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August is an imposing thing. Down where I live, the heat is so fully embodied that it’s something you have to walk through rather than merely feel. It’s its own entity with a trickster personality that encourages poor choices and snap judgments, a dealer of bad moods and a constant source of aggravation – and I have air conditioning! But I’m not alone in feeling this way. Study after study shows that hot weather can have a powerful effect on a person, and not a positive one. Here are four films where heat had a cameo, if not a headline role.
“12 Angry Men” (1957) – A classic by director Sidney Lumet, “12 Angry Men” centers around the jurors in a murder trial where a young man is accused of murdering his father with a knife. The jurors are hung by one man, Juror No. 8 (Henry Fonda), who forces the others, over the course of the hottest day of the year cramped in a stuffy juror’s room, to debate and review not only the evidence of the case, but also their own prejudices and motivations.
“Body Heat” (1981) – Sexy and sultry as the sweltering heat of South Florida, Kathleen Turner makes her feature debut as Matty, a young wife to a much older, absentee husband. She finds an ardent and adoring lover in bumbling lawyer Ned (William Hurt), who’d truly do anything for her – even unburden her of her husband. In true noir fashion, the pair enact a plot to do just that, but you should never trust a dame. This is one hot and steamy thriller!
Rosie Perez, Spike Lee in “Do the Right Thing” (Universal Pictures photo)
“Do the Right Thing” (1989) – A Brooklyn neighborhood finds racial tensions simmering on the hottest day of the year, and there are plenty of spoons to stir the pot of trouble that’s ready to boil over. Mookie (Spike Lee) works at a local pizza shop owned by Sal (Danny Aiello). When two neighborhood residents demand Sal add Black celebrities to his Italian-American Wall of Fame and he refuses, the protest turns violent. The story is as relevant today as it was when it hit theaters.
“Falling Down” (1993) – Michael Douglas plays William Foster, laid off from his defense-industry job, who is on the way to his ex-wife’s house for his daughter’s birthday when his car’s AC stops working and he gets caught in endless LA gridlock. In that moment, he goes buck nuts crazy, leaves that junker on the side of the road and tears across the LA landscape with a fierce thirst for vengeance on purveyors of little injustices, like the fast food restaurant that won’t serve you breakfast if you’re even a minute too late. He’s pursued by a detective (Robert Duval) on his last day before retirement.
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“The High Note”
“NCIS: New Orleans” Season 6
“Blue Bloods” Season 10
“Why Women Kill” Season 1
© 2020 King Features Synd., Inc.
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