Bruno-Vision: Blind Date and Sunset

Bruce Willis is my favorite actor. Always has been, always will be. I was 9 years old when I first saw Die Hard With A Vengeance (yes, I saw this before the original) and I immediately fell victim to Willis’ everyman likability. For the first time, I saw an action hero that takes more of a beating than he gives, constantly gets one upped by the bad guys, and above all else, could not be happier to be at absolute rock bottom. My 9 year old brain was melting at how cool that all seemed (yikes, I know). Upon learning that this movie was the third in a trilogy, I inhaled the first two films, and once I got older, I realized that the first is the unequivocal best and Die Hard 2 is a ‘90s action must, but With A Vengeance just had my heart. I’ve been a hardcore fan of Bruno ever since, with all the ups and downs included. 

Since the actor recently retired from acting due to health issues, now seemed like as good a time as any for a career retrospective. And thus, Bruno-Vision was born. 

I’ll be going through his entire theatrical career beginning in 1987 with Blind Date all the way through 2012 with Looper and Moonrise Kingdom. “Why stop there?” you ask? Well, If I’m being honest, the four films that followed those two very, very good movies were all sequels that *ahem* did NOT live up to their predecessors (G.I. Joe: Retaliation, A Good Day To Die Hard, Red 2, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For) and then the actor dove head first into Direct To Video purgatory. In other words, I’d rather not end on a bummer note! 

I’m also going to skip any cameo, TV work, or voice acting (sorry to all you Look Who’s Talking fans) because I want to focus on leading and supporting roles from my favorite movie star, and really dig into the effects of those choices had on his career as a whole. I think people forget that amidst all the action flicks he made, Bruce made time to work with directors like Brian DePalma, Robert Benton, Terry Gilliam, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Zemeckis, Edward Zwick, Walter Hill, Rob Reiner, Barry Levinson, Richard Linklater and Richard Donner. Even more impressive is that more often than not, he was very eager to be a co-lead or a supporting player in some of these movies, letting co-stars like Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, Annette Bening, Tom Hanks, or Paul Newman take the spotlight while he got to play around and do something different or unexpected. And that is the Bruno I want to talk about.

So buckle up, because Bruno-Vision has only just begun.

For this inaugural entry, I’m combining his first and second major starring roles in film because they were both directed by the legendary Blake Edwards and they only came out one year apart. 

Edwards is one of the most esteemed comedy directors of all time, making such classics as The Pink Panther franchise with Peter Sellers, 10 with Dudley Moore and Victor/Victoria & S.O.B, both of which starred his wife, iconic actress Julie Andrews (Mary fucking Poppins, y’all). You read that right, Ol’ Bruno started out in comedy. In fact, when the actor was cast in Die Hard, there was a huge controversy that a “comedic actor” had been cast as the lead in an action film (more on that next time). 

Before we dig in though, here’s some context on exactly where Willis was in his career when this film came out. 

After some TV guest spots (including Miami Vice) in the ‘80s, Bruce hit it big on TV with Moonlighting, co-starring Cybill Shepard in 1985. The show was a romantic dramedy with Bruno starring as a wisecracking private eye managing a detective agency with a former model, played by Shepard. The hour-long program quickly proved to be a hit thanks to the “will they or won’t they” chemistry the two leads had together.

It makes sense, then, that his first starring role was in the 1987 romantic comedy Blind Date, co-starring Kim Basinger, Phil Hartman (!), and John Larroquette. 

I actually watched this movie a ton as a kid, mostly because of my love for Bruce, and while I never remembered it being a laugh riot, I do remember being amused enough by all the slapstick to never care at the time. Unfortunately, time has not been kind to this film. To put it simply: Blind Date is a bit of a slog to get through. The movie suffers from terrible pacing (and at only 96 minutes, that’s an extra YIKES) and half baked jokes throughout.

BUT, we are here to talk about my boy, my dad, my man: BRUCE. So how does he fare here? Well, he does the best he can with what he’s given! He’s in full-blown slapstick mode and that famous smirk is on display throughout. It’s not a game-changing performance by any means (that was coming the following year), but Bruce is flexing those comedy chops hard which is always fun to see.

Blind Date was not a critical darling, but it did gross $39 million upon release, which was a VERY respectable number for a low budget romantic comedy at the time.The success of this movie as well as the continued success of Moonlighting only cemented Bruce’s status as a comedic actor even further. So, naturally, Bruce re-teamed with Edwards again for his next movie.

Which brings us to…

Sunset is a weird ass movie. It takes place in 1929 Hollywood where an older Wyatt Earp (played by the charming James Garner) is working as a technical advisor for a film about himself. Who plays Wyatt? Well, that would be Tom Nix, America’s number one box-office cowboy, played by Bruce Willis. If that’s not wild enough, the former law man and the Hollywood big shot actually team together to solve a murder that that takes them deep into Tinsletown’s most powerful circles.

Right off the bat, this movie is much easier to watch than Blind Date. The opening of Sunset is a scene being filmed for one of Nix’s upcoming westerns, and it’s filled with old school cowboy stunts and a rousing score by Henry Mancini (Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Pink Panther). And, since Edwards is an old school director, he nails this scene.

The rest of the film, however, is a mixed bag.

The tone goes back and forth between light-hearted comedy and overly serious murder mystery, the pace isn’t much better than Blind Date, and, truthfully, Bruce is completely miscast as the western leading man. Everything about him just screams 1980s, not an ideal trait for someone supposed to be in the 1920s.

BUT, seeing as this is only his second major motion picture, he is still giving it his all. Unlike Blind Date, Bruce isn’t in full comedy mode here. In fact, he mostly plays it straight, which was new for him at the time. He even shows off his tough side for the first time on the big screen.

It’s also cool to see him banter with Garner throughout. Even though he doesn’t suit the time period (seeing him in ridiculously big cowboy hats and western shirts is funnier than anything the movie can come up with on its own), Bruce and James have an enjoyable, if somewhat awkward, chemistry together. If anything, it’s just a trip to see a baby Bruce trying to keep up with the titan that Garner was.

Overall, Sunset is a harmless tale of “What if?” that features Bruce in a very weird transition from comedy to something slightly more serious.

Unfortunately, neither critics nor audiences cared, as Sunset only grossed $4 million (!) at the box office, cementing the film as a certified disaster.

To recap, Bruce now has one hit television show, one crowd-pleasing comedy hit, and one box office flop under his belt. Not a bad start! Not a bad start at all. But even with such early success, no one on Earth expected this rising comedic actor to become one of the action genre’s greatest stars just a few short months later.