|  Tequila Sunrise is a 1988 movie written and directed by Oscar-winner Robert Towne. It stars Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Kurt Russell. The supporting cast includes Raul Julia, J.T. Walsh, Arliss Howard, Arye Gross, and Gabriel Damon.
Damon was nominated for the "Best Young Actor Supporting Role in a Motion Picture" Young Artist Award, and cinematographer Conrad L. Hall won an American Society of Cinematographers award for "Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases".
Critical reaction was decidedly mixed, but there's plenty to admire in this silky, visually seductive film about a drug dealer (Mel Gibson) whose best friend from high-school (Kurt Russell) is now working for the Los Angeles sheriff's drug detail. Their personal and professional conflicts are intensified by their love for the same woman, a waitress (Michelle Pfeiffer) at the Italian restaurant they both frequent. There's a big deal going down with a drug lord (the late Raul Julia), but as it twists and turns, Towne's story is really more about personal loyalties and individual honor. And even if it doesn't quite hold together, the movie's got a fantastic look to it (courtesy of the great cinematographer Conrad Hall), and the depth and dimension to their well-written roles.
 About the movie end, Director Robert Towne wanted Gibson’s character Dale McKussic to perish in a fireball explosion at the film’s end, saying “Gibson's character was supposed to be a moth in the flame. The real high for him was never doing the drugs, but the danger of dealing the drugs.” However, Towne did not have final cut and Warner Bros. studio insisted that Gibson’s character survive.
The official motion picture soundtrack features some jazz cuts by Dave Grusin, Lee Ritenour and David Sanborn. It also features songs by The Church -("Unsubstantiated"), Crowded House -("Recurring Dream"). Bobby Darrin's "Beyond the Sea," and  "Surrender To Me," a duet sung by Cheap Trick's Robin Zander and Heart's Ann Wilson, which reached the Billboard Top 10.
The film's budget was originally $33 million, but since it was shot as an independent production after Warner Bros. had pulled out, the budget had gone down $10 million less, which was still expensive for an L.A. based film production, so Tequila Sunrise was made for under $20 million and grossed $100 million worldwide.
As anecdote about the famous sex-scene, the hot tub in the film was not properly constructed as a working hot tub nor was it chlorinated. As a result, Michelle Pfeiffer, her double, and Mel Gibson were all plagued with skin rashes and splinters from the wood. Production was shut down for a few days while Pfeiffer recovered from her rash.
 Michelle Pfeiffer, a man's romantic fantasy of the perfect woman
About Michelle Pfeiffer in the movie, it is well known that she doesn't keep a very good memories of her experience in the movie.
In "Tequila Sunrise", Pfeiffer plays Jo Ann, the silky restauranteuse caught between the drug-dealer and the cop, a part which is so totally a man's romantic fantasy of the perfect woman...
According Robert Towne, the director, "Her wit drew me to her, in Sweet Liberty, I loved the way she was able to create this movie actress who was sweet and genteel one minute and screaming on the phone the next. In Tequila, she plays a restaurateur whose calm exterior is a kind of mask; you're constantly wondering what's underneath this almost [Grace] Kelly-like cool."
But while her performance in the movie was almost unanimously praised, she remembers the experience only bitterly, deflecting for her work by saying that she hasn't seen the film and has no plans to.
 Professionally, Pfeiffer seems very much in control, a status achieved through her rigorous selection of parts and her ability to milk them for a subtlety not always evident in the script. Even to roles which used her as a beautiful icon—the frosty mobster moll in Scarface, or the fairy-tale heroine in Ladyhawke—she brought a tantalizing hint of vulnerable strength... but when we talk about "Tequila..." Michelle shrugs off her role as "The Girlfriend" opposite Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell. According her "might catch flipping channels, on HBO." She continues: "I had a hard time playing that part. It was very limited as far as what I could do. She's a very controlled sort of person; I don't find those roles fun to play."
Another reason because she was also uncomfortable at having to appear nude (let's remember the famous scene on the jacuzzi with Mel Gibson - maybe the most torrid scene in her career) this was only the second time she'd done so, after Into The Night.
 However, Robert Towne says only that "of all the actresses I've worked with in Hollywood, going back a lot of years, to my earliest days, Michelle was the most difficult. Perhaps it was because she didn't really want to play the character."
"And proud of it," she responds tartly. Michelle also agree, "What I look for in a director is freedom, and that's not what I got from Bob. It was a matter of chemistry."
On the other hand , at the time, she'd separated from her husband of seven years, Peter Horton, and agreed to do "Tequila Sunrise", immersing herself in work as a distraction, even though she thought the part was mere decoration for the plot. "I paid the price. And so did Towne."
By Fran
PfeifferTheFace.
Sources: Wikipedia,
IMDb, Premiere, US, Esquire, Interview |
