Hmm….Billy Bathgate and Miller’s Crossing would have been perfect for my salute to gangster movies a few years ago. Oh – and please
read my review of The Cotton Club –
another film about a young man who became Dutch Schultz’s pal.
Synopsis: World’s
most boring young man befriends mercurial mobster.
Blurb From the VHS
Jacket: “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.”
What Did I Learn?:
1) “Protégé” and “Prodigy” are not interchangeable words.
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Movie If: You've always wanted to see Dustin Hoffman play a non-fictional role.
Really?: 1) So
wait – Billy takes part in the murder/execution of Bo Weinberg (Bruce Willis),
and we’re supposed to think he’s still basically a good, wet-behind-the-ears
kid? In most movies, that’s more-or-less a turning point for a character. 2)
Wow… Billy’s relationship with Becky (Moira Kelly) certainly doesn’t develop
very far past the first act, does it?
Rating: Billy Bathgate is an entertaining
movie (Steven Hill – better remembered as Adam Schiff on Law and Order – does a wonderful job as Schultz’s long-suffering
right-hand man, Otto Berman), but it has a few problems: Hoffman portrays
Schultz almost as a cartoon, and Billy – the protagonist – just isn’t very
interesting. Moreover, he’s a grown man, and we’re supposed to believe that
everyone treats him like a 14-year old boy? Come on... 6.5/10 stars.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101453/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
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