Billy Bathgate [VHS]

This film really surprised me as I have never heard of it before yet it has quite a strong cast inc Bruce Wllis amongst others and is very good. Some how find it hard to picture Hoffman as a violent gangster but the acting in this is very good as is the story. In a way it is similar to Goodfellas as it charts a boys life as he joins and works for the local gangster in 1930's New York. Also featuring Nicole Kidman in her most "revealing" role (that's saying something!) and I wonder how such a good film is not better know? If you like gangster films, any of the good actors in this or a fan of Nicole Kidman you should definitely watch this!

Based on IMDb, I'm evidently one of the few people, critics or public, who likes this movie. It's got some flaws, but on balance I think it tells an intriguing story, has a great look and features some first class performances. It also, admitedly, comes to a slow walk in the last third of the movie and only barely recovers.

Billy Bathgate (Loren Dean) is a young kid, not quite a punk, who is ambitious and wants to make money. The easiest way is to become a gangster, and he figures out a way to be noticed by Dutch Schultz (Dustin Hoffman). The movie is told from Billy's perspective, but it's dominated by Schultz's cunning, violence and loss of power. Dutch Schultz controls the numbers racket, liquor and gambling. He has judges in his pocket with bribes. He has never had anything pinned on him, but now he's facing a tax evasion rap. He moves upstate to find a friendly jury. Although he beats the rap, the prosecutors won't stop coming at him. And more and more of his fellow sharks are circling closer as they realize that one way or another Schultz is becoming history. When he loses the confidence of Lucky Lucciano, his career comes to a violent halt. Billy survives, barely.

Hoffman, in my view, gives a fine performance of a cunning, uneducated, suspicious and violent gangster. Schultz's way of dealing with a problem is to eliminate it as directly as possible. He's unpredictable; he may pat your face one minute and put a bullet through your open mouth the next. Steven Hill as Otto Berman, Schultz' long time operations manager and money man, gives an outstanding performance. Berman is getting a little old and tired, but he remains loyal to Schultz. Make no mistake; he's just as much a crook as Schultz. He develops a liking for Billy that saves Billy's life. Others who come up with compelling turns are Stanley Tucci as Luciano, as fascinating and calculating as a snake; Steve Buscemi as one of Schultz' hoods who does what he's told, Nicole Kidman as a society dame who seems to love the rough stuff and the danger and who gets in beyond her depth; Timothy Jerome as Dixie Davis, Schultz' slimy, dishonest and betraying lawyer, Bruce Willis as Bo Weinberg, Schultz's second-in-command, who makes the mistake of looking out for his own interests. Loren Dean does an okay job, in my view, as Billy. He's not a compelling actor, but neither is the character. Billy is an observer for the most part.

It's the last part of the movie that's problematic. A good deal of time is spent rather humorlessly in a small town in upstate New York as Schultz and Berman go about trying to buy their way into the town's -- and the potential jury members' -- good graces. There's a bit of bracing violence, but too much exposition. And then the extended sequence in Saratoga with Kidman and Dean, and the growing danger to Kidman, kicks in...and it just seems long.

On balance, though, I can watch this movie with pleasure...probably because of the style, the story line and Steven Hill's performance.

The film is perfectly performed and absolutely vicious in the vision it gives of crime, or rather criminal ambition. One little non Italian is trying to take over the Bronx in New York from the Italians, among others who have come to terms with the Italians or Sicilians. His method is purely paranoid and psychotic. He kills, by hand if necessary, all those who would stand eventually in his way. A kid, a teenager, gets involved in this trip and he is shown as not understanding at all the why and the how of the crime business. He asks too many questions. He looks too much, and he even has some feeling for the rich woman who is buying herself a gangster gigolo who of course refuses the part. The poor boy will try to save the woman, who is married to a gay man, a very civil arrangement. So, he will be lucky to get out of the place just in time but to face the big boss in New York, and yet he will manage to escape. Amazing because unbelievable. But it is true Billy has to survive since he is telling the story, or rather the story is told from his point of view. He is the voyeur, the camera, the stalker, the witness, etc, and the film is shot through his own eyes. The pleasure is essentially in the acting.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne