Dennis Hopper’s side hustle as a movie director is sporadic and overshadowed by his prolific credits and versatility in front of the camera (we shall never forget he is also the helmer of EASY RIDER, 1969). THE HOT SPOT, the penultimate feature film he directs, didn’t set the world on fire when it was released. It is a slow-burning neo-noir fantasy showered in dramatically saturated hues, a mixture of THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946), BODY HEAT (1981), DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) that highlight a femme fatale with her hapless prey of the opposite sex, its source is a Charles Williams’ hardboiled novel that dates back to 1953.

Our antihero Harry Madox (Johnson) is so level-headed that not for a minute, can he be fooled by Dolly Harshaw (Madsen), the wife of his boss George Harshaw (Hardin). He knows she is a trouble at the glance, but it takes one to know one. There is no smoke and mirrors in Dolly’s wiles, she is an open book, she wants Harry because they are cut from the same cloth. A woman like Dolly cannot survive without a man in her life, so she carefully chooses a virile Harry as George’s successor, the only hurdle is, Harry thinks he deserves better, manages to sweep the feet of a 19-year-old girl Gloria Harper (Connelly), whose purity seems inviolable, he plans to marry her and start a new life somewhere else (interestingly, the connotation that Gloria might be swinging both ways doesn’t seem to bother him at all).

Were it not for his ambition, Harry might have a chance to wangle his holy grail, a drifter with no past fetching up in a small Texas town, Harry is conferred with the gift of gab, but he is not satisfied to live on the straight and narrow as a used car salesman, after carrying off an ill-conceived (and ridiculously easy) bank robbery, the local sheriff (and by extension, almost everyone around him) is much smarter than he reckons, his fate is sealed.

But just when feminine manipulation and masculine misogyny reach the boiling point near the end, tragedy seems ineluctable, Hopper asserts himself as a mischievous nonconformist, the send-off takes a u-turn and any attempt of moralization is dispelled. Dolly always gets what she wants, unlike Matty Walker in BODY HEAT, who also gets what she wants, Dolly has no disguise, she doesn’t pull wools over Harry’s eyes, and their tryst is also for her pleasure, she is unapologetically true to herself and her evilness has grits in it. Madsen arouses us with stunning sultriness, along with her discordant southern accent; Johnson is so singularly hard-nosed, when he fights off a sleazy deadbeat in the person of William Sadler, the type once he leeches off on you, he will not let you off the hook, you dread he doesn’t pull punches, and Sadler certainly knows how to take a beating and play a stiff convincingly. Connelly, on the cusp of adulthood, is as gorgeous as hell albeit Gloria doesn’t necessarily belong to that milieu, she is a lady!

On the minus side, THE HOT SPOT is weighed down by a lackluster tempo, especially during the first half, and a slapdash reveal (Gloria’s change of heart is noticeably contrived). Also it becomes quite conspicuous that Hopper’s characters’ sense of perception is delimited within the frame, imagine after Harry kisses Gloria good night, he turns back, a police officer standing just beside the frame, where is everybody’s peripheral vision?

Lastly, the icing on the cake is its soundtrack, scored by Jack Nitzsche with a potpourri of dazzling jazz tunage. THE HOT SPOT might not be a chef d’oeuvre, but for it is worth, the “hotness” is there from A to Z.

referential entries: Lawrence Kasdan’s BODY HEAT (1981, 7.9/10); Tay Garnett’s THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946, 6.4/10); Billy Wilder's DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944, 8.2/10).

Title: The Hot Spot

Year: 1990

Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance

Country: USA

Language: English

Director: Dennis Hopper

Screenwriters: Nona Tyson, Charles Williams

based on Williams’ novel “Hell Hath No Fury”

Music: Jack Nitzsche

Cinematography: Ueli Steiger

Editing: Wende Phifer Mate

Cast:

Don Johnson

Virginia Madsen

Jennifer Connelly

William Sadler

Charles Martin Smith

Jerry Hardin

Jack Nance

Barry Corbin

Rating: 7.1/10

這部電影不能僅看看風(fēng)月，應(yīng)該看出通過看似男女之間的情感問題，導(dǎo)演想表達現(xiàn)實與夢想之間的距離。

男主已經(jīng)過三十而立的年齡，還幻想著美夢。當(dāng)然每個人都有做美夢的權(quán)利，但是美夢能否實現(xiàn)則是另回事。19歲的康納利如同男主的美夢一樣風(fēng)情迷人，夏天熱不穿胸罩，半袖羞輪廓乳頭。她太年輕，太美麗，每個人都想要，石油工人亦不例外。

石油工人拍照抓住了康納利的把柄----同性戀，向她索要錢，她則需要有人幫助她擺脫這個困境--錢和照片?；蛘?，用另外一種表述來講，每個人都有理想，理想那么誘人，現(xiàn)實那么慘淡，實現(xiàn)理想需要付出以及能否承受付出的代價。男主缺錢就搶了銀行，老板娘知道了他的把柄。想當(dāng)初不是為了錢，老板娘委身與老板嗎？老板滿足了錢的欲望，滿足不了其他需求。男主正好滿足這兩個需要，帥哥又有性能力，又能調(diào)情。自古以來， 潘驢鄧小閑 ，五大要素， 男人追女人需具備的五個條件 。

