From Those Were the Days:

1950 - Joel McCrea appeared in the lead role of Tales of the Texas Rangers. The soon-to-be-popular show debuted on NBC Radio.
8:22:47 PM    comment []  trackback []  

In defense of Body Heat

My heart is filled with joy and rapture because my Film Noir Collection (containing The Asphalt Jungle, Gun Crazy, Murder, My Sweet, Out of the Past and The Set-Up) arrived this afternoon and four other noirs—The Big Clock, Black Angel, Criss Cross and This Gun For Hire—landed in my mailbox the previous day (I’ll post something about this tomorrow). But I wanted to address a previous post in which I talked about Roger Ebert’s The Great Movies, a book that I am currently poking through—I commented that the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic included the 1981 neo-noir thriller Body Heat in a volume that looks at one hundred movies he considers “great” and I responded that I felt Heat was a good film, but not great. My very good friend Jim Widner has expressed an opinion—something that I strongly encourage, by the way—in the comments section, so I thought I would take a brief moment to clarify my position on this movie (and besides, the reviews that I had planned for today haven’t been written yet).

Ebert lists several film noirs in The Great Movies—among them The Big Sleep (1946), Chinatown (1974), Double Indemnity (1944), Le Samourai (1967) and The Maltese Falcon (1941). When I voiced my disappointment with Ebert’s choice of Body Heat among his 100 picks, it was due in part that he seemed to neglect superior noirs like Out of the Past, The Killing (1956) and Kiss Me, Deadly (1955). I would have put any of these three ahead of Body Heat.

I don’t want to create the wrong impression, though—I like Body Heat very much. Jim is right on the money when he suggested that I take a look at it again, because I feel a first-time viewing really doesn’t do the movie justice. My first glance at the film led me to believe that it wasn’t anything special, but subsequent viewings have convinced me that I was definitely wrong—I think this may because an initial viewing forces you to watch it through the point-of-view of the Ned Racine character (played by William Hurt) and the second time around you watch it from the perspective of Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner).

One of my favorite film critic/historians is Danny Peary, who’s written three wonderful books on cult movies and a great movie guide entitled Guide For the Film Fanatic. Reading his essay on Body Heat was an illuminating experience, and he forcefully points out that the film is vastly underrated—many noir buffs, for example, dismiss Heat as a pale knock-off of Double Indemnity. I probably should have clarified my seemingly casual dismissal of Body Heat a little more—what I should have said was that I would be hesitant to lump it in with noirs the caliber of Chinatown or The Maltese Falcon. So thanks, Jim—for keeping me honest.

However, I won’t change my opinion of The Shawshank Redemption. That is non-negotiable.
8:21:36 PM    comment []  trackback []