after dark

Body Heat

After the scene where Ned tells Matty, "Nothing strange can happen in his life right now, not one thing out of the ordinary...You'll get half of everything he owns, and it'll be plenty....We're going to be satisfied.  We're not gonna get greedy...." --
The next scene is outside ("EXT.") at night. Shipyards.  Can hear the "lowing" of a -- boat-horn, or foghorn, "Wwho-ah.  Wwho-ah."  Some men working, moving around in the darkness.  A lot of stuff around.

Ned Racine, in polo shirt and jeans, comes toward us out of the darkness, toward car.  A workman passing by, carrying about four 6-foot-long pipes across one shoulder, watches Ned for a moment.  Like -- "that guy doesn't work here, who is he?"...or -- "that's my lawyer, from the time I had that trouble"...

Ned arrives at the car where Matty waits behind the wheel.

Ned:  I know where he is.
(pause)
I don't want you with me.

-- I thought we settled that.  Gonna wait in the car.  But I want to take the risk with you.  We're both doing this.

And the Bob Seger song, "Feel Like a Number" swoops in, bam!, and does it rock!

The next scene is the one I would nominate for "Best Scene in a Movie" if the Academy Awards created that category.

Reasons why it's one of the best Scenes ever:
The music
the acting
the writing & directing
and
the reverses, and the compression.

When scholars and critics discuss the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop they use the word "compression" because in a small amount of words and lines, she gives you a lot.  I think the same is true of this B. Heat scene:  it has compression.

And reverses -- as you view it, you realize, Ned Racine the lawyer has come to see Teddy Lewis the guy who's apparently been on the wrong side of the law (Teddy:  "I wouldn't even be on the street if it wasn't for you").  But what Ned has come to see him about is something bad -- something he shouldn't be doing.  Now it's the lawyer who's about to be on the "wrong side" of the law.  You also realize in this scene, that in the past Racine has helped and counseled Teddy Lewis; now, it's reversed:  Teddy helps and tries to counsel the lawyer (the "counselor").

Racine has requested an explosive device, and Mr. Lewis has built it for him, and is now showing him how to use it.  However, we note that after he shows Ned Racine how to use it, he advises him not to use it at all.  ("Don't do it.")

It's this way -- and then it's that way.  Twist -- then go back.  Reverses.  Zig-zags.  Reverses.  Here's how to do it.  But -- don't do it.

--------------------------------------
{Body Heat, script by Lawrence Kasdan, 1981}

-30-