MovieChat Forums > Body Double (1984) Discussion > any one seen it back in '84?

any one seen it back in '84?

posted 8 years ago by mannfann
2 replies | jump to latest

I vividly remember seeing this film opening weekend back in the fall of '84.
There was a lot of controversy surrounding the lurid subject matter of the film. but the less I knew I was able to experience he film on it's own merits.
The only thing i remember at the time is that it was hard to recommend this film to anyone at the time without offending anyone's sensibilities.
The reactions from seeing the film with an audience at that time as the story unfolds came with laughter and shrieks.
I thought the sharp contrast in the story where it turned after the murder from the discovery of the body double with Melanie Griffith's character was perhaps one of the few films(or any) that dealt with the porn industry at that time as an alternative film industry among Hollywood.
I still cant get that song used in the window dancing scenes out of my head. Always reminded me of the music in Risky Business with the train scenes.
I still think it most of it was shocking for many until a few years later when Blue Velvet came out in '86 and changed perception on what was allowed in r rate films.
Anyone else remember seeing this when it was released back in the day?

[–] I_Love_Hutch 8 years ago

I still can't get that song used on the window dancing scenes out of my head.
____________________

So, so, so, soooo delighted to hear this from another person! I couldn't agree more. There are scarcely words to describe the emotional power and the sheer magic of this tune. I always tend towards hyperbole, (so please, please excuse me ahead of time because I don't want to change), but "Holly's Theme" has, for me (and I suspect for you and a few others), the seductive, inevitable pull of the power of puberty. There's something going on here that suggests sexual discovery that is new and bewildering and a bit unsettling, but at the same time exciting and completely welcome. And that's no small thing by any stretch of the imagination. This song is utterly disarming.

[–] DmitriKnipper (202) 3 years ago

I not only went to it in 1984, I also wrote a review of it for a fellow college friend:

"With Body Double, director Brian De Palma has made his best film. (2021 note: I still like BD, but I wouldn't now call it his best film as of then.) He can be satisfied that he made his perfect horror (I meant 'thriller') movie and can now move on to non-genre films. (which he did.)

Body Double is a fun, wicked, delirious thriller. The hero is Jake (Craig Wasson), an actor living in Hollywood, thrown out (by his girlfriend) of his place, fired from a fourth-rate vampire movie because of his claustrophobia problems and looking for a way to get things straightened out.

An actor friend, Sam Bouchard (Gregg Henry) offers Jake a house-sitting job at a luxurious, round penthouse. Jake is delighted with the job. Not only is it a gorgeous temporary place to stay, he also has a view of a beautiful rich woman (Deborah Shelton) who lives in a house across the street.

He becomes concerned for her when one night he spies her husband slapping her, and the next day he spots a big, wrinkled Indian following her in a car.

Jake tails them to a shopping mall - a wonderful, fluid sequence that ends at a beach where the Indian steals her purse and Jake finally meets his dreamy neighbor.

From then on, the terror multiplies until the clever ending, quintessential De Palma.

It's great to see a new movie with trench-coated figures skulking in shadows. De Palma may frustrate and outrage many people, but he has a great way of making a movie mesmerizing. The performances are fine, especially Gregg Henry. He plays an actor going up to Seattle for a role. When Jake tells him to "knock 'em dead," Henry replies, "They're already dead in Seattle!" Seattle audiences are getting a kick from that line."

It's funny I don't mention Melanie Griffith at all, but I guess I was saving the second half of the film as a surprise, in case my friend went.