Heat (1972)

Director:

Paul Morrissey

Writers:

John Hallowell (idea)
Paul Morrissey (story)

Release Date:

6 October 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Plot:

"Heat" is a parody of "Sunset Boulevard." Joey Davis, an unemployed ex-child actor, uses sex to get his landlady...

Plot Keywords:

Actor | Lesbian | Oral Sex | Aging | Gay Parent

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Joe Dallesandro	...	Joey Davis
Sylvia Miles	...	Sally Todd
Andrea Feldman	...	Jessica Todd
Pat Ast	...	Lydia
Ray Vestal	...	Ray
Lester Persky	...	Sidney (as P. J. Lester)
Eric Emerson	...	Eric
Harold Childe	...	Harold
John Hallowell	...	John
Gary Koznocha	...	Gary
Pat Parlemon	...	Girl at pool
Bonnie Walder	...	Bonnie

Also Known As:

Andy Warhol's Heat
Hollywood (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Canada:R (Ontario) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia) | West Germany:18 | Australia:R | Finland:K-16 | France:-16 | Norway:15 (cut) | UK:18 (video rating) (1991) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:R | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Company:

Andy Warhol Factory

Quotes:

[first lines]
Lydia: Hey! Don't throw that kid in the pool!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Warhol's Cinema 1963-1968: Mirror for the Sixties (1989) (TV)

Heat is a Masterpiece

Heat is of the best films I have ever seen, and I consider it one of the greatest ever made. Must a great movie be slick, artificially lit and laboriously plotted?

Heat is an honest and hilarious portrayal of dysfunction, ugliness and despair with comedic innocence at its core. It is a visionary look into the souls of the much-less-than-beautiful people in a sun-bleached setting where poverty and suicide lurk just around the corner to glamor (glamor that is only parodied by the impoverishment of the production). At the height of their improbability, the characters are more real, more vivid and enigmatic than 99.9% of Hollywood factory fare. In the moments of their most wooden acting, the fascinations of the real person - whether it be the gapingly numb Joe Dallesandro, the ogrishly preening Pat Ast or the gonzo mystery of Andrea Feldmen, emerges with overexposed brilliance.

Sylvia Miles plays her role with subtlety and iconic ugliness. She is not trying to look "marketable," as so many do, but to play a part as naturally as a spirited animal defecating in a forest. There is rarely an ending so original in a film, too - the impotence of further tragedy in an already so tragic film. Burning through the most awkward of 70s fashion and through its slick rivals with fashion-model actors, Heat is raw psychological meat on an open flame.