development is about improvement rather than innovation.
The same could be said for erotic thrillers. Improvements to the genre likely happened after Body Heat, but innovation? Not so much. Maybe we have reached a point where innovation could conceivably happen again by updating the genre fully into the digital age. Time will tell…
For now, it was an entertaining jaunt into the past to view Body Heat for the first time. Despite it being a 1981 film, it was brand new for me…unlike Stark, Boba, Hawkzino and DrunkenYoda’s underwear…
The post Retro-Review: BODY HEAT (1981) appeared first on Last Movie Outpost.
