One of my favorite films. I can't help blabbing about it.

Body Heat is one of the most widely imitated films in history. Just about every contemporary straight-to-vid "erotic thriller" seems to be a variation of this film. Soft-core sex films copy it. Murder mysteries copy it. Even hard-core sex films borrow from it. Even the name is copied. There have been many videos named Body Heat since the 80s!

In fact, Body Heat itself was not really original, but was a brilliant revival of a long-dormant genre. The "duplicitous woman noir" was a popular B&W genre in the 40's and 50's, but disappeared for a while until Lawrence Kasdan brought it back in color, with his own flourishes, in 1981, casting Turner and Bill Hurt in the roles formerly reserved for the likes of Barbara Stanwyck and Fred McMurray.

Hey, I'm not so impressed that this was Kasdan's first attempt to direct. I mean any schmuck can make a great directorial debut if he has a script written by one of the greatest screenwriters in history. Kasdan simply hired the guy who had written Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Empire Strikes Back, the two best films of the preceding year. Hell, the only thing Kasdan really accomplished was being lucky enough to hire that guy. Of course, finding him wasn't that hard. He only had to look in the mirror. Kasdan would go on to earn three Oscar nominations for films written after this one: The Accidental Tourist, The Big Chill, and Grand Canyon.

Kasdan did an especially good job at recreating the "sassy dame" dialogue from the 40s. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler would be proud of this, their step-child.

The plot twists were unpredictable when this film came out, although we've seen it copied so many times that it seems formulaic now. The fundamental requirement for a good femme fatale picture is that the woman has to make the patsy do her dirty work, but both he and the audience have to think it was all his own idea. If she pushes him into it, he will realize he's being set up, and we will lose the pleasure of the ultimate surprise. Therefore, the spider really has to do her homework on the fly's weaknesses, and she has to spin her web subtly and slowly, so as not to appear obvious. In this case, Ned Racine (Bill Hurt) really was intellectually lazy and incorrigibly horny, just as he claimed to be, so those were the faults that Matty (Kathleen Turner) exploited. I don't think women would agree with that other part about Hurt being ugly.

The film also includes some of the hottest, sexiest build-up of sexual tension in film history. Who can forget the scene when Turner and Hurt first make love? The wind chimes tinkle gently in the sweltering evening. Hurt can see Turner through the locked glass door. Hurt grabs the chair from the porch, shatters the door, storms through, and takes her. She is more than willing.

Finally, I have this on my short list of films where the casting director should have gotten a special Oscar. (The Outsiders, The World According to Garp and Bridget Jones's Diary also come immediately to mind.) The casting was sheer genius, right down to the minor roles. Check out Ted Danson of Cheers as the D.A. who really wanted to be a dancer. If only they could have obtained the musical rights to the dance classic written especially for him. I refer, of course, to "You Make Me Feel Like Danson."

Dude, what are you waiting for? If you haven't seen this film, do so. If you already love it, get your hands on a digital version and watch the deleted scenes.