I am now sitting in my fourth floor apartment in the middle of a heat wave with no air conditioning and one fan. The only thing I am able to do is stare at the wall, try not to move, and be thankful I'm not my cat. As I endure my plight, I find myself thinking and relating to films I'd seen where the heat index played a leading role. Here are my top four.
1) Body Heat (1981). I first saw this about a year ago during the winter, and after about 20 minutes it felt like July. This film propelled both William Hurt and Kathleen Turner to fame and rightly so. When you first see Turner on the screen she's "in a white dress that makes it look as if she's about to burst into flames." Obviously she's worth killing for.
2) Do The Right Thing (1989). Spike Lees masterpiece about race and class tension during a sweltering New York heat wave. The tension gives way to conflict and rioting and the weather is a viable suspect. Lee captures the heat so well you almost wipe the brow of your T.V..
3) Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Sidney Lumets brave film of a man who robs a bank to pay for his boyfriends sex change operation. As the robber (Pacino) tries to keep himself and the hostages cool, the streets heat up and the people of New York begin to gather to cheer on the misfit. This was shot on location with no score or soundtrack just raw nerves exposed in the elements. Based on a true story.
4) In The Heat Of The Night (1967). Start with a Mississippi summer before there was airconditioning. Add the racial tensions of the South in the 60's, and you get this powderkeg of a film. Poitier, in perhaps his best role, is a detective from Philadelphia stuck in a small Mississippi town that becomes a suspect involved with "a murder they don't know what to do with."
These are just four that I've seen that come to mind. What films would you add to this list?
