6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Mac McKussic is an L.A. drug dealer who wants to go straight. His oldest friend, Nick Frescia, is now the head of narcotics for L.A. County, and the DEA wants Frescia to help them bring Mac to justice. They believe that his center of operations is an elegant restaurant presided over by a beautiful hostess, Jo Ann Vallenari.
Starring: Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kurt Russell, Raul Juliá, J.T. WalshRomance | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 2.0
German: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 2.0
Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH, French, German SDH, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Tequila Sunrise is the second of four features directed by Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Towne (Chinatown), one of the most respected scribes in the movie business. It was the most successful of his films and by far the most durable, and not just because it featured three major stars (star-driven vehicles being a staple of Warner Brothers during the Bob Daly/Terry Semel era when Tequila Sunrise was made). When the film was released, both critical and audience reaction focused on the glamor of leads Mel Gibson (whose reputation was then still unblemished by personal misbehavior), Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell, as well as the film's elegant L.A. locations. Indeed, as the film's producer has confirmed, the film was designed to be beautiful and enticing, a philosophy that prompted the replacement of the original cinematographer with the legendary Conrad L. Hall, whose delicate photography was nominated for an Oscar and won that year's award from the cinematographers guild. But Tequila Sunrise wouldn't be so compelling if it were just a series of pretty pictures. Towne's script may not have the moral depth he achieved in Chinatown, but his ability to draw complex, multi-faceted characters was undiminished. He had three of them for leads, and several more who are essential to the plot. Not content with creating real people behind the pretty faces, Towne also effortlessly melded genres so that the film's story is never predictable. The viewer really does have to pay attention to what people are saying and doing—and also to what they may be hiding—to follow the story. Even then, some viewers complained that the film's plot is incomprehensible. (It isn't.) Tequila Sunrise is a crime story, a romance (two romances, in fact), a tale of two buddies who grew up on opposite sides of the law and a meditation on friendship. Towne tells all of these simultaneously, which means that the narrative often seems to proceed sideways.
Three-time Oscar-winning cinematographer Conrad L. Hall took over the shooting of Tequila Sunrise one week into production; he replaced Jost Vocano, who had recently shot RoboCop for Paul Verhoeven. The switch is described at length in the commentary by producer Thom Mount, who wanted the most glamorous and beautiful image possible, and sought out Hall, because he was an acknowledged master of painting gorgeous images with light. Hall always followed his own vision, and he was much more interested in color and mood than sharpness and detail. One of Tequila Sunrise's signature scenes is a conversation between Mac McKussic and Nick Frescia in which one sees only silhouettes of the two men as they sit on a swing set against the orange of a setting sun. The visuals are expressive and atmospheric in conveying both the friendship and the likelihood that it's waning, but the scene is neither detailed nor sharp, and it never has been. Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray captures the orange with proper saturation and no bleeding, and differentiates the silhouettes without artificial sharpening, but that's all there is—and all there should be. Substantial portions of Tequila Sunrise take place in settings where indistinctness is a deliberate part of the visual design. The film's entire finale is set at the waterfront at night, where fog obscures much of the area. The lighting at Vallenari's is deliberately soft and low; numerous scenes are set at night; and some are set in the rain. Hall's lighting ensures that the essential information is always visible, but the rest often fades into indistinctness. In well-lit settings that would naturally be visible, much more detail is evident. Examples include scenes in Frescia's police station, where the DEA has set up camp, and various scenes inside and outside Mac's beach house in daylight. Blacks are solid, and colors are vivid. Still, this is far from the best that Warner has produced for a catalog title. Visible gate weave during the opening credits suggests an older transfer, since current scanning technology has largely eliminated this kind of artifact. Moreover, at this point in the life of the Blu-ray format, there really is no excuse for a major studio to squeeze a 115-minute film onto a BD-25, as Warner has elected to do with Tequila Sunrise. Even without major extras, that decision forced the average bitrate down to 19.96 Mbps. The film is essentially a drama, with almost no scenes involving significant action, and Warner seems to have gotten away without compression artifacts, but at the cost of a less detailed image than should be achievable from elements of this vintage. Whether detail was stripped to allow for easier compression, or it is simply absent because an older transfer was used, is impossible to say for sure. Either way, the image is acceptable (and certainly leaps and bounds beyond the DVD), but Tequila Sunrise deserved better.
The film's original stereo soundtrack has been encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. It's an atmospheric and effective track, and it's good that it was left in its original format. The all-important dialogue that gives a Robert Towne script its unique flavor is always clear, and the sound effects have subtle tweaks that give them an expressive element you may not notice until repeat viewings. (For example, one important gunshot is unusually loud; a specific splash of water has a particularly explosive quality; a struggle is accompanied by a sound that resembles an open gas jet running before someone lights a match.) Dave Grusin's score is one of the best he ever wrote, and it was part of a successful soundtrack CD. I haven't heard the CD, but I suspect Grusin's instrumentals sound better on it than on the film's soundtrack, where they can occasionally become slightly muddy, probably as a result of being mixed with so many disparate elements on Eighties equipment. The fault is almost certainly in the original mix, not in the Blu-ray, and it's minor.
The extras have been ported over from Warner's 1997 DVD of Tequila Sunrise. Missing are some brief production notes and the outdated cast and crew bios. ● Commentary with Producer Thom Mount: Mount recorded this commentary for the DVD. He doesn't speak continuously; pauses multiply as the film progresses. Producers tend to focus on logistics rather than creative decisions, but the logistics of making a film should be of interest to any true enthusiast, and Mount is informative on the origin of the project, the history of casting changes, and the negotiations with Warner that led to the film being financed independently through Mount's company, for a "negative pickup" by Warner. Mount is also informative about the twenty minutes that were cut from the film after the first preview (unfortunately, none of that footage appears to have been preserved) and the changes made to the ending, not for plot but for presentation. The original ending spent too much time tying up loose ends, whereas the filmmakers realized after watching the film with an audience that, once the romantic triangle of Jo Ann, Mac and Frescia reached a conclusion, the film was effectively over. ● Theatrical Trailer (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 1:30): The trailer is cleverly edited to lay out key elements of the film, while still leaving much to be explained.
Tequila Sunrise has aged well, primarily because it has the one thing that star-driven studio vehicles are so often missing: a well-written script. Studios never lack for talented crew and capable producers, but writers have rarely been valued in Hollywood, and most studio executives don't know good writing when they see it. (Listen to Mount's commentary for some of the terrible "notes" offered by Warner executives.) Towne's script is filled with memorable characters who say interesting things, and their interactions hold up to repeat viewing better than any special effect. Despite a less-than-ideal video presentation, recommended.
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