Dick Tracy (1990)

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nDick Tracy (1990)

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nDirector: Warren Beatty

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nCast:  Warren Beatty,nMadonna, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Charlie Korsmo, William Forsythe, MandynPatinkin, Catherine O’Hara, James Caan, Dick Van Dyke, Kathy Bates

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nThe 90’s brought on the rebirth of the big budget comic booknmovie (which had been dead since Richard Donner’s Superman films) thanks to thenphenomenal worldwide success of Tim Burton’s Batman (1989), suddenly everynstudio wanted to make a comic book movie, the problem was they didn’t know hownto go about it. For some reason, they got the idea in their heads that goingnwith ancient comic book heroes like The Phantom (1996) and The Shadow (1994) wasna good idea. And even when they did do original comic book films, they wentnwith a comic book that paid tribute to all those old heroes called ThenRocketeer (1991). The studios hadn’t figured out yet that people really wantednthe more contemporary heroes like Spiderman and the X-Men, which is probablynwhy a lot of those old school comic book movies tanked at the box office.nBatman made kajillions because the character had remained alive in thencollective consciousness because Batman has always remained in print, it hadnits own television show and it became a part of popular culture. Not so withnthe older characters, which though not entirely dead, were not as recognized bynmodern audiences. In other words, characters like The Shadow and The Phantomnall had their day back in the 30’s and 40’s. Today’s kids aren’t reallynfamiliar with these characters. The same can be said of Dick Tracy, ChesternGould’s hard boiled detective that started out in comic strips, on news papers,nthree little squares of story per week. The strip was such hit that they madenDick Tracy serials, radio shows, b-movies, you name it. Unfortunately, Tracynnever got the big screen treatment that Chester Gould wanted. That is untilnWarren Beatty came along and directed this here picture.
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nI remember seeing Dick Tracy in theaters, that awesome summernof 1990. It was a big summer as far as blockbuster movies go. Squished innbetween big action films like Robocop 2 (1990), Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990)nand Total Recall (1990), Beatty’s Dick Tracy (1990) seemed tame in comparison,nit made my 15 year old mind wonder if it was going to make it a the box office.nI remember there was a big publicity push for the movie, Disney (under thenBuena Vista Pictures banner) made sure you knew about the film one way ornanother, right down to selling Madonna’s soundtrack ‘I’m Breathless’, which bynthe way I really dug and still own to this day. Was the film a huge hit inntheaters? Well, it didn’t lose money, but it wasn’t the smash hit that theynwere expecting either. The smash hit of that summer was Patrick Swayze and DeminMoore in Ghost (1990). Dick Tracy ended up making  162 million dollars worldwide, a figure that didn’tnimpress its producers and probably the main reason we never saw a sequel. Butnwho cares what producers think right? At the end of the day, what we reallyncare about is if the movie was good or not. nAnd in my opinion, Dick Tracy was excellent; the problem was that DicknTracy was a hero from another era, with a big budget film that came manyndecades too late.
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nBut if you can see past the fact that Dick Tracy is a heronfrom the 30’s you can actually have a lot of fun with this movie. While Inunderstand why the masses shy away from anything they consider ‘old’ or ‘passé’,nI personally enjoy all types of films, I don’t just watch contemporary things, Incan appreciate the many attributes that a film like Dick Tracy has to offer,nfor example, it’s a beautiful film to look at. Warren Beatty aimed to make anfilm that looked like the comic strips; so he went with a color palettencomposed of primary colors that leap off the screen; this movie is pure eyencandy, a vibrant kaleidoscope of colors! Dick Tracy was made using old schoolnfilmmaking techniques and I have a great appreciation for films made using miniaturesnand matte paintings to create city landscapes, I just love that about filmsnmade this way. The interesting thing is that Dick Tracy was made just beforencomputer generated effects were about to take over, so it’s one of the lastnfilms to be made this way. I think that Beatty wanted to purposely make an oldnschool film, same way that Coppola purposely used old school visual effects tonmake Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). In this way, the director evokes a bygone eranof filmmaking; Beatty wanted to take us back in time. And he achieved it if younask me. We go back to a time when hardboiled detectives were out on the streetsntrying to solve the crime, getting the bad guys in the big bad city. In thisnway Dick Tracy is an interesting film because it has elements of film noir, yetnit’s also colorful and vibrant, bringing together an interesting mix of genresnand styles.

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nThe cast is something truly amazing! Beatty as Tracy isnpitch perfect casting if you ask me. Beatty has said that they tried applyingnfake noses and jaws on him to make him look more like Gould’s sketches and thatnultimately they decided not to go with it because it would distract audiences.nI think it was a great idea because Tracy’s normality goes in direct contrastnto the downright grotesque villains. And while the villains are comic booknmonsters, Tracy is human, he’s all about heart. He’s Tracy, the ultimate goodnguy who is in many ways like Superman, the embodiment of all that is good andnpure in humanity. He’s loyal to the love of his life, Tess Truehart even thoughnBreathless Mohoney is trying to eat him up every chance she gets. Tracy’s suchna good guy; he wants to adopt an orphan he picks up from the streets. He’s allnabout the law and doing what’s right, he’s honest and hard working, he wants tonget the bad guys. He’s the ultimate do gooder. His counterpart is Al Pacino’snBig Boy Caprice, one of Pacino’s most over the top performances, he got annOscar nomination for this performance. He just goes nuts here. Madonna asnBreathless Mahoney oozes sensuality, you have to understand this was Madonna atnthe peak of her youthful beauty, she was so damn sexy in those days! She exploitsnthat sensuality for all its worth. Every line Breathless speaks is in doublenentendres. Then we have Big Boys gang, which is composed of a who’s who ofncharacter actors like William Forsythe, Ed O Ross and Paul Sorvino. We also getnbig name actors playing smaller roles, like Dustin Hoffman playing ‘Mumbles’none of Big Boys men, who, as his name suggests, mumbles everything he says. Allnthese characters make the film an amalgam of craziness straight out of a comicnbook, made all the more interesting because each and every one of these actorsnare made up to look exactly like Gould’s original drawings. Which I’m sure madenmaking this film, a huge challenge, I mean, having all those actors in make upnat the same time!
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nThe icing on this Dick Tracy cake is the music! Thenorchestral score was composed by the always excellent Danny Elman. His score isngrandiose and epic, similar in many ways to his score for Batman (1989), butnthen again, that’s the exact reason why Elfman was hired, Beatty was impressednwith Elfman’s score for Batman (1989). Then we have the soundtrack, written bynBroadway composer Stephen Sondheim and sung by Madonna, it makes for one ofnMadonna’s most unique albums. It’s fun, retro and heartfelt. So as you can see,nmany awesome elements came together to make Dick Tracy an extremely uniquenfilm, a trip back in time to simpler times when good was good and evil wasnevil, no place for in betweens; or is there? At the end of the day, while Tracynis always out to get Big Boy and his gang, this film is really about Tracynhaving to decide between pleasure and sensuality over true love, marriage, kidsnand possibly becoming a family man. Which one will he choose? Tracy is tornnbetween being a bachelor or becoming a family, some say this mirrored WarrennBeatty’s own personal life, after all, Beatty was the ultimate bachelor back innhis day. So anyhow, I’ve gone on long enough, bottom line is Dick Tracy is annexcellent comic book movie, dare I say one of the best ones ever, an excellentnproduction from beginning to end.  

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