When it comes to thrillers, few do them like filmmaker Brian De Palma. If it’s not his take on Elliot Ness’s quest to arrest Al Capone in The Untouchables (1987) being quoted, chances are it’s his adaptation of Tony Montana’s rise and fall in Scarface (1983). Some will argue that Blow Out (1981) is his best (once more screening in select theaters at the time of this writing), while there’s no denying the brilliance that kicked off an unexpected franchise with Mission: Impossible (1996). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is treating De Palma fans with a first-time 4K UHD with Dolby Vision remaster of his erotic crime thriller Body Double for its 40th anniversary, adding a few additional flourishes to go with several prior release materials. As modern audiences tend to hem and haw over titillation, now seems like a good time to remember that it’s ok to watch, just maybe not get involved (without consent, of course).
Jake Scully (Craig Wasson) is having a shitty day. First, he’s asked to leave the set after a bout of claustrophobia prevents him from completing a scene. Then, he walks in on his girlfriend cheating on him in their shared apartment. As luck would find it, he finds a sublet thanks to a fellow actor, Sam (Gregg Henry), in a nice apartment with a spectacular view which includes a beautiful semi-naked woman who dances in her room if you point a telescope in the right direction. However, this view comes at a cost as Jake finds himself quickly caught in a web of intrigue and murder in which his only hope to survive is through.
With this being a first-time 4K UHD limited edition steelbook remaster, we’re going to focus on that before anything else.
The packaging is the first thing you’ll notice with the front cover leaning hard into the voyeuristic elements as it depicts a male figure from behind moving window blinds out of the way to look at an underwear-clad female arching her back in ecstasy. The red, purples, and black enhance the sense of secretive sexual energy De Palma’s film powers itself with, continuing onto the back where we see a colorized profile image of Melanie Griffith’s (Working Girl) Holly Body. The front cover is specifically a recreation of past Blu-ray artwork, so it may only be scintillating to new owners. Inside the steelbook are two distinct images visible under the clear plastic liner, with the left featuring Holly with her arms raised in the scene before she and Jake go out and the right (when the 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs are removed) featuring Jake in the same shot. It’s hard to makeout in the steelbook, but easier to identify in the packshot image below. The 4K UHD disc features the profile image of Holly, while the Blu-ray has Jake at the telescope.
BODY DOUBLE 4K UHD limited edition steelbook packshot. Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment/Columbia Pictures.
For bonus features, this limited edition includes several previously released features and two respectively different ones. The first new is the Frankie Goes to Hollywood music video for “Relax” that is being shot in one of the movie-within-a-movie portions of the film as Jake goes undercover in the porn industry to meet Holly, ultimately having sex with her on camera. The second is a set of three EPK (electronic press kit) interviews featuring De Palma, Wasson, and Griffith. The three interviews make up roughly 10 minutes and can be individually selected, but each one follows the same pattern of displayed-to-us question and answered by the subject. De Palma’s and Griffith’s epk interviews are particularly interesting as each are asked (and therefore answer) their respective connections to filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock (De Palma a fan, evidenced by Body Double’s homages and Griffith’s mother being The Birds’s Tippi Hedren). The rest of the materials are from prior releases: four featurettes, a still gallery, and a theatrical trailer. With that in mind, there’s not much newly added via bonus features that will get the blood pumping in hungry anticipation, so let’s move on to the restoration itself.
According to the press notes, all we know about the 4K UHD edition is that the 4K UHD disc is in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision, while the Blu-ray disc is in 1080 p sourced from the 4K master. What that means for the Blu-ray is that it contains a 4K remaster, which, even without a direct comparison to the prior release, is likely going to look better. This is a reasonable presumption due to having explored other 4K remasters released on 1080 p discs. In terms of the 4K UHD disc itself, there’s little in the film that one might presume will benefit automatically from increased detail or higher dynamic range of color since the film itself is shot in a fairly realistic manner, Stephen H. Burum’s (Mission: Impossible; The Untouchables) cinematography leaning more toward capturing things as they are rather than placing a filter on things to create the illusion of eroticism. Rather, the cinematography changed to fit the “reality” of the film, whether it’s how the on-set world of Jake’s film is heightened as a punk rock vampiric tale or giving the sequence where Jake peeps on Gloria (or who he thinks is Gloria) a sultry feel or making the mundane seem extraordinary (such as the chase across the beach and into tunnel). The whole of Body Double involves nothing being what it seems at any given moment and Burum’s work maintains that consistently throughout the film. So, the neons get a nice, high brightness, while the darks (especially at night) are a nice inky black, while the daytime shots aren’t overblown or dramatic nor are the moments where nudity is involved that isn’t specifically connected to some illusion. In those scenes, skin is natural in tone, with physical details being quite easy to notice. Given that the film is shot in the 1980s, there’s an ever-present soft filter regardless of time of day, but it doesn’t distract here in the slightest. From a technical perspective, when checking the bitrate, Body Double’s 4K UHD disc maintains around 60-70 Mbps during play, which implies that Sony made sure to utilize as much available space as possible with the 4K disc to create the optimum viewing experience. If there’s a big issue with the 4K UHD, it’s the same one that Warner Bros. Picture’s Batman (1989) 4K UHD ran into which is that it’s easier to notice make-up and prosthetics use than it may have been originally, making the suspicious “Indian” easier to deduce as a red herring.
