Tequila Sunrise is a 1988 American romantic crime film written and directed by Robert Towne, and starring Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell, with Raul Julia, J. T. Walsh, Arliss Howard and Gabriel Damon in supporting roles. The film's original music score was composed by Dave Grusin.

The film was the second (after Personal Best) to be both written and directed by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Towne. It was commercially successful, grossing over $100 million at the box office worldwide, but its critical reception was mixed. One period reviewer was of the opinion that, "perhaps because the elements were so irresistible—Robert Towne directing Gibson, Russell and Pfeiffer in a California crime film—an aura of disappointment settled over Tequila Sunrise, no matter how engaging, and profitable, it turned out to be."

The famous love scene between Mel Gibson and Michelle Pfeiffer takes place in a hot tub, that was reportedly not properly constructed or chlorinated, resulting in skin rashes and splinters for the actors and their body doubles, and causing production to halt for a few days.

Director Robert Towne wanted the Gibson character to go up in smoke at the end of the film, but one of the conditions Warner Bros. Pictures set was that he must live. He "was supposed to be a moth in the flame", said Towne in 1998. "The real high for him was never doing the drugs, but the danger of dealing the drugs."

Reception

Critical response

It was a commercial success, grossing over $105 million worldwide against a production budget of $20 million.

Critics commented both positively and negatively upon the labyrinthine nature of the complex plot, characteristic of earlier Robert Towne screenplays such as Chinatown. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that "Tequila Sunrise weaves a tangled web, and there are times when we are not sure what is happening, or why. There are even moments when the chronology itself seems confused, when characters seem to know things they could not be aware of, when other characters arrive at places they should not have known about." Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "the fuzzy focus of someone who has stared too long at a light bulb. Narrative points aren't made and the wrong points are emphasized." However, Time Out wrote that the "set-up has the precision of fine needlepoint, picking out the plot outline before embroidering it with a complex pattern of interwoven relationships."

Pfeiffer was described as a "stunning presence" by The New York Times,

Jay Scott of the Toronto Globe and Mail called it "the Casablanca of the cocaine generation" which Warner Bros. paraphrased in their advertising, with Scott's permission, as "the Casablanca of the '80s".

Accolades

Conrad Hall was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, and won an American Society of Cinematographers Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases.

Gabriel Damon was nominated for a Young Artist Award in the category of Best Young Actor Supporting Role in a Motion Picture.

References

  • Movie stills