Bugsy

1991 - Tristar Pictures
Directed By Barry Levinson


SYNOPSIS

New York mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (Warren Beatty) heads to Los Angeles to consolidate, run, and expand the small time mob operations. The gangster succeeds and falls in love with a nightclub singer (Annette Bening.)  Siegel then hatches an outrageous plan... to build an enormous hotel and casino in a small back water town called Las Vegas... where gambling is legal. The costs of his venture skyrocket... angering his skeptical big time investors back east.

MY THOUGHTS

A flawed film about a very flawed man.

Bugsy takes way too many liberties with history in order to tell a better story. The Flamingo was really the third hotel/casino on the Las Vegas Strip, not the first as depicted here. Siegel did not come up with the idea for, or have anything to do with the construction of the Flamingo until late in the game. Many events are also shuffled around.
The quick-tempered and very violent Siegel is significantly toned down in order to fit a 'leading man' type of role opposed to a villainous one.
Anyone who's looking for an accurate portrayal of the history of Siegel and his Vegas/LA dealings would be better suited reading a book or watching a History Channel documentary.

Still, the film does give a lavishly detailed look at life in the 40's. The film spared no expense in recreating the period. The costumes, hair, makeup, sets, music, etc. really help to transport you back in time. Barry Levinson's direction helps to bring the most out of the settings.

Story-wise, the film brings nothing new to the gangster genre. It's the same rise and fall tale that had already been told several times by the time Little Caesar and The Public Enemy made instant stars of Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney (respectively) back in 1931. 60 years later, Bugsy was able to amp-up the violence and language... but still paled in every way to Goodfellas released the year before. Goodfellas brought new stuff to the table.

Warren Beatty does a solid job as Siegel, but his performance lacks that spark that most of the big screen gangsters have, including his own take on Clyde Barrow in Bonnie And Clyde. The script sanitized much of Siegel's darkest edges. I would have liked to see Beatty much more edgier here.. but it was not to be.
He was nominated for an Oscar, though Bugsy is far from one of his best roles.
His best scenes show off his great chemistry with co-star Annette Bening, and they married shortly after filming.

Harvey Keitel and Ben Kingsley play Mickey Cohen and Meyer Lansky. Both are amazing actors but the roles are basically 2-dimensional and they suffer as a result... yet both were also nominated.

Joe Mantegna is woefully miscast as George Raft. Mantegna's laid-back, cool approach (he's practically the same in everything) couldn't be further from the street-bred tough guy Raft. In real life, Raft grew up on the rough streets of Hell's Kitchen and never lost the rough edges that an upbringing like that would create. Mantegna conveys none of this. he comes off like a cream-puff.

Somehow, Bugsy won a Golden Globe for Best Drama over The Silence Of The Lambs... but thankfully Oscar corrected this.
Bugsy is not a terrible film by any means... but the results are disappointing considering the subject matter and the talent involved to tell this story.