"Heatwave!" Movie: A 70s Social Experiment?

 

I remember watching a movie way back in high school, and it flipped a lot of people out in an interesting way. Over the last two decades or so, as I've begun waking up, I occasionally think about that movie, and wonder if maybe it was a bit more than just a movie. 

 Back then, when network TV was all there was, they had "Made for TV" movies. Heatwave! came out in 1974, and a bunch of us got together to watch it at someone's house. Before YouTube, the Internet, computers and even cable TV, a "Made for TV" movie was a big deal, so we had a party. It was a scene repeated all over the country. 

 A few months ago I looked it up and watched it on YouTube. It appears to be ripped from a TV broadcast, probably from a VHS tape. I'd forgotten that it had this "Made for TV" babe, Bonnie Bedelia. I'd forgotten her name, but she was in every TV show of the day, and a few real movies. I didn't have a thing for too many movie stars, although Kim Darby comes to mind...but I thought Bonnie was really hot. 

It also starred "Actor Guy," whose name I can't remember either. He was also in every TV show of the day, although I don't think he cracked the big screen like Bonnie did. He was sort of a living Ken doll dude, or a TWG (Token White Guy). As you can see he's supposedly sweating, as were all the other people in the movie for the whole time. 

 The movie chronicled a heat wave, presumably somewhere in California. It started off with Bonnie and Actor Guy trying to sleep, already drenched in sweat, waking up and watching the window-unit AC go off. They set the tone for the movie right off the bat...hot as Hell, and getting hotter. 

 The first half of the movie was in the city, and the second half was at a cabin in the mountains, where they went to escape the heat and the city. As the movie progressed they'd cut to scenes of the temp climbing...first 92 degrees at the start of the heat wave, finally to 118 or so. That's hot.

 A bunch of shit happened besides just a bunch of people being freshly-misted with baby oil before each scene...there were blackouts, she was nine months pregnant, water was scarce, they ran out of gas, got mugged, etc., more bad guys near the cabin and other such drama, but it turned out okay. 

 I think a more interesting drama took place in the room where we watched the movie, and again, it was a scene repeated all across the US. The temperature in the room was normal, but about halfway into the movie, we all began to feel hot, and we opened all the windows. The odd thing about that was that it was freezing outside... the dead of Winter. It just seemed like the normal thing to do, although it wasn't. I remember sitting there thinking that with all the windows open and it being Winter, it must've been 40 degrees tops in the room, yet we all felt hot. There's a mindfuck for you. 

 I don't remember too many "Made for TV" movies from back in high school, but Heatwave! was one of them. Just to make sure I was remembering it right, I looked up the release date, and sure enough it came out in January. It's interesting enough that a movie about a heat wave would come out in the Winter, but I suppose it wouldn't have had the same impact as it would if it was released in July. And again, without the Internet and a million other distractions back then, this was a big deal, and it had a huge audience. 

 Lest ye think we were a singularity, and just a bunch of southern dumbasses being mindfucked by a movie, we learned over the next few days that the same thing happened everywhere it was cold and there was a TV set, which in January was most of the country. I guess after the movie ended, and people realized that they'd been mindfucked, and it was 30 degrees in their house, they shook their heads and cranked the thermostat. I wonder by what percent gas and electricity use went up in the hours after the movie ended, because it must have been significant. 

But was Heatwave! really a "social experiment?" If not, they sure couldn't have picked a better movie to do it with. A lot of people got gotten. It made me laugh at the time, although I was only just beginning to think more deeply about what was underneath, or behind the scenes, with stuff like this. 

 Here we see Actor Guy, Balding Actor Guy and sweaty, stripey Sally Secretary. This was early, before the blackouts and the AC going out and the water running dry. There was an ominous scene where Bonnie's character turned on the faucet, and brown sludge came out. Yikes. Everybody was soaked to the bone with sweat. 

 If Heatwave! wasn't a direct experiment, you can bet some people took note. If my dumb-ass noticed, other people way smarter than I am certainly noticed. Either that, or I'm just tripping, and making something out of nothing. In any case it was an amazing thing to witness, and I'm surprised more old-timers don't talk about it. Speaking of old-timers, like any old movie it's a visual history lesson, and this movie is worth watching, especially for free. Unlike so many movies these days, it had a happy ending. Ahhh...the good ol' days (sigh). 

 And speaking of good ol' days, I remembered my crush om Bonnie, and decided to peruse some images. I found this one of her, even wetter than in Heatwave! and showing a bit more skin...

...and finally, Ta-Dah...Bonnie semi-naked, in the not-made for TV movie Then Came Bronson. Often they fake "nude" photos of various stars, for nostalgic, horny old geezers like myself I guess, but this is a legit still from the movie...that's her.

 I saw that movie but it must've been the edited version, because I damn-sure wouldn't have forgotten seeing Bonnie half-naked. It couldn't happen. The first real naked woman I saw in a movie, and not just in a magazine, was whomever that sister was who was in the movie Vanishing Point. She came riding up totally naked on a motorcycle, and I'll never forget it. That's another one worth watching.  

 I saw Then Came Bronson in the "Edited for TV" version, and of course this scene was blurred or whatever, but it was part of an important scene which they couldn't leave out, but I don't remember how they got around it. Looking back, I feel cheated...I didn't get to see Bonnie naked, back when I had a crush on her. Anyway, that's my gratuitous nudity for the day. It's mostly for me anyway, since I'm the only one who reads this blog, but yeah...Id'a hit it, back in the day. She still looks pretty good, BTW.

 I think there's an excellent chance that Heatwave! could've been a social experiment, and I say that because we know for a fact...well, some of us know, that social-experimentation goes on 24/7. If it was, then I think they were just having a laugh, although the effect it had on people was very serious, and I saw it happen in real time. The crazy thing is that people didn't realize the absurdity of it at first...opening windows in the dead of Winter, because they felt hot from watching a movie. They didn't realize for a bit that they'd been mindfucked. 

 The fact that the movie had such an amazing effect makes me wonder if there was some "subliminal" stuff in it, such as quick text appearing on the screen, like "You're feeling hot" or whatever. It came out right about the time that all the stuff about subliminal advertising came out. Books such as Subliminal Seduction had come out, featuring the classic Gilbey's gin ad, which clearly shows "S-E-X" written in the ice cubes. 

 

 Things came to light, such as the now-famous experiments in movie theaters, back in the 60s and 70s, where they flashed things like "Drink Coke" and "Eat popcorn" flashed across the screen, too fast to be perceived consciously, but absolutely picked up by the subconscious, and everyone hit the concession stands, without really knowing why. What's hilarious is that all the big ad companies, when confronted, apologized and promised to stop doing it. Right. Believe me, subliminal advertising is alive and well.  

 I bet I watched about 100 "Made for TV" movies, and Heatwave! is the only one I can remember, so obviously it had an effect on me, and lots of others. Experiment or no, it was a trip to see. Stay cool.