Body Heat a Film Noir

Film Noir is the genre of night, violence, pessimism, fatalism, and possible source of danger has an ominous atmosphere that is conveyed by shadowy photography or it is also called as black film.

As Body Heat started, the atmosphere was already kinda smoky and vague. The development of the story contains the seduction of the male protagonist who is Ned Racine, a small town lawyer who met a prudent woman Matty Walker who he can tell comes from money by her appearance during a blistering heatwave that contributes through a large portion of the film. When the romance hits complication, there is something essential to the protagonist that is necessary to allow the lovers to live happily. As it is in the film, the actions are murder.

 Ned started to flirt with Matty but she told that nothing will happen between them for the reason of she is married to a wealthy businessman, Edmund Walker. But that made Ned became more desperate and end up with their passionate affair.

As their affair continued to keep the fire burning Matty convinced Ned to kill her husband and they will get all the money and leave the place. Ned seemed being control already by the woman which shows the factor of femme fatale,a part of film noir that means seductive, autonomous, dangerous, deceptive women who use men for their own means. The scenes were getting intense because after Ned killed the husband he's getting a doubt that he's only been used by Matty because she made some changes in their plans without notifying him.

When Ned confronted her, Matty admitted to first meeting him on purpose but declares that she really loves him. At this moment, I suppose that she really loves him but at the later part of the film, it revealed that Matty was just really in love with the money and dreamed to live in an exotic island.

The themes of this film were love, murder, deception and intrigue which are under the film noir. Sex and greed were prominent in Body Heat and as possibly as important as love and deception. Characters are important in any films and it is perhaps the most important part of film noir. The occurrence of an anti-hero and a female fatale are indicative in this film and it has characters that perfectly fit for the story. Body Heat is good enough to make film noir play like we hadn't seen it before.