A
seductive look at a notorious gangster’s
dazzling and decadent empire about to crumble.
1991 –
106 minutes
Two-time Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman (Best
Actor-Kramer vs. Kramer and Rain Man) stars in the action-packed gangster epic
detailing the rise and fall of notorious mobster Dutch Schultz as seen through
the eyes of his young protégé, Billy Bathgate.
Billy, an ambitious streetwise kid seduced by the power, money and
glamour of crime, soon beings to seriously question if his passport to the good
life is going to come from the fiery Dutch and his gang!
Critically acclaimed and co-starring Bruce Willis (Die Hard) and Nicole
Kidman (Days of Thunder), Billy Bathgate delivers motion picture excitement you
won’t want to miss.
It's
probably a measure of the ongoing creative drought in Hollywood that the stories
behind the making of the films are often more interesting than the films
themselves. In the case of BILLY BATHGATE, rumors about a troubled production
were rife when the film's premiere was delayed by several months in order to
reshoot some scenes, including the ending. The cost-conscious heads of the
Disney studio were said to have come close to firing director Robert Benton in
the latter stages of this reported $40-million production.
When the film was
released, the rumors were somewhat confirmed. Always-outspoken star Dustin
Hoffman went public, expressing his dissatisfaction with the finished product
while accusing Benton of shutting him out of the creative process. The usually
softspoken Benton, who directed Hoffman in KRAMER VS. KRAMER, came to the
defense of his film, maintaining that he never felt a lack of studio support and
expressing dismay at Hoffman's comments. Whatever the truth, the results contain
neither the best nor the worst work of Benton or Hoffman. Despite an array of
top talent--including cinematographer Nestor Almendros and screenwriter Tom
Stoppard--the ingredients never catch fire in this oddly lifeless adaptation of
E.L. Doctorow's acclaimed novel.
Billy Bathgate
(Loren Dean), an enterprising street kid from the Depression-era Bronx slums,
bluffs and charms his way into the upper echelons of Dutch Schultz's (Hoffman)
gang by helping expose the duplicity of Schultz's trusted lieutenant, Bo
Weinberg (Bruce Willis). Dumped from a tugboat wearing cement overshoes,
Weinberg leaves behind a rich girlfriend, Drew Preston (Nicole Kidman), who
takes up with Schultz. It becomes Billy's main job to take care of Drew, as
Schultz, already in decline, is preoccupied with fighting federal tax-evasion
charges in the courts and rising mafioso Lucky Luciano (Stanley Tucci) on the
streets. The inevitable happens between Billy and the free-loving Drew when they
take a trip to Saratoga together on Schultz's orders, while the gangster plays
the wholesome-living businessman to the media during his trial in upstate New
York. Billy secretly helps Drew escape when Schultz, tiring of her, tries to
have her killed as the only civilian eyewitness to Weinberg's murder. Schultz's
growing suspicions about Billy are set aside after his victory in the courtroom.
But the euphoria is short-lived when Schultz returns to New York only to face
new state charges. Failing to bribe the prosecutor, Schultz and his gang are
reduced to hiding out in a Newark restaurant, where they are murdered by
Luciano's hitmen. Billy escapes only to be captured by Luciano. But he talks his
way out of being killed by setting Luciano against Schultz's lawyer, who
betrayed his client to Luciano after having stolen Schultz's money.
It is Doctorow's
multileveled plotting that becomes BILLY BATHGATE's greatest liability. The film
opens uncertainly, with Weinberg already on the tugboat, only to jump back to
Billy's early life and the events that led Weinberg to his watery grave. After
this awkward flashback, Stoppard and Benton seem so preoccupied with keeping the
lines of action clear that they fail to establish a consistent mood or a strong
point of view--the novel's real strengths. Indeed, for those familiar with the
novel, the film is bound to feel like watching the skeleton without the flesh.
For the most part,
the casting also works against any lasting impact. The highly-touted Dean
emerges here as little more than another generic brat-packer, wholly out of his
expressive range. Kidman is too cool a beauty to evoke the hungry sexuality of
the novel's Drew, for whom men were literally willing to die. As Schultz,
Hoffman is, as usual, technically flawless. But on a gut level he fails even to
erase memories of James Remar's searing portrayal of the gangster in THE COTTON
CLUB. Bruce Willis, as usual, is merely embarrassing. While most actors perform
for the camera, Willis seems invariably to be performing for the mirror. Only
Steven Hill's performance, as Schultz's levelheaded accountant, suggests the
rough lyricism of Doctorow's rich elegy to the bad men who built America.
Behind
the camera, Benton and Almendros--who keeps the film awash in ravishing,
expressive images--do their best to make BATHGATE an engrossing journey.
BATHGATE's main accomplishment, nevertheless, is to maintain Doctorow's record
as a highly filmic novelist whose works continue to defy successful translation
into cinematic form. BILLY BATHGATE isn't bad, but it should have been a lot
better.
(Violence, profanity, adult situations,
nudity.)
