Sunset (film)
| Sunset | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Blake Edwards |
| Produced by | Tony Adams |
| Screenplay by | Blake Edwards |
| Based on |
Sunset (unpublished manuscript) by Rod Amateau |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Henry Mancini |
| Cinematography | Anthony B. Richmond |
| Edited by | Robert Pergament |
| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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103 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $19,000,000 (estimated) |
| Box office | $4,594,452 |
Sunset is a 1988 American mystery action film written and directed by Blake Edwards and starring Bruce Willis as legendary Western actor Tom Mix, who teams up with legendary lawman Wyatt Earp, portrayed for the second time in a theatrical film by James Garner. Based on an unpublished novel by Rod Amateau, the plot has Mix and Earp team up to solve a murder in Hollywood in 1929.
Although Sunset had some comedic elements, it veered much more to the period mystery genre of old Hollywood. Reviewers, such as Roger Ebert, struggled trying to define the film. Ebert noted, "The strangest thing about 'Sunset' is that it's not a comedy, not exactly. It has some laughs, but it's a sort of low-key, elegiac mood film ..."
While Willis received top billing in Sunset, Garner actually has much more screen time in the film. This was the second film in which Garner played Wyatt Earp, the first being John Sturges's Hour of the Gun, released in 1967. This was director Edwards' second collaboration with Willis, whom he directed in Blind Date (1987), which had been Willis' first film; Sunset was Willis' second.
In Hollywood in the late 1920s during the waning days of the industry's transition to sound film, producer and studio head Alfie Alperin (Malcolm McDowell) wants to produce an epic Western film about Wyatt Earp. Tom Mix (Bruce Willis) is cast as the great United States Marshal and the real Earp (James Garner) is on the set as a technical adviser.
While Earp and Mix, the "real" and "reel" western heroes, are involved in their film adventure, they also get caught up in an actual case of murder, prostitution and corruption. Together, they try to straighten out the problems of the missing son of Earp's former girlfriend, Christina (Patricia Hodge). She is now the wife of studio boss Alfie Alperin and he is not pleased by Earp's investigation. Hostess Cheryl King (Mariel Hemingway) becomes romantically involved with Earp.
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Wikipedia