Barry Levinson (1991)

Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel (1906-1947), according to Wikipedia, ‘was involved with the Genovese crime family.  Because of his notoriously quick and violent temper, the ruthless Siegel became one of the most infamous and feared gangsters of his day.  Along the way, he became one of the first page-one “celebrity” gangsters. Siegel was also a major driving force behind large-scale development of the Las Vegas Valley’.  I enjoyed Bugsy when I first saw it (on video – I guess in the mid-1990s) but – in a bad week for struggling (Polisse) or failing (Cosmopolis) to stay the course – I gave up after less than an hour at this BFI screening.  I might have engaged with the film more if I hadn’t been feeling ropy (prelude to a migraine).  Even so, I could see and hear things I didn’t like.  Bugsy looks stylish and moves fluently; the connections between the mob and Hollywood in the late 1930s and early 1940s, as well as the creation of Las Vegas, should be an interesting subject; and James Toback’s script is very clever.  Too clever, though:  the brilliant dialogue has a self-admiring edge; the ironic patterning between and within scenes – in the way Barry Levinson stages them, at any rate – is irritating in its neatness.

Bugsy (Warren Beatty) not only hates being called by his entomological nickname but is pedantically correct in the use of language:  he explains to an interlocutor the difference between ‘disinterested’ and ‘uninterested’ (the interlocutor is likely to be the latter when it comes to the use of words).  The dapper Bugsy is shown a selection of shirts at a gent’s outfitters.  A few screen minutes later he’s accusing one of his criminal associates of robbing him.  ‘D’you want the shirt off my back?  I’ll give you the shirt off my back!’ he yells, before removing the wrapping from one of the garments he bought earlier, and shooting the man dead.  Blood stains the pristine white shirt.   In a later sequence, Bugsy rants at another hood, at high volume and great length, until the latter gets out of the house as quickly as possible.   Bugsy’s lover, the actress-starlet Virginia Hill (Annette Bening), watches in horror from the staircase.   Then, when the man’s gone, she comes down and goes over to Bugsy and they make love:  the anger that shocked her also turns her on.  The first meeting between the couple, on a Hollywood sound stage, is electrifying, thanks largely to the wit of Annette Bening’s voice (its effortless range immediately takes you by surprise) and movement.   Some people think this is Warren Beatty’s best performance but I can’t see why.    The cast also includes Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Joe Mantegna (as George Raft) and Elliott Gould.

21 June 2012