Husband very much enjoys westerns and he likes the actors in this film also. Now he can watch any time he wants to. It is also a movie I don't mind watching occasionally.
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One of the BEST for any age. Be ready to enjoy!
Added 1/31/2009
As its been said before One of the best films you have never seen! Better yet it works for almost any age group. Whats not to enjoy? Great cars! Great locations! Great Music! Great Clothes! And of course two Great Actors backed up by a fun plot and plenty of action and laughs and some of the best lines in any movie ever!!
And thats the truth give or take a lie or two!
Enjoy it!!
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Great cars
Added 1/29/2009
Great cars..good storyline, but they could have left out a few pieces of bad language that didn't add anything.
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...and that's the way it really happened.
Added 11/10/2008
- Tom Mix: "How many men you killed?"
- Wyatt Earp: "How many cars you got?"
- Mix: "About sixteen."
- Earp: "You got more cars."
Did you know that, in the early days of cinema (circa late 1920s), fabled frontier marshall Wyatt Earp came to Hollywood to act as a cowboy movie consultant, but that he ended up solving a murder mystery? And with a little help from legendary silent western film star Tom Mix? Dudes, hunker down and sip a rusty cuppa nostalgia, and let this movie tell you all about it.
SUNSET, when released in 1988, didn't do diddly in the box office. The film critics pretty much unanimously took a stinky squat over it. Me, I've always liked it. Even now, after repeated viewings, I still enjoy the thrill and onrush of nostalgia at seeing two larger-than-life characters meeting up and running roughshod over vintage Tinseltown. That Wyatt Earp was actually a Hollywood technical advisor is true. That Earp and Mix were friends also seems to be true. But that they became tangled up in a murder case, well, that just may be stretching a good story. But who doesn't enjoy a tall tale or three?
SUNSET is a mixed bag of genres. It's an authentic looking period piece. It's a seamy murder mystery. At times it's a comedy. And, let there be no doubt, it's most surely a western. In fact, traditional elements of the oater abound in this film. The trusty horse. The girl singing in the saloon. The barroom dust-up. The deadly shootouts. At the end, Earp and Mix manage to serve up a heaping of frontier justice and ride off into the sunset.
Writer/director Blake Edwards had originally wanted Robert Duvall to play Tom Mix, but didn't have enough green in the budget. So the part went to Bruce Willis, who back in the late '80s, was still an up-and-coming film actor. So, even though Bruce gets top billing, he actually plays second fiddle to Garner. I don't know if Tom Mix was actually this flashy and stylish in real life - his wardrobe is, whatchamacallit, cowboy sartorial - but Bruce Willis pulls off the role with easy-going panache. But I was actually hoping he'd yell out his patented "Yi-pee-ki-yay, m@^&*$%s!"
But, don't get it twisted, Garner owns the film (and, in fact, gets more camera time than Willis). James Garner is an actor who's handled his weathered years with grace and dignity (he was around 60 when SUNSET came out). And he is perfectly suited for these types of roles (in fact, he's played Earp before, in Hour of the Gun). As the Tombstone marshall, Garner exudes hard-earned experience and steely competence. He's no-nonsense and straight-talking, and I found it wholly believable that even the self-absorbed lords and ladies of Hollywood would pause before effing with him. A fish out of water, but a self-assured fish, Earp's restrained but amused reactions to his strange surroundings are worth waiting for. More than anyone else, James Garner lends the film its substance and credibility. I love this guy to death, man.
It's not a perfect film. In fact, I'm curious to see how closely Blake Edwards adapted this film from Rod Amateau's original mystery novel. As Earp and Mix rubbed elbows with the glamourous glitterati and navigated thru Tinseltown's dirty underbelly, and even as they crossed paths with crooked cops, hoods with names like "Dutch," and even one sadistic movie producer, I couldn't help but wish, fleetingly, that Blake Edwards had dreamed on a larger cinematic scope. SUNSET, regretfully, is a picture of which vision isn't compromised whenever presented on the telly in a full screen format. To me, that's sad. As it is, the film's modest scale, its pedestrian mystery, and the sometimes plodding pace serve to bring the film down a notch or two.
Another flaw is that the climax lacks that action-packed oomph. A showdown with the bad guys at the Academy Awards, and Wyatt Earp doesn't even slap leather. Then follow that up at the pier with Tom Mix's weak brawl with the evil clown. I expected more from these two dudes of action. As a fan of sagebrush shoot-em-ups, I did feel let down.
Still, SUNSET is very watchable and often entertaining. It offers several highlight set pieces, my top choices being Tom Mix's trick riding and Malcolm McDowell's very nicely executed "act" at the first ever annual Academy Awards. But what I relish best is the easy camaraderie between James Garner and Bruce Willis. This rapport translates well to the screen, as Earp and Mix, being kindred spirits, form a rapid friendship, perhaps on the basis of commonality. Both have over time evolved into creatures of notoriety and, partly, of fabrication. Both wryly acknowledge this and have learned to live with it. As the aging lawman tells the celluloid trick rider: "...you and I, we're a whole lot alike. Part fact, and just enough fiction to sell newspapers."
Dudes, I got love for old movies. Back in '88, SUNSET piqued my interest with its recreation of cinema's golden age era. It became an easy must-see for me when I learned of the irresistible premise and that Garner and Willis would partner up. Notwithstanding all the snideness from the movie critics, this is a film well worth a look. And the movie critics, they can just go squat.
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