In terms of audio, the 4K UHD edition includes a Dolby Atmos track, as well as English 5.1, English 2.0, and various foreign language options; while the Blu-ray offers the English 5.1 and English 2.0, plus foreign language. As EoM can’t test for Dolby Atmos, we can confirm that the English 5.1 track is well-balanced, the often-sultry score from Pino Donaggio (Carrie; Blow Out) enveloping you without drowning out or overtaking the dialogue.
The film itself is constantly daring you to look. Where films from filmmakers like Tinto Brass (All Girls Do It; Frivolous Lola) make movies seemingly as an excuse to paw at naked girls, De Palma’s Body Double fully embracing the voyeuristic, challenging its audience to look intently, whether to get a thrill from naked flesh or to bask in horror at betrayal (real or via fake-out). First, it’s the film’s opening that startles us via Jake (unknown to us as an actor) in profile lying down, his eyes and mouth opening in horror at us, only for them to get locked a little too long and a voice off-screen yelling, “cut.” In this moment, De Palma has us observe Jake in a moment of vulnerability not too dissimilar to what comes later, the difference being that (from the score and cinematography) we’re meant to be uncomfortable with Jake’s terror-struck face as his claustrophobia takes over whereas we’re meant to get aroused by watching Gloria (Deborah Shelton) dance in the distance. Over and over, De Palma’s Body Double invites us to look, to study, to analyze each frame for some kind of truth. Even the closing credits are lurid as, with the adventure over and Jake back at work, the credits literally roll as we watch Jake caress and grope the literally body double for the film being shot within the film. Though one’s reaction to the variety of sexual exploits on-screen may differ (I find myself less likely to sympathize with Jake as the film wants and find his choices quite gross, but that’s less fun for this erotic thriller), there’s no doubt that De Palma frames the entire film as if we ourselves are Jake, wanting to look, liking to look, and grappling with the shame that he feels from it. This gives the entirety of Body Double a precision and consistently that offers push-back against baser skinflicks (nothing wrong with those either) as sex is treated as perfectly normal between adults and, instead, asks “why do we look?” all the way until the film wraps.
Sex is normal, sex is natural. Where the perversity comes into play in Body Double, that’s where the real issues lay and that’s worthy of discussion. It doesn’t matter how nice of a guy you are nor how well-meaning, if you’re spying on people in private moments, if you’re meeting people under false pretenses, you’re not that nice. Thankfully, the script by Robert J. Avrech (The Devil’s Arithmetic) and De Palma (who wrote the story) doesn’t so much want you to think that Jake is a nice guy, just one who hasn’t figured out how to embrace his freaky side without shame or remorse while maintaining consent. This is why Body Double remains a fascinating watch, even as the standards for gender roles and behaviors shift from then to now. It wants you to know that it’s ok to watch, that it’s ok to feel something by watching. Just don’t go too far or you may wind up falling into a well-laid trap that won’t get you laid the way you plan.
All of that to say, if having a 4K UHD edition with a few new special features in a shiny steelbook is your thing, then you’re about to get a whole lot of yum in one package. But with the new materials being so few and the cost of steelbooks being strangely high via countless limited editions, you may be fine to stay with the Blu-ray you have.
Body Double Special Features:
4K UHD
- Feature presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision
- English Dolby Atmos + English 5.1 + English 2-Channel Surround
Blu-ray
- Feature presented in high definition, sourced from the 4K master
- English 5.1 + English 2-Channel Surround
- *NEW* Archival EPK Interviews with Brian De Palma, Craig Wasson and Melanie Griffith
- *NEW* Frankie Goes to Hollywood “Relax” Music Video (Body Double Version)
- Four (4) Featurettes: The Seduction; The Setup; The Mystery; The Controversy
- Still Gallery
- Theatrical Trailer
Available on 4K UHD Blu-ray Combo and digital September 24th, 2024.
For more information, head to the official Sony Pictures Body Double webpage.
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Categories: Home Release, Recommendation
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