The Razor’s Edge is a 1984 American drama film directed and co-written by John Byrum starring Bill Murray, Theresa Russell, Catherine Hicks, Denholm Elliott, Brian Doyle-Murray, and James Keach. The film is an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s 1944 novel The Razor’s Edge.
This marked Murray’s first starring role in a dramatic film, though he did inject some of his dry wit into the script. The book’s epigraph is dramatized as advice from the Katha Upanishad: “The path to salvation is narrow and as difficult to walk as a razor’s edge.”
I really love everything about this film and never understood why it wasn’t appreciated more. I love Brian Doyle Murray’s portrayal of the war weary Piedmont, and Denholm Elliott’s Templeton in Paris. I even love Bill Murray’s mostly serious, introspective Larry Darrell.
Read the book as well if you like this story. Maugham is a great writer.