Anatomy of a Scene's Manatomy: 'Color of Night' Brings Us the Return of Bruno's Dick

<< Blog | Editorial Features Wednesday, April 8, 4:00 PMWed, 8 Apr 2020 @ 4:00 PM by Jake Jizzenhall

Throughout cinema history, there have been some iconic nude scenes that have transcended the bounds of the films in which they appeared. Our weekly column Anatomy of a Scene's Manatomy will take an in-depth look at these scenes, their history, their deeper meanings, and their legacy. This week, Bruce Willis lets his Bruce Willy out to play in the "erotic" thriller Color of Night!

First things first, Bruce Willis and I are both Jersey boys, so it's impossible for me to flat out hate the man, but the last decade or so has not been kind to his reputation as one of the most difficult actors in the business. Willis first rose to prominence with his role opposite Cybill Shepherd on the TV series Moonlighting, winning an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his role on the show. The 1980s, however, wasn't a decade renowned for seeing popular television actors make a successful transition to movie stardom, but Willis beat the odds and soon became one of the most bankable leading men in the film industry.

Willis carried himself with an air of knowing detachment throughout his career, endearing himself to audiences in a way few other actors ever have. If the film he was in was of poor quality, he'd only immerse himself only so far into character, as if to let the audience know that he's aware that the film he's in is terrible. For a classic example of this, check out his notorious 1991 box office bomb Hudson Hawk, where that detached charm eventually made audiences come around to the fact that the film is being intentionally ridiculous. Very, very few actors walked this line as well as Willis, and it became his calling card throughout 90s.

Like most actors known primarily for comedy, Willis yearned to be taken seriously as an actor as well. He embraced the independent cinema wave that exploded in the 90s, as directors like Quentin Tarantino, Robert Benton, Terry Gilliam, and of course M. Night Shyamalan gave him a chance to flex muscles he wasn't able to in his ubiquitous comedy and action flicks. However, he wasn't all that discerning when it came to his choices of projects, ending up in more than a few flops throughout the decade. Perhaps the most misguided choice he made was when he agreed to star in director Richard Rush's erotic thriller Color of Night.

Like most folks, you probably haven't seen Color of Night, and let me preface our discussion of the film by saying that there's really no reason to ever see Color of Night. It is one of the most preposterous films ever made, the premise being that Willis' psychiatrist character suffers from a bout of sudden onset colorblindness triggered by the suicide of one of his patients. That's right, one of Willis' patients kills themselves and he suddenly can't see the color red. I'm not joking. Seeking to lay low for a while, he goes to stay with his doctor buddy Scott Bakula, but finds himself thrust into a new mystery when Bakula ends up murdered.

Now, you're probably asking yourself where the erotic part of this erotic thriller comes into play. Well, enter Jane March, who was hot off the explicit NC-17 actually erotic thriller The Lover, plucked from relative obscurity by director Jean-Jacques Annaud to become one of the most talked-about actresses of the early 90s. Here, in only her second feature film, she plays a woman named Rose who randomly shows up at Bakula's house and takes a great interest in Willis' character, starting a torrid affair with the good doctor. She's also disguising herself as a teenager named "Richie" at group therapy sessions run by Willis, in yet another twist that goes absolutely nowhere. Don't worry, y'all, we're about to get to the fireworks factory.

An hour in, March comes to the house to see Willis and the sexual tension between the two finally boils over with them falling into a pool and engaging in a little underwater sex. Willis became one of the most prominent A-list actors to do full frontal nudity in his prime, earning the film its rather dubious place in history...

Like so many other terrible movies, the best part is the behind-the-scenes battle that raged between director Richard Rush and producer/studio chief Andrew Vajna over the film. Rush's cut of the film ran 140 minutes, which Vajna strongly objected to, telling the director he needed to cut at least 20 minutes from the film. When Rush refused, Vajna fired him and produced his own cut of the film, which he claimed tested better than Rush's version. Overcome by stress and anxiety from this fight, Rush then suffered a near-fatal heart attack. Vajna eventually took pity on Rush and reached an agreement where Vajna's cut would be released theatrically, with Rush's director's cut getting an eventual home video release.

In the end, neither cut of the film was very good, getting critically panned and becoming a box office flop, though the film would earn some notoriety after landing 9 Razzie nominations—only winning for Worst Picture. As always, however, Willis walked away relatively unscathed, thanks in no small part to his role in Pulp Fiction two months later. He shows his dick in that movie as well, should you be in the market for a good movie featuring his Bruce Willy.

Of course, despite all of this, Color of Night is probably only the third most embarrassing endeavor undertaken by Willis in his prime. The number two slot goes to his self-serious 1987 album of Motown covers titled "The Return of Bruno," with the following Seagrams Wine Cooler commercial being the only thing worse than listening to him warble his way through "Under the Boardwalk."