The Razors Edge (1984 film)

Plot

In Illinois, in 1917, just before America joins World War I, a fair has been planned to raise money to support Gray Maturin and Larry Darrell, who are joining World War I as ambulance drivers. Larry looks forward to returning home to marry his longtime sweetheart Isabel. Larry shares a final night with Isabel watching the fireworks along with Gray, their close friend Sophie, and her husband Bob.

At the front, commanding officer Piedmont schools his new men on the harsh reality of war. For example, he has both of them armed, because in spite of it being an ambulance unit and America's neutrality, the enemy can and will kill those helping the Allies. He also destroys the headlights and windows of a fellow ambulance truck because the lights will signal enemies to their unit. Larry adapts quickly, shooting the headlights and windows of his own truck.

Larry witnesses the deaths of soldiers and fellow ambulance drivers, and is in constant danger. By the time America is deeply in the war, Larry's unit is down to a few men. During an unexpected encounter with German soldiers, Piedmont is fatally stabbed trying to block a German soldier from shooting a wounded Larry. The war ends not long after, and when he and Gray return to America, Larry suffers survivor's guilt and realizes that his life has changed. His plans to join Gray in working for Gray's father as a stockbroker will not make him happy, so he puts off his engagement to Isabel and travels to Paris in an effort to find meaning in his life. Isabel's uncle, Elliott Templeton, assures her that some time in Paris will help clear Larry's mind and take away any jitters he has about marriage.

Instead of following Elliott's suggestions of staying at first-class hotels and wining and dining with the aristocracy, Larry lives a simple life, reading philosophy books in a cheap hotel. He finds work, first as a fish packer, then as a coal miner. After saving the life of a coworker by pushing him out of the way of an out-of-control mine car, he has a conversation about books with the elder miner. The miner discusses a Russian magician's book, lends a copy of the Upanishads, and suggests that Larry travel to India to gain a different perspective.

In India, Larry joins a Buddhist monastery. As an exercise, he hikes to the top of a snow-covered mountain and meditates alone. After running out of firewood he starts to burn books that he brought along. He finds his sense of inner peace. A monk lets him know that his journey is not over, that the path to salvation is as narrow and difficult to walk "as a razor's edge."

Returning to Paris, Larry first re-encounters Elliott, who lets him know that many things have changed, notably that Isabel has married Gray. (She had ended her relationship with Larry after a disastrous reunion in Paris not long after he first arrived.) They have had two children. Gray and Isabel were forced to move to Elliot's house in Paris after the Great Depression bankrupted Gray's livelihood (His spirit was also shattered when his father committed suicide after the crash.) Also while Larry was gone, Sophie lost both Bob and her child in a car accident and turned to alcohol, opium, and prostitution.

Larry immediately attempts to reform Sophie, and after a period of time they become engaged. Isabel insists that she will buy Sophie a wedding dress as a gift. They have a conversation where Isabel admits she still loves Larry and condemns Sophie, labeling her a burden on Larry. She is interrupted by a phone call and leaves Sophie alone with a bottle of liquor.

Larry searches for Sophie and finds her at an opium den with her former pimp. After a confrontation, Larry is left bleeding in the street with a black eye while Sophie stays in the establishment. The next morning, Larry is awakened by two men at the door and brought to the morgue to identify Sophie's body. Her throat had been slashed by a razor. Larry then goes to Elliott's house to try to figure out what went wrong the previous day. Elliott has had a stroke and has been given his last rites. Larry confronts Isabel about what happened and forces her to admit her role in driving Sophie back to the bottle. She tells Larry what she did is no different from Larry ruining their relationship by running off to find the meaning of his "goddammed life," but she admits that she still loves him and did not want anyone (including Sophie) to hurt him the way she had.

Before Larry can respond, they are interrupted by the final moments of Elliott's life. Larry does a good deed for Elliott by convincing him that the Parisian aristocrats have not forgotten about him. (He had been waiting for an invitation to a costume party thrown by a French princess.) After Elliott dies, Larry comforts the grief-stricken Isabel. He admits that his journey was about trying to lead a good life that would make him worthy of Piedmont's sacrifice. He and Isabel part on reasonable terms, and he says his goodbyes to her and to Gray. He states his intention to depart for home, which prompts the question, "Where is home?" to which he replies, "America." He in fact aims for New York, with the intention of earning his living as a cab driver.

Cast

Development

According to an interview with director John Byrum published on August 8, 2006 in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, he had wanted to film an adaptation of Maugham's book in the early 1980s. The director brought a copy of the book to his friend Margaret "Mickey" Kelley who was in the hospital after giving birth. Byrum remembers getting a call the next day at four AM, "and it was Mickey's husband, Bill [Murray]. He said, 'This is Larry, Larry Darrell.'"

Byrum and Murray drove across America while writing the screenplay. What they had written did not resemble the previous film version. Murray included a farewell speech to his recently deceased friend John Belushi in the script; this appears as Larry Darrell's farewell speech to Piedmont, a fellow ambulance driver in World War I. While Murray was attached to the project, Byrum had trouble finding a studio to finance it. Dan Aykroyd suggested that Murray could appear in Ghostbusters for Columbia Pictures in exchange for the studio greenlighting The Razor's Edge. Murray agreed and a deal was made with Columbia.

Filming

For the next year and half, cast and crew shot on location in France, Switzerland and India with a $12 million budget. During the shoot in India, the entire production crew fell ill due to food poisoning from chicken, including Byrum. After the last day of principal photography, Murray left to make Ghostbusters.

Reception

The film was a commercial failure, grossing a little more than $6 million, half of its $12 million production budget. Critically, it didn't fare much better:

Typical of reviews was Janet Maslin's in The New York Times where she characterized it as "disjointed", describing it as "slow, overlong and ridiculously overproduced." Roger Ebert judged the movie "flawed" and pointed to the hero as "too passive, too contained, too rich in self-irony, to really sweep us along in his quest." He placed the blame on Murray's shoulders, saying he "plays the hero as if fate is a comedian and he is the straight man." Since its release, however, Razor's Edge has developed something of a following (it enjoys a more moderate 6.6 rating on the Internet Movie Database), and criticism has softened. Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club, reviewing the film in 2007, felt that "If 'The Razor's Edge' is ultimately a failure it's an honest, noble one," and that there were "all manner of minor pleasures to be gleaned along the way."

The film currently holds a 53% 'rotten' rating on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes. Murray himself has considered his hopes for the film's reception a "mistake."