Heatwave
1982
Heatwave is a thriller set in Sydney about the
fight against old town houses being torn down to make massive high-rise
developments. Kate Dean (Judy Davis) is a local who works on the local
paper and is heavily involved in campaign against the development. The
development is some sort of massive apple tree inspired complex funded by
Peter Houseman (Chris Haywood) and designed by hot-shot architect Stephen
West (Richard Moir). The head of the campaign, Mary Ford, disappears,
possibly murdered and some people who live in the town houses are killed
in a way to make it look like an accident. Stephen gets a conscirnce and
decides to do his own snooping around and finds something is indeed
rotten. A local sleaze king is very heavily involved and it looks like
Kate is going to be next.
Directed by Phillip Noyce (director of Salt,
Clear and Present Danger, Patriot Games, The Saint, Rabbit Proof Fence,
Dead Calm etc.) and with a story pretty much the same as The Killing of
Angel Street released in the same year, this is a solid thriller with
excellent leads. Well, Judy Davis is always good, even if she manages to
piss everyone off on set (sounds like she did here). Noyce is a very
reliable filmmaker with not really any bad films to his name and Heatwave
is well worth a look.
Judy Davis film clip (collage
below)
Gillian Jones film clip
(collages below)
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