Sunset

In my last post I wrote about Grace Quigley, a film that had a very cool story idea that didn't translate as well on the big screen. Today's feature is another one that had a great story idea that didn't seem to find it's way to the final product, 1988's Sunset.

Legendary lawman Wyatt Earp, James Garner, is hired by a Hollywood studio to be a technical adviser on the set of a western starring silent film star Tom Mix, Bruce Willis. The two hit it off instantly and team up not just on the shoot, but also to solve a murder. Their main suspect is a Charlie Chaplin esque comedy actor, Malcolm McDowell.

Sounds great, right? Wrong. The film moves at a snail's pace. I think that writer/director Blake Edwards was going for a a very laid back approach, which is fine, but at least let something happen here and there. Also Edwards can't decide if this is a mystery or a comedy and sadly there's not enough of either to sustain it's runtime. Seriously, this is dull.

Even though he is giving little to do, Garner turns in a great performance. Willis comes off kind of stiff however. His scenes with Garner are nice, but when Garner isn't there to throw him a bone, Willis seems a bit unsure. Maybe it was daunting playing a real life person. Oddly enough, the two didn't get along. Garner even said that he would never work with Willis again and called him a lazy performer. The rest of the usually great cast, which includes Mariel Hemingway and Kathleen Quinlain, just don't have enough material to work with. McDowell, in a great scene chewing performance, seems to have wondered on from another set. And here's a quick gripe I have about the McDowell character, I know that the Chaplin estate probably said no to Edwards using Chaplin as a villain in this movie, so why not use another silent film star, say Fatty Arbuckle. He was a child molester so his name was already tarnished. Just a thought.

Hemingway has said that the script was a bit of a mess, but everybody jumped at the chance to work with the legendary Edwards. I think the problem lies with Edwards himself. He had a great idea for a movie, but his execution was a bit lazy and phoned in. This was a problem he had with some of his other productions at that time. Just look at his next film Switch. Another great idea where the execution was off.

Which is a shame, because this had the potential to be great.

It's available on dvd.