Touchstone and Beyond: Color of Night
Feature Presentation: Color of Night
Cast of Characters
- Bruce Willis as Bill Capa
- Jane March as Rose
- Ruben Blades as Hector
- Lesley Ann Warren as Sondra
- Scott Bakula as Bob Moore
- Brad Dourif as Clark
- Lance Henriksen as Buck
Elevator Pitch
Dr. Bill Capa is depressed after one of his patients commits suicide in his office. Seeking some fresh air and time away from New York, he visits his friend Dr. Bob Moore in Los Angeles. Bob introduces Bill to the therapy group that he runs and later tells his friend that he is fearful for his life.
Soon after arriving in LA, Bob is murdered and Bill is trying to figure out if someone from the therapy group is responsible for his friend’s death. While Hector leads the case for the police, Bill is building a relationship with Rose, which is blossoming into a love affair.
The only problem for Bob is that as he gets closer to the truth about what happened to Bob, he learns the people surrounding him may harbor a lot of anger and resentment, even Rose.
The Orson Welles Award of Brilliance
Los Angeles looks nice thanks to the cinematography.
The Alan Smithee Award of Anonymity
Where to begin?
Color of Night has many problems. First, there are far too many characters in the therapy group. These scenes are cluttered with dialogue that eats away at time and allows great actors like Henriksen and Warren to be lost in the shadows of what’s taking place. I think the therapy group should have been smaller.
The rattlesnake scene in the mailbox is a contender for the most ridiculous scene filmed for the silver screen, and I enjoyed Weekend at Bernies II. Willis overdoes it, and the snake looks silly.
Jane March is led astray as she tries to play the Rose/Bonnie/Richie trilogy of characters. It was ridiculous how they tried to hide her in plain sight throughout the movie.
Scott Bakula only gets a few moments of screen time, and his character is not likeable at all. The death scene for Bakula is awful. I don’t mean horrific in brutality, mind numbingly badly scripted and show, with sound effects that feel like an elementary school play, coupled with Bakula’s ‘scream’ would get multiple gongs on the ‘The Gong Show’.
The movie wants to titillate viewers, but the amount of sex that is thrown into the film is detracting from the overall thriller narrative. The audience gets it, Rose and Bill are having sex, but the soundtrack to the scenes and the way the moments are shot makes me think of a terrible Tubi production and not a film from a major studio in 1994.
I cared little for any of the characters. As I watched the film, I hoped that the big one would strike and level Los Angeles with a devastating earthquake.
Production Team
- Directed by Richard Rush
- Produced by Hollywood Pictures / Cinergi Pictures
- Written by Billy Ray / Matthew Chapman
- Release Date: August 19, 1994
- Budget: $40 million
- Domestic Box Office Gross: $19.750,470 million
- Worldwide Box Office Total: $46.7 million
I Know Their Name
Fans of ER will spot Eric La Salle easily as he shows up on screen for a few moments.
Deep Dive Behind the Scenes
- The film was nominated for multiple Razzie Awards.
- The Dallas-Fort Worth Critics Association nominated the film for worst movie of the year.
- The film did receive a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song, ‘The Color of Night’.
- The film was a box office disaster but was one of the top 20 rented films of 1995.
- Jane March has publicly stated that she was never comfortable with all the nudity in the film.
- When the time came for shooting the nude scenes, March reportedly changed her mind, and director Rush had to spend a long time convincing his leading lady to fulfill her contract.
- The battle between director Richard Rush and producer Andrew Vajna resulted in Vajna’s version of the film being released in theatres.
- When the movie failed at the box office, Vajna started a public relations war with Rush, taking out ads in the trade papers blaming Rush for the movie’s failure.
- This was screenwriter Billy Ray’s first film.
- The film is notorious for Bruce Willis showing full frontal nudity.
- The 2018 Blu-ray release contains a commentary by director Richard Rush.
- In 2023, the Criterion Channel screened the film. (What are you doing Criterion?)
- There are four cuts of this movie that were released to the international audience. I can confidently say this; no cut of this movie is enjoyable.
- Roger Ebert stated in his review that he was, “stupefied. To call it absurd would be missing the point, since any shred of credibility was obviously the first thing thrown overboard.” Ebert goes on to describe the luridness of the melodrama and how goofy the plotting was.
Bill’s Spicy Take
Sex doesn’t sell if the story is bad. Color of Night is no Citizen Kane.
Oscar Thoughts
(These rankings are awarded based on my love for Hitchcock films)
{Frenzy Award-Skip this Film, Torn Curtain Award-Desperate for Something to Watch, For the Birds-A Perfect Film for Any Device, Rear Window Award- You Must Watch This Film on a Big Screen because this film is cinema.}
Another Frenzy Award winner. I think there could have been an interesting movie and would have liked to have seen it based on the bones of this film. The problem is Color of Night is badly executed and should be lost in the movie vaults of cinema past, never to be seen again.
Skip this movie. Color of Night is not worth your time, nor is it worth the energy it takes to press play.
Coming Attractions
Next week, a look back at the comedy Out Cold.