I think everyone knows the situation where you’ve bought a book/game or movie which you bring open, lay down somewhere and not touch it for years. This used to happen quite a bit (although less now) to me and lately I’ve been going through some of them as it’s a shame to have unopened stuff lying around. Recently I decided to read a book I bought years ago, The Rough Guide to Gangster Movies. It’s a genre I really enjoy watching so I was looking forward to reading about gangster movies I might not have seen yet.
Although that number turned out to be not that high (as I saw quite a lot of gangster movies from the thirties and forties), there was one title which I had never heard of: Billy Bathgate. Not a title you would immediately associate with gangstermovies, but when I read that Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman, Steve Buscemi, Stanley Tucci and Bruce Willis all were in it I was wondering why I never heard of it.
This film, based on a book that won several awards, is set in the thirties and tells the story of 15-year-old Billy “Bathgate” Behan, who starts working for Dutch Schultz (Hoffman), a successful gangster (a man who did exist and made his money at that time through gambling and selling alcohol). Billy sees his world and starts out at the bottom. When Drew Preston (Nicole Kidman) enters the picture the world changes for both Dutch and Billy (who immediately has a crush on her).
The problem with this film is that after an hour and 45 minutes I had a hard time describing what this movie really was about. A lot of things happen, but none of it seem important. As a viewer I never was caught up in the events, with Billy Bathgate remaining an empty canvas which still hadn’t been painted on by the end of the movie (in my opinion because Loren Dean wasn’t the right choice for the role as he doesn’t give any weight or emotion to the character).
The typical gangster movie properties are present, so political games, the innocent kid who becomes part of organised crime because he looks up to the gangster, the femme fatale etc. Based on the description I read in the book I had high expectations, but I ended up looking at the credits disappointed. If you are looking for a good gangstermovie than this isn’t the one, despite its impressive cast it is one you’d be best to skip.
Impressive cast! However, I think I’ll heed your advice and skip this one.
Yeah, I think that would be better.
I do remember this film for the fact that Nicole Kidman does nude scenes in that film and I think it was the last feature film that Nestor Almendros shot as he would die a year later after its release. It’s an alright film and yeah, Loren Dean is just bland.
Yeah, she does. But the film is just very forgettable. Stunning that they picked an actor without much screen presence…