男主怎么滿足康納利，自己搶來的錢替她補上賬戶上偷的錢，康納利沒有債務(wù)危機了，他們倆可以私奔。男主似乎沒想明白康納利同性戀的事實。老板娘通過睡丑陋的石油工人，看透了康納利用完男主會果斷離開他計劃（康納利是同性戀），她率先把老板在床上制造捆綁性愛高潮之死的假象，中間截胡。畢竟男主可沒有什么把抓住康納利的把柄。最后時刻男主也想明白了康納利的用意，果斷退坑，跟老板娘私奔了。畢竟電影中他們倆的鬼混細分真不少，而跟康納利曬曬太陽，游游泳，從沒上過壘。

人到中年，應(yīng)該妥協(xié)和放棄一些東西了。康納利的失敗在于，由于同性戀沒有讓男主上壘，光靠美色，顯然斗不過美色和智慧的一身的老板娘，而且功課做的不好，顯然不知道老板娘跟男主搞的昏天暗地?；蛘吣贻p人的通病，光年輕沒有智慧。這也為什么社會中流抵觸是中年人，而不是年輕人，他們知道什么值得抓住和挽留，什么應(yīng)該放棄。

ps:1、劇情推進太慢了點。

2、全程靠康納利和老板娘的色誘支撐，差點忘了導(dǎo)演想表達啥。

2019.12.13日

康納利，老板娘，男主角的共同點是什么？

你為了實現(xiàn)你的夢想，付出什么代價？

男主角縱火搶銀行;老板娘用自己的美貌換錢享受生活，于此同時跟石油工媾和滿足性需求;康納利偷公司的錢，想跟姐姐一起享受;all about money,all about life.

有些人成功，有些則失敗。

《激情沸點》。8分。

丹尼斯·霍珀導(dǎo)演，唐·約翰遜、維吉尼亞·馬德森、詹妮弗·康納利主演作品。

久聞這個片子大名，一直在等機會看，以為只是個腦殘愛情片，輕松看完。

萬萬沒想到，這個片子竟然如此杰出！

我甚至很難去定義這個片子屬于什么類型？愛情？犯罪？情色？好像都有，又好像不完全是。

唐·約翰遜飾演的謎一樣的男人哈里來到一座小鎮(zhèn)，莫名出手賣掉一臺車后就順利進入車行工作，在意迅雷不及掩人耳目之勢睡了老板娘后，他竟然出手打劫了銀行，還在得手后沖進火海救了一名醉漢。

哈里謎一樣的氣質(zhì)在片中前一個小時泛濫，他使全片充滿了荷爾蒙的誘惑，又正好遇上維吉尼亞·馬德森飾演的老板娘哈肖夫人不僅騷情萬種，而且十分開放而粘膩。

好在詹妮弗·康納利飾演的19歲少女歌莉婭清純?nèi)绯鏊饺?，彼時她真的是19歲。但歌莉婭也不是吃素的，不僅主動撩起了36歲的哈里大叔，還一直為年少時的桃色事件所困。

這可不是一座普通的小鎮(zhèn)，它像一張巨大的蜘蛛網(wǎng)一樣。

哈里解決了一個又一個問題，但沒辦法，姜還是放久了的騷，他又怎么跑得出哈肖夫人那條迷你的石榴裙呢？

電影男主角哈里是個比較矛盾的人，既有清高的一面，也有世俗的一面，編劇一直給大家設(shè)好一個局，就是假設(shè)歌莉婭和薩頓有一腿，哈里也和大家一樣假設(shè)，直到栽贓的晚上碰到薩頓和女人上床，看見那雙鞋，更加認定歌莉婭是被薩頓要挾占有的，但是當(dāng)看見老板娘臉上的傷疤才如夢初醒，歌莉婭是圣潔的，沒有被玷污。

這時候哈里可能也意識到自己是配不上歌莉婭的，首先是老板娘曾經(jīng)說過的，他們是一類人，是一丘之貉，其次是老板娘的被窩才是哈里的舒適區(qū)，有錢也有姿色，為了自己可以豁出去，和歌莉婭一起估計是無窮無盡的付出，所以最后回心轉(zhuǎn)意，和老板娘一起了，最后也是因為老板娘掌握哈里的把柄，這是比較次要的原因了。

激情沸點這部電影看似是簡單的風(fēng)月電影，沒有什么深度，其實也有一定的人生哲理的，那就是人要有自知之明，搞清楚自己是個什么人，哪里是自己的舒適區(qū)，這樣才能真正快樂。否則是害人害己，哈里是聰明的他在最后作出了正確的選擇，雖然有童話情結(jié)的人可能會感到惋惜，但是可以肯定哈里的前途的光明的，祝大家也能夠找到自己的舒適區(qū)。