Body Heat

By: Gerard Iribe 1.04.2009

The Movie Itself:
"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."

Wait. Wrong film.

Funny enough, I hadn't seen Casablanca until last week (for the first time), and Body Heat, about two months ago. It's so obvious that Body Heat carries an "unspoken" homage to Casablanca...if it were turned on its head!

Make no mistake, Body Heat is what I would consider "hardcore noir". The leads, Hurt and Turner, speak their minds and in case of Hurt's, sex is always on his mind.

William Hurt plays Ned Racine, a somewhat scummy defense attorney, who's trying to snag that perfect case that will propel his career. Of course, in the meantime, he'll have to settle for whatever comes his way.

Kathleen Turner makes her big screen debut as Matty Walker, a beautiful woman, married to a somewhat "seedy" business tycoon. Kathleen is a peach of a woman, she can strip the paint off of a brand new car. She’s something fierce.

Ned and Matty meet each other on a hot and humid Florida night, by chance, and we are propelled into the seedy underbelly of murder, deceit, sex, and some of the most forward, explicit, dialogue that I can remember. Not to sound coy, this film has some “balls”, if you will. Double entendre? Never met her.

Lawrence Kasdan makes his directorial debut with this film, most will recognize the name, as being a George Lucas contributor. He wrote Empire Strikes Back and Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Ark. In fact, George Lucas is an uncredited executive producer on this show.

Several other familiars play into the film as well. We’ve got Ted Danson as Ned’s close friend, but rival city prosecutor, and Richard Crenna (Col. Trautman in the Rambo films) as Matty’s rich husband. My favorite character, in terms of “supporting characters”, goes to Mickey Rourke in the role of ex-con Teddy, who give’s William Hurt’s character some “friendly advice”. One of Mickey’s first roles, too.

If you’ve noticed, I’m trying to not give anything away, it would defeat the purpose. You have to discover this film. Consider it a non-review review. Take what you can from the above mentioned, and strap yourself, this is some serious noir.
Rating: 9/10

The Presentation:
Body Heat comes to us in 1080p, 1.85:1 aspect ratio--opened up to a 16X9, and in this reviewer's opinion, it's a stellar one. There's natural grain throughout, it's somewhat soft, and almost smokey. Everything noir should be.

The sound has been remastered in TrueHD, and is pretty standard, it’s not an action packed film, but the seductive John Barry score shines. It really is a hot soundtrack.
Rating: 8/10

The Extras:
Body Heat has some nice extras, although a nice audio commentary would have been awesome, the interview package with Kasdan is pretty top notch. He talks candidly about this debut picture, and the amount of power he was granted, considering it was his debut film. It’s pretty good to be friends with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg; they had his back ALL THE WAY. That’s my favorite extra.

There’s some current interviews with William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, and Ted Danson. They’re all very amusing, and the cast praise everyone involved.

We also have some fun vintage interviews, and a theatrical trailer.
Rating: 7/10

Overall:
Considering it’s an almost 30 year old film, I rank it as one of the best noir pieces of all time. If you’ve never seen it, I highly recommend it as a purchase, you can get it really cheap from most vendors. It’s the best its ever looked/sounded. Pour yourself a bourbon, and have some fun.

“You better take me up on this quick. In about 45 minutes, I'm going to give up and go away."

Rating: 8/10