Word: kasdan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Body Heat. Dark and supple and unpredictable, like the femme fatale at its core, Body Heat establishes Lawrence Kasdan as an awesomely assured writerdirector, and William Hurt as America's hunkiest loser...
Raiders of the Lost Ark. George (Empire) Lucas + Steven (Close Encounters) Spielberg + Lawrence (Body Heat) Kasdan + Harrison (Star Wars) Ford = intelligent, thrilling blockbuster. Moves like a Rolls-Royce over bad road...
...Lawrence Kasdan does, with a vengeance. Like John Sayles (Alligator, Return of the Secaucus 7), Kasdan proposes a return to basics in screenplays: clean narrative lines, understandable characters, tantalizing plot precipices. His scripts live comfortably within the conventions of their genres: sci-fi intrigue in The Empire Strikes Back, Saturday-matinee thrills in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the steamy crime story in Body Heat. All these films were made with George Lucas or Steven Spielberg; now Spielberg serves as an executive producer of the script, written in 1977, that brought Kasdan to his attention. Continental Divide...
...They must reverse roles: he cooks goulash while she overpowers a pair of hunters. They must adapt their skills to the new environment: Souchak defends himself against a mountain lion by calling on his street smarts. They must fall in love, part, reunite: they do. And then Kasdan must resolve the romance and still allow the characters to go their own way: does he ever...
...Kasdan's dialogue sometimes scans to sitcom rhythms. Transitions between sequences are too often punch lines to jokes played on the characters and the audience. But there are good sitcoms and bad, and Continental Divide is superior. John Belushi has dispensed with his randy Neanderthal persona to play that most hallowed of Hollywood leading-man roles: the extraordinary ordinary guy. Blair Brown is an earthy aristocrat and a resourceful actress: her face puffs and blotches beautifully when Nell's emotions demand it. If they are not quite Tracy and Hepburn, they will do until the real thing comes...