The 1983 movies that only “all sorts of freaks” would watch, according to Bill Murray
By its very nature, cinema isn’t designed to appeal to everyone. There are people who love Martin Scorsese and Marvel in equal measure, but there are just as many who love or loathe each of them individually. For Bill Murray, a pair of acclaimed 1983 movies were made solely for the freaks.
He’s being complimentary, sort of. Or, to be more accurate, he was insisting that it was a club he desperately wanted to be a part of. In reality, you could say Murray is a bit of a freak, and if you disagree with that sentiment, then at the very least, he’s definitely a weird guy.
These days, he exists in a weird position in the Hollywood pantheon. To some, he’s the industry’s favourite eccentric uncle, and a beloved comedy legend who’s become almost mythic for the Bill Murray things that he’s fond of doing. To others, he’s a belligerent dickhead, and an altogether more questionable figure.
After establishing himself as one of Saturday Night Live‘s biggest breakout stars, Murray adhered to type when he leapt onto the silver screen, with roles in Caddyshack, Tootsie, Stripes, and Ghostbusters playing to his strengths and finding plenty of success along the way. When he tried to get serious, not many people were interested.
You’d struggle to find a bigger fan of 1984’s The Razor’s Edge than the guy who co-wrote the script and played the leading role, and as a passion project, Murray leveraged Columbia Pictures to ensure that the film got made, repaying his favour to the studio by agreeing to star as Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters.
He put a lot of effort into the picture, but nobody really cared. It flopped in theatres, didn’t set the critical world on fire, and left the actor wondering if he had a future. “The first time I saw it, I said, ‘Am I gonna get out of this with my ass or not?'” he conceded. “Then I decided, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna get out of it.'”
To try and convince himself that audiences would be as invested in The Razor’s Edge as he was, which they weren’t, he pointed to two hard-hitting dramas as prospective bedfellows. “I know it’s an odd picture for people to go and see,” he acknowledged. “But then, all sorts of freaks went and saw some of the biggest downers of all time.”
“I mean, you don’t really take the family to Silkwood, saying, ‘Hey, let’s go have some laughs,'” Murray pointed out. “People went and saw it. And they went to see Sophie’s Choice.” Yes, they did, but the difference was that those two films were much better than his, and they had another important thing in common: Meryl Streep on Academy Award-nominated form in the leading role.
Sophie’s Choice was a December 1982 release in the United States, but didn’t roll out internationally until the following year, landing in the United Kingdom in April 1983. That December, Streep repeated the trick by landing right in the thick of the awards season conversation with Silkwood, two emotionally devastating and heart-wrenching stories that Bill Murray thinks you’d need to be a freak to enjoy.
