Customer Reviews

Body Double (Widescreen/Full Screen)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

My copy of this DVD was NOT widescreen. Amazon accepted its return despite its being opened. And they paid the shipping costs. Good customer service, thank you. But the description still says this DVD is widescreen.

"Body Double" is, in every way shape and form, a modern masterpiece, the same way "Vertigo" was and is. Our lead man suffers a similar phobia and is enveloped by the same paranoia of a murder consipracy invloving the victim switch. Point of view shots are used in a simialr vein and our leading man constantly speaks in his best James Stewart drawl. Other than lacking the customary Deplama split screen (which would have made the most sense in this of all Depalma films) "Body Double" is spectacular. Low budget elements are a deliberate mesh with the story of making a low budget horror, dated music is well represented. The plot, on the other hand, is filmed with the brilliant conventions we come to expect from depalma. dennis franz is not as raw as he was in "Dressed to Kill". Any NYPD Blue fan has got to check out "Dressed To Kill" to see the real detective at work. Here, you actually never know what is real and what is set-up making "Body Double" a quintessential thiller for all lovers of the genre.

Brian De Palma's Body Double is a classic in it's own category:Hitchcock. You watch this film and you'll think I didn't know Hitchcock still made movies who directed this? Well Brian I give you every single prop on this film. It is a great thriller, great story, and great film all together. It also has if I may say one of the greatest murders ever, if not the best!

Anyway the movie is about a beat down B movie actor who is down on his luck with mental blocks during his performances, he'll get let go if he can't get his act together. With bad news like that he only comes home to his wife cheating on him with another man. After such a devestating discovery he goes searching for something more, when he meets a man who needs a house-sitter for his Hollywood mansion penthouse on a mountain that overlooks a complex with a sexy mysterious woman in one of the condos. Well while watching the house he becomes a peeping tom for this woman and notices her perculiar dance while stripping nude. He notices someone is stalking her and following her so he tries to tell her, but one night he witnesses her murder. It's a good one! Then he is watching tv and sees a porn star dancing on her video and notices that perculiar dance again so he gets together with her and tries to make a good porno, then solve a mystery of murder. Watch to see the ending!

Heres the story. Once upon there was a man who had this movie in his living room. Then his step-son brought it to his step-brothers and brothers room and watched it. After he FINISHED he put it in his brothers cupboard and left it there. Then his step-brother and brother found it and wondered where it came from. Baffled they decided to go sneak out onto a shut down bridge and leave it in the middle of it. Not long after that a construction team was brought in and they tore down the bridge. Legend has it that a crazy middle aged construction worker found it there moments before the bridge was blown away. He gave his life running back onto the bridge in hopes of retrieving it. Unfortunally neither came out alive and he lies at the bottom of the river in the most unbelievable peace known to man.

Lord, yes, it has problems, but get real, you wannabe filmmakers who never dared pick up a camera or risk your own money: there is nothing around better in American film than the wonderful/comic/goofy/ecstactic moment when Craig Wasson and Deborah Shelton suck each other into that 360 moment at Marina Del Rey with Pino Donaggios' wonderfully over-the-top synthesizers crackling like sparklers. Yes I love my Ozu and Welles and Shrader and Bertolucci, but for all of DePalma's weaknesses, he knows a good image and he understands obsession. And had sense enough to hire a good composer.

This movie was good because it had a lot of nudity and the best parts were when they switched stories from one to another. There was one story where the director was shooting a vampire movie. The other was in his head - he had something else going on involving a murder.

but they don't get significantly worse. Yes, De Palma's films are striking visually. Yes, his Hitchcock (whom I love!) homages are witty and give reason to watch his films more than once. Yes, De Palma is entertaining and full of style at all times.
That being said, time, maturity, and repeat viewings of de Palma's movies show the seams of his work more obviously. "Body Double" is a prime example; it is a film that has lost a star or two in my estimation of it over the years. It is high on style, and quite poetic at moments despite the sleazy elements on hand. All in all, however, it appears more superficial and simplistic on repeat viewings. Craig Wasson gives a terrible performance, while Melanie Griffith gives a thoroughly believable comic one. The Donnagio score is evocative of Bernard Herrmann, which is never a bad thing. The voyeuristic theme is both witty and sordid at once. Ultimately, the film is a mixed bag that de Palma fans will enjoy deconstructing.

A movie is an indulgence in voyeurism, so a movie about voyeurism is no stretch! Actually it is very effective, as it pulls the viewer into the movie connecting with the voyeur and compels the viewer to feel as though they are part of the movie!

The tension is built up very effectively throughout the film, especially during one particular scene that I won't give away. Let me just say it will have you on the edge of your seat, clenching whatever you can, completely engrossed in the action.

If this movie is a homage to Hitchcock, I think he'd be honored!

You have to hand it to Brian De Palma, he is not going to pull any punches with what he wants to show us. This film proves that De Palma is a voyer at heart (as if shower scene in "Carrie" or the taxi sex scene in "Dressed to Kill" didn't). But it is actually played out literaly when out of work actor Creig Wessen is spying on his neighbor doing a strip tease in her bed room. Yes, as with most of De Palma's flics, it gets much deeper, with a mysterios Indian also watching, a murder mystery, and a sleezy Dante like decent into the mid 80's L.A. porn world. I loved the movie and thought it was criminaly underrated. It is smart, occasionally funny, with a good puzzel at it's center. (Heres a hint, think about what the title means). There is one little problem I had with the movie, the centrel murder. I do not want to give too much away, but the 3 foot long drill as the murder weapon is more apporopriate in something like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre than this. But I wholely recoment it. For 18 years old and older, though.

That's right, bro. The plot is cool, but if there is one good reason to watch this flick it's to see Melanie Griffith as "sexational" porn queen Holly Body. Not necessarily for her nude scenes (which aren't bad, by the way). As a fan of '80s porn starlets I can truly say that her performance was wonderful and absolutely believable. There were times while viewing this movie that I actually forgot I was watching a mainstream Hollywood actress and not an adult film star. Kinda reminded me of Amber Lynn back in the days. Makes me think just how outstanding Ms. Griffith would've been had she chosen that profession instead. It's a pity she didn't. Oh, well. Her performance as Holly Body is a tribute to that fantasy.