Retrospective: Bullets Over Broadway (1994)

Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 20:03:10 -0000
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews
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BULLETS OVER BROADWAY (1994)
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2003
Woody Allen is not only talented, but also a very prolific filmmaker.
His career, especially in the latter stages, when the audience and
critics became used to his style and themes, was always under the
risk of each new film being indistinguishable from the other. Allen
was quite aware of this, so he tried to put some refreshing variations
to the formula. While making BULLETS OVER BROADWAY in 1994
he decided to stay behind the camera and allow his standard
character of neurotic New York intellectual to be played by someone
else.
That someone else was John Cusack. In BULLETS OVER
BROADWAY he plays David Shayne, young New York playwright
who desperately wants to succeed in 1920s Broadway. After two
successive flops, he reluctantly agrees that his next play be financed
by New York mobster Nick Valenti (played by Joe Viterelli). In return
for financial services, Valenti insists that his girlfriend Olive Neal
(played by Jennifer Tilly) gets the part. It soon turns out that Olive
Neal is not only unsuitable for the role, but also a dreadful actress. As
Shayne struggles to reconcile his financial needs with artistic
integrity, another, more talented actress Helen Sinclair (played by
Diane Wiest) demands that her role gets improved. In the meantime,
Cheech (played by Chazz Palminteri), Valenti's goon hired to watch
over Olive, gets more and more affected with the dreadful stuff that
he saw during rehearsals and decides to do something about it.
BULLETS OVER BROADWAY explores one of those eternal
dilemmas - whether the abstract ideals of Art have more value over
prosaic and more concrete Life. Various characters answer those
questions in different ways, and it is real fun to see how that plays
out in painstakingly recreated world of 1920s Broadway. The fun
comes from the group of very talented actors who play those
characters. The best of them is Chazz Palminteri in the most complex
role of a street hoodlum who accidentally discovers new talent. In the
hands of any other actor, this transformation would be laughable, but
Palminetri gives it credibility. Diane Wiest is also very good as
alcoholic diva. Unfortunately, some actors aren't that good, especially
Jennifer Tilly who went over the top in her portrayal of talentless
bimbo. Photography by Carlo di Palma is too dark at times, and the
scenes depicting gangland shootings (responsible for BULLETS
OVER BROADWAY having higher bodycount than much more
notorious PULP FICTION) are too repetitive to serve any purpose.
Yet, despite those flaws, BULLETS OVER BROADWAY is very
entertaining film that could be recommended even to those viewers
who aren't Woody Allen fans.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
Review written on February 14th 2003
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in
Croatian
http://www.purger.com/users/drax/reviews.htm - Movie Reviews in English
http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society
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X-RT-RatingText: 6/10