Body Double Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Body Double Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson May 21, 2020

Brian De Palma's BODY DOUBLE (1984) has been covered previously by my colleagues Jeffrey Kauffman and Dr. Svet Atanasov. Jeff reviewed Twilight Time's Limited Edition BD-50 and Svet handled Carlotta Films' Édition Coffret Ultra Collector as well as Powerhouse Films' Limited Edition from the label's Indicator Series.

Given the ingenious stylist that he is, Brian De Palma would also have made a great filmmaker during the silent era. Countless instances throughout his six-decade career in filmmaking illustrate how he uses the power of visuals to tell a story with little to no dialogue. A couple of scenes in Body Double that are tours de force exemplify De Palma's aesthetic strengths. Jake Scully (Craig Wasson) has followed Gloria Revelle (Deborah Shelton) to a Beverly Hills luxury mall. An American Indian, who was seen working on a satellite at Gloria's home in Hollywood Hills a few days earlier, is also following Gloria and lurking around Jake. De Palma and his cinematographer Stephen H. Burum frame high-angle shots of Jake pursuing Gloria on the escalator. The camera tracks Jake's movement as he peers through the class window of a woman's lingerie boutique. A clerk notices Jake and calls a security guard to escort him out. Gloria and Jake head into a cramped glass elevator, making it highly uncomfortable for Jake due to his claustrophobia. The camera is in there with them and uses a reverse angle to show the doors opening, which heightens the suspense because the Indian has been hot on their trail. In the parking lot, Gloria quickly gets her back from the valet and speeds off. Jake hurries to keep tabs on her and ends up driving by a beach. Gloria is supposed to meet someone at the seaside motel to discuss her troubled marriage but s/he is a no-show. Burum swoops on a crane, tilting the camera to show Jake sidling down the steps to find Gloria on one of the patios. When the two characters reach the beach, the Indian glides across and pilfers Gloria's purse. Burum films horizontal tracking shots of Jake chasing the thief all the way through a tunnel where they tussle. These two amazing scenes contain few words spoken and demonstrate De Palma's expert choreography of action. (This in no way diminishes composer Pino Donaggio's musical underscore, which fits the on-screen images to perfection.)

Sam shows Jake the big telescope.

When Body Double opened in American in October 1984, the critical community paid far more attention to the film's explicit portrayal of sexuality and violence than on De Palma's direction and Burum's skillful camerawork. (There were some notable exceptions, including the Gannett News Service's William Wolf, who stated, "De Palma's direction is the most stylistically accomplished of his career.") At the time, De Palma was upset about trimmings the MPAA forced him to make on Dressed to Kill (1980) and Scarface (1983). Press reports quoted him as proclaiming, "I'm going to make Body Double an X movie. You wanna see violence. You wanna see sex? I think it's about time to blow the top off the ratings!" His recipe seemed to work. Malcolm L. Johnson of the Hartford (CT) Curant observed that while Body Double eventually go an R rating, "this film comes as close to an X as any recent Hollywood film." For the movie's most notorious and well-known sequence, Richard Freedman of Newhouse News Service had this to say: "Here [De Palma] substitutes a power drill, in a sequence that had at least one preview audience booing and hissing."

In a sublet that Sam Bouchard (Gregg Henry) has let him stay in, Jake peers through a telescope into the bedroom window across the way occupied by Gloria, who performs a nightly masturbatory ritual. For these Peeping Tom scenes, De Palma's critics have labeled Body Double as another of the director's perverse exercises in displaying women as fetishized objects for the "male gaze." On the one hand, Jake is reeling from the humiliating experience of seeing his girlfriend, Carol (Barbara Crampton), in bed with another man so he's eager to hook up with a sexy and attractive woman. But on the other hand, Jake is more interested in what's going on around Gloria's house and inside the rooms. Jake, as very sensitively played by Craig Wasson, is more fascinated and curious by Gloria and her predicaments than he is lustful (although he'd prefer to be with her than alone). In a similar vein, Jake really wants to discover the back story of adult film star Holly Body (Melanie Griffith) rather than produce and/or appear in porn films. De Palma and co-screenwriter Robert J. Avrech have smartly written the main character of Jake, which helps make Body Double so much more than a warmed-up version of Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954).

Body Double Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sony Pictures US has released Body Double as a MOD BD-R 50 using the MPEG-4 AVC encode. De Palma's sixteenth feature appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. This transfer derives from the same 4K scan used on the Carlotta and Powerhouse Blu-rays that Svet critiqued, although the image is not identical. The Sony and those two releases differ from the Twilight Time, which is presumably sourced from a 2K scan, has a slightly different grain structure, and applies some filtering. Black levels on the Sony are very deep (see especially Screenshot #8).

Where the Sony varies a little bit compared to the Carlotta and Powerhouse is in color temperature. In screen captures 15-18, Jake's skin tone is a smidgen warmer on the Sony. The Powerhouse's image is slightly brighter. Jake's forehead and cheeks appear a little whiter in #16. Skin tones were generally warmer on the two Sony DVDs released in the 2000s. The larger the screen, the more apparent this subtle difference is.

Sony 2016 Choice Collection BD-R 50 = Screenshot #s 1-14, 15, 17, & 19
Indicator 2016 Powerhouse Films BD-50 = Screenshot #s 16, 18, & 20

Body Double Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sony supplies an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround remix (48kHz, 24-bit). The remastered sound track is excellent, although the disc is missing the original stereo mix that Powerhouse included on its LE and reissue. Dialogue is clean and clearly enunciated. The rear channels truly come alive when footsteps and other ambience are heard in the glass elevator scene.

Donaggio's score opens with some clanging percussion for Vampire's Kiss, the film-within-a-film. The cue "It's a Chance," which plays over the main titles as Jake enjoys the open air during a drive, begins with low-key piano that's developed and repeated with the same phrases by the strings. The piece has soaring beauty and is the most tonal and harmonious in the entire score. For the scenes where Jake observes Gloria, Donaggio incorporates a female vocalist who's fittingly very sensuous-sounding. The music has a pretty distinctive aural presence on all speakers. Intrada released Donaggio's complete score on CD and after the first pressing sold out, the label reissued it but that sold out too! The British band Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax," which is performed diegetically in a barroom scene, became an instant favorite of mine the moment I heard it and sounds dynamic on the lossless 5.1.

Optional English and French subs as well as English SDH can be switched on from the pop-up menu. (There's no main menu.)

Body Double Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Sony has only recycled the extra features that premiered on its 2006 Special Edition DVD. The newer bonus materials produced for the Carlotta, which later appeared on the Powerhouse, have not been licensed here.

• The Seduction (16:43, 480i)

• The Setup (16:54, 480i)

• The Mystery (12:15, 480i)

• The Controversy (5:32, 480i)

• Theatrical Trailer (1:28)

Body Double Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Body Double is a sensational erotic horror thriller that's one of Brian De Palma's most underrated films of the '80s. The Sony US release is indeed a BD-R and lacks the supplements which most recently appeared on the French and UK Blu-rays. I do prefer the skin tones on this transfer, which are a tad more natural-looking than on the two other 4K-scanned transfers. Scarface is presently the only De Palma movie on UHD and Body Double probably won't be released any time soon on that format. While not the most complete package of the film (that nod goes to the Carlotta and Indicator LEs), this disc comes STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.