Color Of Night

Color of Night (1994)

Runtime: I saw the 140 minute version

Directed by: Richard Rush

Starring: Bruce Willis, Jane March, and plenty of other famous faces

From: Hollywood Pictures

In some circles this film has a lot of infamy; I now know why that is the case... the movie is really off the wall. You can discover this yourself if you look below:

Oh Lord... what the hell is this movie? I've known of this film and its infamous reputation for a long while now. Last night I finally watched Color of Night, as I wanted to see the full 140 (!) minute version and that was recently made available on Amazon Video. What a film to watch before I leave for my winter vacation and may not review anything here for the next week or so.

I'll copy and paste what Amazon Video said about the film: "A successful New York psychologist is haunted by the bizarre suicide of a patient. Relocating to Los Angeles, he becomes entangled in an explosive, erotic relationship with a mysterious beauty who leads him through a web of murder, passion, and intrigue."

That is part of the story, and what a torrid love affair they have. Among other things, the longer versions (there are several different cuts floating around all around the world) There's also how the psychologist is Bruce Willis and while he's in Los Angeles, he takes over the Monday night group therapy session run by this successful old college buddy Scott Bakula, as Bakula was murdered in a crime of passion by a masked figure. Yes, takes over despite his own issues.

This movie, I ask again what in the hell this was, and I am not fully sure myself. I can tell you it is wildly over the top, many of the characters usually at 11 and not too many subtle things to be seen. There are many off-the-wall moments and scenes... I mean, bizarre. The five patients have different hang-ups... one is trans*, one can't get over the death of his wife/child, there's a nymphomaniac/klepto, someone who is into S&M, and the last has severe OCD. None of those afflictions are treated delicately, either in the film nor is it portrayed delicately by the film.

Then, there's how the “bizarre suicide” is one of his patients jumping out of the window of his practice to her death, and as her dress was green and she ended up bloody... somehow that makes him red/green colorblind. Really. I don't know if trauma causes such a thing but maybe it does, I don't know. Also, Ruben Blades plays a detective and he's so off-kilter, I was surprised he wasn't the sixth patient at the therapy session, which Willis did suggest should be the case. I dare not spoil all of the wacky moments.

I recently heard it described as “a giallo meets Showgirls” and that is an apt description. There were plenty of times I had no trouble imaging this zaniness coming from Italy and being directed by, say, Massimo Dallamano. And this was directed by Richard Rush; how was this his first since The Stunt Man? Why did he direct it? What a cast they pulled in too (the people already mentioned, Jane March, Lesley Anne Warren, Brad Dourif, Lance Henriksen, Kevin J. O'Connor, Eriq La Salle) for such a tawdry tale, where the mystery wasn't too hard for me to solve but no matter that, there are some elements of the story that are pretty gross and done to be titillating.

The movie is technically pretty bad and yet it looks nice with the production design and having an actual director (Richard Rush) helps; I have no idea why this was his first film after cult favorite The Stunt Man. But honestly, it is most memorable for how how often hilarious it is, even for unintentional reasons. Perverse entertainment, that's what this is.