Coming up to a century since the figures depicted walked the earth, the media has been awash with tales of gangsters. Organised syndicates of mobsters have been turned into living legends, with films like The Godfather and Goodfellas, dosing the cold, hard reality of their lives, lost in their depictions. Their crimes fuel their “cool factor” amongst the impressionable. In 1991, years after the events depicted in a film showed the rise and fall of one criminal empire through the young eyes of Billy Bathgate.
Poor but talented, Billy quickly builds up a relationship with local mobster Dutch Schultz. Doing odd jobs for his syndicate and reaping the lifestyle. Tensions are rising between the pressure from prosecutors wanting to make a name for themselves, rival gangsters looking to expand into Schultz’s operations, and disloyalty in Schultz’s ranks. Donning the name, Bathgate, temptation will also come into Bathgate’s way in the form of Drew Prescott and dealing with the unpredictable nature of Schultz. Will Bathgate find his payday at the end of his criminal career?
Mobster fever was certainly in the air in the early 90s, perhaps due to the success of Goodfellas and, to a lesser extent, the Dick Tracy film. But between Bugsy and Miller’s Crossing, the competition was cutthroat for films about organised mobsters. Most of the film is told from the titular Billy’s perspective, so we are treated to a lot of shots of him reacting to the highs and lows of mobster life and the whims of Schultz. It is interesting also seeing how all that gets upended with the inclusion of Drew into the mix, sworn to protection by her ex Weinberg, who disappeared one fateful day in 1935. That being said, it is a mob film, and you will have a certain expectation of certain set pieces that they will provide. Billy’s trials through the highs and lows of mobster life will more often than not hit those marks.
Touchstone managed to assemble a compelling cast to tell this story, the film blending real-life gangland figures with fictional characters to help drive the narrative forward. Nicole Kidman is as charming as ever as the gangster’s moll and femme fatale, Drew Prescott. It feels like hardly any time has passed since her time in that tense boat-based thriller, Dead Calm, some few years earlier. Steve Buscemi is here decades before his success as Nucky Thompson, as is Bruce Willis, who feels born to play Bo Weinberg. Even though his presence in the film is brief, he still oozes the cool customer persona that served as his Bruno character. But eyes are on Dustin Hoffman as Schultz, you never quite know what character will be in each scene, from charismatic talker to dangerous psychopath, all in the blink of an eye.
Billy Bathgate, although following the usual conventions of these mobster films, does tell an interesting tale of Schultz right before his fall. Blending its truth and fiction, with an impressionable youth serving as an audience surrogate, tells its crime doesn’t pay message entertainingly. If you like those tales, this is yet another example of a slice of the Cosa Nostra. While there is no shortage of crime films, the tale of Billy Bathgate is unique enough.
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