If you look at George Lucas’ filmography, one thing is abundantly clear, he is a master of sci-fi movies. The legendary director made his Hollywood debut in the same genre by extending his 1967 short film, Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB into a full-length feature THX 1138, in 1971. But over the years the director has been involved in many movies, while he has credits for many projects, the director also made sure to leave some movies without his name involved.
George Lucas Refused Credit In Lawrence Kasdan’s 1981 Noir Thriller
George Lucas. Image Credit: Joey Gannon/CC
George Lucas, one of the richest directors and the creator of the Star Wars franchise which is still adding more projects, refused to have his name attached to Lawrence Kasdan-written and directed 1981 neo-noir erotic thriller, Body Heat. The movie starring William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, and Richard Crenna was Kasdan’s directorial debut.
Recently, Lucas received an honorary Palme d’Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival for his contribution to cinema. The director also revealed several details of his movies and career at Cannes and amid that, Lucas reflected on Body Heat. “I actually helped [Lawrence] Kasdan get his first movie off the ground,” Lucas shared (via Collider).
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However, the director didn’t put his name on it. “I didn’t put my name on a bunch of movies,” he continued saying Body Heat was one of them. “I said, ‘Larry, if I put my name on that movie, it’s all gonna be about me. It’s all gonna be about me making these kinds of movies, and we don’t want that,’” Lucas explained. “I want it to be you making this movie,” he added.
From a fairly reasonable perspective, Lucas let the movie grow on its own and it was a decent box-office success earning $24 million at the box office against the production budget of just $9 million.
What Body Heat Is About?
A Still Frame From Body Heat. Image Credit: Warner Bros.
Body Heat centers around the classic thematic essence of a neo-noir film. The spicy thriller is a tale of passion, betrayal, and of course, murder. William Hurt plays Ned Racine, a shyster lawyer roped into a passionate affair with Kathleen Turner’s Matty Walker but she is the wife of a wealthy Florida businessman, played by Richard Crenna.
Racine started to develop his ploy to kill her husband with the help of his criminal clients so that he could run away with her with all the money her husband possessed. However, double-crossing has created more twists and turns trapping the lawyer in a treacherous situation.
Inherently, Body Heat is sexy and in all its fairness, the movie kept the underlying tone of edgy thriller sustained throughout the narrative.
Kathleen Turner, the leading lady of the thriller described the movie as a “murder love story,” (via Cheesy Buzz). “To me,” she added, “it’s about um about obsession about a single-mindedness.” The actor went on to explain, “I think that the quality of Matty Walker, my character has this incredible ability to close everything out of her life except for this thing that she wants and the power that that generates is fascinating and deadly.”
Body Heat is a cult classic and a huge critical heat. The movie claimed an astonishing 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
