Dick Tracy
It’s hard to believe that at one time it was almost considered to be a huge risk for a major studio to greenlight a movie that was based upon a comic book or a comic strip. Even in the wake of the success that was Donner’s Superman, Hollywood still proved to be pretty reluctant when it came to throwing huge amounts of money towards these types of projects that would have seemed to have an unlimited amount of lucrative potential in regards to an ongoing franchise. Thus was the case with the Dick Tracy property, a concept that had been kicking around since the 1970s as Warren Beatty tried unsuccessfully to get it made, only to see himself kind of float away from the project for over a decade. Certainly the appeal might seem obvious, with the comic being created by Chester Gould in the early 1930s as an inspired reaction to his own personal hatred for the Prohibition era gangsters and the way in which they were treated as being glamorous celebrities. In Gould’s world, good and evil took on an interesting paradox, as the good, decent, “normal” people actually looked the same as you and me, while all the bad guys literally walked around with actual physical deformaties that would practically become their trademark, wearing their twisted souls on their faces so to speak in a more simple alternate world where it was easy to tell the difference between good and evil based solely upon their appearance, and into the middle of this was dropped the Tracy character himself, a no nonsense, square jawed, crusading supercop with an ultra cool radio transmitting wristwatch who carried out a grim war on the underworld with such a zest and determination that the crimelords had come to fear him more than they did their own gangland rivals. In 1989, the game changed suddenly with the absolutely huge worldwide success of Tim Burton’s Batman, and then the Disney / Touchstone company just could not wait to greenlight the entire project after it had been sitting around throughout the 80s and had gone through several different script rewrites and alterations, with Beatty himself even managing to come back on board to not only nab the starring role (at 53 years of age) but also becoming the director of the project as well, a rare occurrence following his last directing gig which had seen him win an Oscar for doing so with 1981’s Reds, and he also managed to bring a huge group of acting heavyweights with him. And thus Beatty set about bringing it all together, going notoriously over budget (as he was prone to do), and when the film was released in the summer of 1990, the less than Batman size box office take (how could it have been?) prompted then Disney exec Jeffrey Katzenberg to write an infamous memo decrying the so called “blockbuster mentality” that in his view had led to overspending on this film’s budget, thus killing any chances of a sequel or of a continued franchise (something which Beatty was more than willing to be a part of) despite the fact that the film was still a somewhat modest success, albeit just not what they had hoped for. Nonetheless, it can be said that Beatty managed to do some real assured work here, certainly an artistic success where instead of placing comic characters in a more “realistic” world (as most other films like this have done), he envisioned a cinematic realm where the comic’s colors and shadings literally WERE a thing of reality where these flesh and blood characters lived and worked in, employing dynamic use of matte paintings, costume design, and exemplary makeup work (for the villains) to bring this world to life, a world with a strict adherence to pastel colors, obviously fake money, and a seeming tendency to have characters who are shot fall to the ground dead with not a single drop of blood on them, making enjoyable light entertainment out of what was always intended to be kiddie fare based on the usually more mature cops and criminals style of storytelling (unlike Burton’s film which took a focus on some considerably more mature themes of vengeance and redemption). And as the ubiquitous Tracy character himself, Beatty does a fine job here, seeming energetic and vibrant while still remaining rigidly dedicated to doing his duty as a cop who just cannot be bought, corrupted, or brought down all while keeping a commendable straight face opposite the wild antics of some of his co stars. And as said, Beatty brought a huge throng of A list talent to the fold, some of whom have been reduced to just being mere bit parts or even extras, but a few do stand out who must be mentioned, most notably Al Pacino (every bit the big name villain as Nicholson’s Joker was) officially kicking off his going WAY over the top phase of his career as the film’s lead villain, Big Boy Caprice, a deranged, hunchbacked crime boss with a tendency to lose his temper and an even worse one to hilariously misquote famous historical figures in such a way as to make them seem that they were just as big a bunch of hucksters as he is. With Pacino himself designing his own makeup with so much latex on his face as to be unrecognizable (except for his eyes), the fact that he managed to nail an Oscar nomination here for Best Supporting Actor (something which Nicholson could NOT do) while playing someone who is such a well off miscreant that when he finds himself framed for a crime which he clearly did NOT do, he just shrugs it off and goes ahead and carries out the crime anyway, is truly an impressive feat even in the realm of cinematic comic book villains. We also get the controversial casting of Madonna (Beatty’s girlfriend at the time) as Breathless Mahoney, nightclub singer and disgusted moll to Big Boy (who nonetheless always seems to witness everything) who suddenly starts finding her loose bad girl being uncontrollably attracted to the goodest of good guys in Tracy, a straight arrow real man whom a girl like her always hanging around with such lowlifes can only dream about, and despite Madonna’s tendency to ruin many movies with her goofy, self conscious acting, here Beatty manages to direct her to her best ever acting performance that doesn’t even detract from the rest of the film, sweetly and tragically falling for the hero whom she can never have but yet whom still she desperately longs to have save her, and failing that, decides to take matters into her own hands (Beatty should have won an award just for this feat alone). And then in a completely from out of left field piece of casting we get Dustin Hoffman as Mumbles, Big Boy’s hapless gofer (who also manages to witness everything) with a noticeable speech impediment whom Tracy just seems to love using as a whipping boy in order to always try and beat information out of. That Hoffman (coming right off his own Best Actor Oscar win for Rain Man) would actually show up here wearing grotesque makeup in what overall amounts to an extended cameo really shows the kind of clout that Beatty exhibited in putting this whole cast together. Special notice must also be given to Glenne Headley as Tess Trueheart, admirably holding her own as the contrasted nice girlfriend of Tracy’s next to Madonna’s Monroe like bombshell, and even Charlie Korsmo as the street kid (nicknamed Kid) whom Tracy adopts manages to avoid at least a few of the pitfalls related to the “whoopee oh boy!” moments that the script saddles him with. Also of note is the fact that Beatty wanted to include as many of the original comic’s classic characters here throughout, with the rest of the massive cast peppering things out including William Forsythe (imposing in an otherwise underwritten turn as Flattop), Ed O’Ross, Seymour Cassel, Charles Durning, Charlies Fleischer, Mandy Patinkin, Paul Sorvino, James Tolkan, R.G. Armstrong (playing Pruneface, a role that was literally offered to former President Ronald Reagan), Kathy Bates, Dick Van Dyke, Catherine O’Hara, Henry Silva, Colm Meaney, James Caan (reuniting with his Godfather brother Pacino here during a mob conference scene), Michael J. Pollard, Estelle Parsons, Mary Woronov, and even Mike Mazurski, who had played a villain in one of the old Dick Tracy serials back in the 1940s. Beatty even went ahead and hired Danny Elfman (hot off his score for Burton’s Batman) to compose the music here as well as Stephen Sondheim to write a bunch of original songs for Madonna’s nightclub chanteuse to perform throughout the movie. Just so much talent here, along with cinematic long camera shots that pretty much resemble actual works of art (matte painting was truly a lost technique that was killed by CGI) which allow the viewer to not only fully drink in the amazing world created here, but also to have the time and luxury to do so, which all chalks this up to being the most underrated film of its kind ever, easy to sit through and fun to watch for all ages…
9/10