BY LEE PFEIFFER
When "Billy Bathgate" went into production for Disney's Touchstone Pictures division, word-of-mouth was that filming was not going well. Today, such rumors would spread immediately but in the pre-internet age, information was largely confined to industry insiders and avid movie buffs who read the trade papers. The rumors were true. The project started out on a promising note, with noted playwright Tom Stoppard adapting E.L. Doctorow's source novel for the screen. Dustin Hoffman would star and the film would reunite him with director Robert Benton. The two men had both won Oscars for the 1979 Best Picture winner "Kramer vs. Kramer". What could go wrong? Turns out, plenty. The esteemed Doctorow let it be known that he felt Stoppard's screenplay didn't capture the essence of his novel and he distanced himself from the film even before production had wrapped. Hoffman and Benton didn't have a sentimental journey on the set, either, with the dreaded "artistic differences" emerging. Disney executives micro-managed aspects of the movie and insisted that a new ending be filmed at great expense, only to have the final cut revert to the original ending. The budget ultimately ballooned to $48 million (before marketing costs were even incurred), an extravagant amount in 1991. When the film opened, it was a major flop with both critics and audiences. There were occasional good reviews for individual contributors but in the aggregate, the movie's international grosses barely exceeded $15 million. Yet, as we've pointed out so many times in the pages of Cinema Retro, the fact that a film died at the boxoffice doesn't necessarily mean that it is an artistic failure and "Billy Bathgate" does have plenty of impressive aspects.
The film opens during the Depression in New York City with a disturbing scenario. A gangster named Bo Weinberg (Bruce Willis) is awaiting a terrible fate. He's on a boat heading into the waters off Manhattan, his hands tied to a chair and his feet encased in cement. Turns out he is the right-hand man to notorious gangster Dutch Schultz (Hoffman), who has found evidence that Bo has double-crossed him. Schultz delights in psychologically torturing Bo before adding insult to injury by forcing his girlfriend Drew Preston (Nicole Kidman) into a bedroom with her to be forced into sex acts. The entire scene plays out before the wide-eyed Billy Bathgate (Loren Dean), an up-and-coming teenager in Schultz's organization and someone who knows and likes Bo very much. But he knows that he will suffer the same fate if he takes pity on Bo. The scene switches into flashback mode. Billy, like most of his friends, is staring into an unpromising future of backbreaking work and impoverished living conditions. Aside from being charismatic and street-wise, he boasts a modest talent for juggling and performing slight-of-hand tricks. A chance encounter with notorious gangster Dutch Schultz allows him to demonstrate his juggling skills, much to Schultz's amusement (he hands Billy a $20 tip.) Encouraged by the opportunity, Billy finds a way to gain access to Schultz's offices, masquerading as a staffer who does janitorial duties. Schultz admires his moxie and offers him a legitimate job. Billy soon recognizes that Schultz has a dual personality. He can be funny, loyal and generous with his underlings, but he is also a sociopath who on a whim can turn into a violent killer. Billy knows that the only way to stay alive is to practice unquestioning fealty to Schultz. That discipline is hard to maintain when Drew, who has stayed on as Schultz's mistress, seduces Billy, leaving him to walk a fine line between indulging in his obsession for Drew and risking having his own feet placed in cement. As Schultz's crime empire begins to collapse due to increased federal investigations and indictments, the gangster becomes even more erratic, posing a threat to Billy and every one around him.
"Billy Bathgate" is rather low-key for a period crime drama, lacking
the gravitas of "The Godfather" films or
any Scorsese movie of the same genre. The glue that holds it all
together is Hoffman's performance. He's genuinely unsettling and scary
to watch. Unfortunately, he isn't the central character, Billy is. As Billy, Loren
Dean delivers a perfectly admirable performance but the character as
written by Stoppard is rather bland and uninteresting. We never get
under his skin and his primary role is to be an observer of far more
interesting characters interacting with each other in far more
interesting ways. The film was an important early step for Nicole Kidman
(she was nominated for a Golden Globe and emerged unscathed by the
reviews), but, like Billy, Drew is under-written, given her relevancy to
the events that unfold. Steve Buscemi has a small role as a Schultz
henchman and Stanley Tucci appears late in the film as Lucky Luciano,
but it is Steven Hill who dominates every scene he appears in as Otto,
Schultz's older adviser, financial guru and father figure. He brings a
sense of world-weariness through the nuances of his performance and he's
mesmerizing to watch. "Billy Bathgate" can't be called an underrated
classic. It has far too many missed opportunities. But it can be
recommended because, in totality, it's consistently engrossing and
entertaining.
The Kino Lorber Blu-ray boasts an excellent transfer and features the original trailer plus trailers for other KL releases.
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