This Jeff Bridges Neo-Noir Thriller Was a Complete Disaster Behind-the-Scenes

Jeff Bridges was at the height of his powers as a movie star at the tail end of the 1980s, as he had proven to be a huge draw for the general audience and a respected actor among awards voters. Although Bridges had been a part of the “New Hollywood” movement in the 1970s with his brilliant work in The Last Picture Show and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, he transitioned into appearing in larger budget science fiction spectacles in the 1980s, including Tron and Starman. It was due to the clout that Bridges had within the industry that he was able to take a chance on a risky project, and team up with the legendary filmmaker Hal Ashby to make an old-fashioned neo-noir thriller. Unfortunately, 8 Million Ways To Die was a massive critical and financial disappointment that has a rare 0% approval on Rotten Tomatoes.

8 Millions Ways to Die was based on the popular novel of the same name by Lawrence Block, whose series of detective stories drew inspiration from classic Hollywood heroes like Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe. While the original novel took place in modern day New York, Ashby opted to swap locations for Los Angeles, and made a much darker, more character-focused film than readers of the original novel may have expected. Although the film’s lack of narrative cohesion and strange tangential side plots are a primary reason why it has become such a beloved cult classic among genre fans, 8 Million Ways To Die had such a chaotic production process that it’s surprising anything of quality resulted from it.

Why Was ‘8 Million Ways to Die’ Such a Mess During Production?

Prior to Ashby’s involvement, the legendary cult director Walter Hill was set to develop an adaptation of 8 Million Ways To Die that would have starred Nick Nolte in the role of Los Angeles Sheriff Deputy Matt Scudder. Production of 8 Million Ways To Die needed to commence quicklyso that the novelty of the source material’s popularity didn’t wear off, and so Ashby was hired shortly after Hill departed from the project. Bridges and Jamie Lee Curtis were attached to star when a version of the script written by Oliver Stone met both Ashby and the studio’s approval. Curtis eventually dropped out, she was replaced by Rosanna Arquette.

Issues started arising when it was clear Ashby wasn’t being entirely faithful to the source material. While the novel was a straightforward neo-noir thriller with a lot of attention-to-detail paid to the minutiae of the mystery, Ashby constructed a more general “hangout movie” that focused on Scudder’s personal life as he coped with sobriety and post traumatic stress disorder. The studio grew concerned about the direction that the film was going and approached Stone about doing rewrites to the script, but he was unable to take a break from filming his Vietnam War film Salvador with James Woods. Tri-Star Pictures then decided to enlist the legendary Chinatown screenwriter Robert Towne to save the project, but his work was not completed by the time that the film’s production started; as a result, Bridges and Ashby were forced to improvise key moments. Both Ashby and his editor Robert Lawrence were fired shortly after production was completed, as PSO International decided to lock them out of the editing room entirely.

‘8 Million Ways to Die’ Is Better Than Its Toxic Reputation Suggests

It’s not all that surprising that 8 Million Ways To Die was such a disappointment theatrically. Ostensibly, marketing it as a throwback to classic detective stories was a mistake, as the film was actually a far more sensitive drama about recovering from loss and moving forward. 8 Million Ways To Die is essentially a deconstruction of the neo-noir genre that acknowledges that the “grizzled detective” character is an archetype that has been falsely construed by the media. Bridges plays a character who isn’t all that heroic, and capable of losing hope and investment in his cases. Audiences showing up to see a straightforward “hero’s journey” may have been disappointed, but 8 Million Ways To Die succeeds in showing a far more sensitive side of masculinity than most entries in the genre would be capable of. The freeform, sporadic quality of the narrative that resulted from the uncompleted script only makes 8 Million Ways To Die more compelling to watch.

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The bold neo-noir thriller has since become a cult classic.

Although those wanting a cohesive narrative may be let down by a film that ultimately felt incomplete, 8 Million Ways To Die is still a stellar production with some impressive technical qualities, including a gorgeous score from James Newton Howard that adds an ethereal sense of tragedy to the entire case. Changing the location away from New York City may have been a controversial choice among fans of the original novel, but Ashby still highlights the beauty of Los Angeles with some amazing cinematography. The haphazard nature of the editing results in a film that feels like a loose connection of scenes, rather than a complete statement. Nonetheless, Ashby is such a singular artist that it would be disingenuous to suggest anything he was involved with lacked any value.

‘8 Million Ways to Die’ Was an Odd Final Film for Hal Ashby

It was disappointing that Ashby’s career ended with a flop like 8 Million Ways To Die, as he had signified himself as one of the most prominent filmmakers of the “New Hollywood” era. Ashby was praised for being able to invert popular genres and make them feel fresh once again; Harold and Maude is one of the most surprising romantic films ever made, The Last Detail offered a different perspective on the Vietnam War, Shampoo was an uproarious political satire, and Being There is a satire that has spanned the test of time. The fact that 8 Million Ways To Die is considered to be one of his “lesser” film only speaks to the overall strength of his filmography.

8 Million Ways To Die is currently streaming on Prime Video in the U.S

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