Body Heat was the launchpad for both director Lawrence Kasdan and the lead characters, Kathleen Turner, that with her debut film became overnight the prototype of the sensually perfect dark lady, and William Hurt, who after the good reviews for Ken Russell's Altered States the year before, rose to a sex-symbol and stardom status that propelled him to the well-deserved Oscar for Kiss of the Spider Woman four years later.
Graced with excellent supporting roles by Ted Danson and Mickey Rourke and a sensually evocative soundtrack by John Barry, Lawrence Kasdan's first direction, after a solid screenwriting apprenticeship, is an open and devout tribute to the noir movies of the '40s and '50s, most of all Double Indemnity, of which it follows the structure as well as the use of a legal twist, though it cannot be plainly considered a remake. Bearing in mind the almost forty years elapsed between the two movies, Body Heat contains some aspects that are even more interesting than its source, in particular for the different connotation of the two main characters: Kathleen Turner, both for her physicality and her sulky voice, later memorably lent to Jessica Rabbit, looks more convincing and irresistible than Barbara Stanwick and William Hurt is definitely less self-assured than Fred MacMurry but at the same time more defenseless and exposed, unable to come to terms with the end of his distorted dream even when faced by an unmistakable reality. Moreover, the immoral ending, where evil boldly triumphs, gives the film a deep bitterness that Double Indemnity in the '40s most likely could not have because of the times ,but that makes Lawrence Kasdan's movie even more real and resounding.
But what stands out in Body Heat is the physical presence of the weather in which the story unfolds; Body Heat is not only a movie to watch and listen, is also, in a very rare way, a film to "sweat", for the constant, intrusive and pervasive presence of the Florida's searing heat that becomes a further, and dominant, character in the movie's developments, unavoidably carrying the protagonists to their pre-written destiny. Maybe only Bogart's films like The African Queen or Key Largo were able to reach such interpenetrating mix, and this is to be seen as an additional merit of Lawrence Kasdan, who was one of the most interesting directors of the '80s (The Big Chill, Accidental Tourist) before getting somehow lost in the '90s, till almost disappearing after unassuming films like The Dreamcatcher and Darling Companion.
Graced with excellent supporting roles by Ted Danson and Mickey Rourke and a sensually evocative soundtrack by John Barry, Lawrence Kasdan's first direction, after a solid screenwriting apprenticeship, is an open and devout tribute to the noir movies of the '40s and '50s, most of all Double Indemnity, of which it follows the structure as well as the use of a legal twist, though it cannot be plainly considered a remake. Bearing in mind the almost forty years elapsed between the two movies, Body Heat contains some aspects that are even more interesting than its source, in particular for the different connotation of the two main characters: Kathleen Turner, both for her physicality and her sulky voice, later memorably lent to Jessica Rabbit, looks more convincing and irresistible than Barbara Stanwick and William Hurt is definitely less self-assured than Fred MacMurry but at the same time more defenseless and exposed, unable to come to terms with the end of his distorted dream even when faced by an unmistakable reality. Moreover, the immoral ending, where evil boldly triumphs, gives the film a deep bitterness that Double Indemnity in the '40s most likely could not have because of the times ,but that makes Lawrence Kasdan's movie even more real and resounding.
But what stands out in Body Heat is the physical presence of the weather in which the story unfolds; Body Heat is not only a movie to watch and listen, is also, in a very rare way, a film to "sweat", for the constant, intrusive and pervasive presence of the Florida's searing heat that becomes a further, and dominant, character in the movie's developments, unavoidably carrying the protagonists to their pre-written destiny. Maybe only Bogart's films like The African Queen or Key Largo were able to reach such interpenetrating mix, and this is to be seen as an additional merit of Lawrence Kasdan, who was one of the most interesting directors of the '80s (The Big Chill, Accidental Tourist) before getting somehow lost in the '90s, till almost disappearing after unassuming films like The Dreamcatcher and Darling Companion.