{"id":4323,"date":"2024-10-05T18:47:36","date_gmt":"2024-10-05T18:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4323"},"modified":"2024-10-12T22:06:34","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T22:06:34","slug":"body-double","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/05\/body-double\/","title":{"rendered":"Body Double"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Body Double<\/strong> (1984)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Suspense-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 114 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence, language, strong sexual material\/references, nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Brian De Palma\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Brian De Palma and Robert J. Avrech\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Pino Donaggio\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Cinematography: Stephen H. Burum\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 26, 1984 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Craig Wasson, Melanie Griffith, Gregg Henry, Deborah Shelton, Guy Boyd, Dennis Franz, David Haskell, Rebecca Stanley, Al Israel, Lane Davies, Barbara Crampton, Larry \u201cFlash\u201d Jenkins, Monte Landis, Douglas Warhit, B.J. Jones, Russ Marin.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $8.8M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0After his infamous battle with the ratings board over the violence in his gangster epic Scarface, a defiant Brain De Palma set out to make a movie containing \u201ceverything they hate and more of it than they\u2019ve ever seen\u201d. The result was Body Double<\/strong>, an erotic, violent thriller that successfully weaves plot elements from two Hitchcock classics- Rear Window (1954) and Vertigo (1958)- into a narrative that pushes more boundaries than any De Palma movie before it. The maker of Carrie and Dressed to Kill is truly at home in the thriller genre as evidenced by this genuinely suspenseful story of a not-too-bright guy caught up in a twisted murder scheme.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Craig Wasson (Ghost Story) stars as Jake Scully, a struggling actor between gigs after being fired from a low-budget vampire movie due to his claustrophobia. He\u2019s in need of a place to stay after he catches his girlfriend cheating on him. Fellow actor Sam Bouchard (Henry, Just Before Dawn) overhears his dilemma and offers up a solution. His friend needs a housesitter for a few weeks; as long as Jake remembers to water the plants, he can crash there. The house in question is one of those fancy modernist jobs on stilts in the hills overlooking L.A. Sam gives Jake the grand tour which includes a telescope pointed at a shapely neighbor\u2019s (Shelton, Dallas) house. Every night at the same time, the woman does a sexy striptease in front of her open bedroom window. Of course, Jake watches her each night and becomes infatuated. Suspecting she might be in danger, he starts to follow her.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Since revealing much more of the plot would ruin Body Double<\/strong> for those who haven\u2019t yet seen it, I\u2019ll only say two more things about it. First, Jake witnesses a brutal murder and can\u2019t go to the cops with what he knows without admitting to being a voyeur, itself a crime. Second, Jake enters the world of pornographic filmmaking in order to get close to an actress, Holly Body (Griffith, Fear City), who might be able to help him solve the case. I\u2019ll also say that once all is said and done, the story makes complete sense. There are no lapses in logic or plot holes. The screenplay by De Palma and Robert J. Avrech is absolutely airtight. Not too many films can make that claim.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In a stroke of artistic brilliance, De Palma did NOT cast big name actors in Body Double<\/strong>. Hypothetically, let\u2019s say he cast Robert De Niro or Kurt Russell in the lead role. Both actors have name recognition. Viewers would likely want to see the movie based more on the star than the story. Furthermore, a familiar face would take away from the intended viewing experience. De Palma wants to take the audience on a roller coaster ride of fear and terror. He largely succeeds for many reasons; the cast plays no small part in that success. Wasson is a great as the flawed hero of the story. He\u2019s basically a good guy, but not perfect. He knows it\u2019s wrong to watch his neighbor undress, but he does it anyway and ends up getting in over his head. The role of Jake Scully requires an actor who can sell a likable but not-too-bright protagonist. Wasson is that actor. He has a vulnerability to him. He\u2019s also likable. He can be laid-back and he can be intense. It all comes natural to Wasson. Griffith, in one of her first major roles, is terrific as Holly, a jaded porn star who would be right at home in a Damon Runyon story. A combination of smart and dumb, she lives in a world where everybody is a pervert. She thinks she knows what Jake is after, the same thing every man wants from her. When he reveals his true intentions, she doesn\u2019t quite know how to react. I think it\u2019s one of Griffith\u2019s best performances.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As well all know, De Palma LOVES Hitchcock. It\u2019s seen in the way he carefully constructs his films especially thrillers. Body Double<\/strong> is partly a love letter to the Master of Suspense. Look at the tunnel scene where Jake experiences a claustrophobia attack while following the neighbor. The way it\u2019s filmed is definitely reminiscent of Vertigo. However, that\u2019s not all that\u2019s going on stylistically in Body Double<\/strong>. De Palma gives us an anthology of styles like cheesy vampire flicks, 40s thrillers and adult films. There\u2019s this one great film-within-a-film scene where Jake journeys through an X-rated version of Dante\u2019s Inferno to the tune of \u201cRelax (Don\u2019t Do It)\u201d by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. The cinematography and visual tricks have a vintage 40s feel to them. Style is most definitely part of the experience.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If asked, I would say Body Double<\/strong> is one of my favorite De Palma movies. Not only is it a genuinely suspenseful and sometimes funny thriller, it\u2019s also clever and unpredictable. It has a couple of really cool plot twists. It\u2019s well made and well acted. The climax at the aqueduct is legitimately thrilling. Then there\u2019s the murder scene. The killer\u2019s weapon of choice is a huge handheld drill. Tell me that\u2019s not an obvious phallic symbol. It\u2019s a cool scene. It\u2019s a perfect centerpiece to a perfect film with a warped sensibility. Today\u2019s filmmakers should look to Body Double<\/strong> as an example of a thriller done right.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Body Double (1984)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Suspense-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 114 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence, language, strong sexual material\/references, nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Brian De Palma\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Brian De Palma and Robert J. Avrech\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Pino Donaggio\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Cinematography: Stephen H. Burum\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 26, 1984 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Craig Wasson, Melanie Griffith, Gregg Henry, Deborah Shelton, Guy Boyd, Dennis Franz, David […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-suspense-thrillers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Body-Double-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4323"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4593,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323\/revisions\/4593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}