Review: Tequila Sunrise

Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell who play old high school buddies whose friendship is being increasingly tested due to one fact: Gibson is an ex-drug dealer who may not be quite so ‘ex’, and Russell is a narcotics cop assigned to proving that Gibson is indeed still a dealer. A major drug deal with Gibson and a mystery man named Carlos is supposedly about to go down. Caught in the middle is restauranteur Michelle Pfeiffer, whom Russell has the hots for and whose restaurant Gibson frequents. She develops feelings for both men, but what are their feelings for her? J.T. Walsh plays Russell’s a-hole DEA colleague who is the head of the operation to bust Gibson. Arliss Howard plays Gibson’s loser brother, whilst Raul Julia plays a Mexican cop helping out the Americans, Ann Magnuson plays Gibson’s ex, Ayre Gross plays Gibson’s wannabe drug-dealing lawyer, and veteran B-western director Budd Boetticher of all people (“Ride Lonesome”) plays a judge who frequents Pfeiffer’s restaurant.

 

Terrific 80s stars give a definite boost to this 1988 cops-and-crims drama with a romantic edge from writer-director Robert Towne (writer of Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown”, writer-director of “Personal Best”). Slickly photographed by Conrad L. Hall (“In Cold Blood”, “Cool Hand Luke”, “Road to Perdition”), armed with the sweet 80s sax of the score by Dave Grusin (“Tootsie”, “The Goonies”, “Lucas”, “The Fabulous Baker Boys”), here’s a calculated ‘star vehicle’ that is also a bloody good movie. Towne was smart to hire two leading men who aren’t just stars but genuinely good (and in Kurt Russell’s case, entirely underrated) actors as well. Kurt Russell is just a little bit oily and Mel Gibson is just a little bit charming so that you can’t entirely hate or love either of them. You do get the sense though, that the pressures of their respective trades has put such a strain on their relationship that a lot of bitterness and resentment is starting to bubble up between them. They work really well together, and this is one of Michelle Pfeiffer’s better turns as well, as the woman between them. There’s a complexity to the love triangle here because for a really long while you’re not entirely sure if Gibson or even both guys are using Pfeiffer to get at the other guy. It’s really complex and kinda twisted.

 

There’s also terrific support from the dearly missed J.T. Walsh, shifty Arliss Howard, and especially the late Raul Julia. Walsh (one of the best character actors of the 80s and 90s) makes for the perfect humourless a-hole authority figure, whilst Julia may not have been the most consistent actor but when he was ‘on’, he was really ‘on’. He’s definitely ‘on’ here. The only flaw with the whole film is that the identity of Carlos is obvious the moment you hear the actor’s voice. I won’t spoil it here, but believe me you’ll work it out right away, unless this is your first movie.

 

Great stars, good filmmaking, and character complexity help take a fun but ancient concept and turn it into something a little more special. Give this one another go if you saw it ages ago, it’s one of those films I think gets better on repeated viewings. A pretty underrated film that is due for re-evaluation in my view.

 

Rating: B