Billy Bathgate (film)

Billy Bathgate

Original Theatrical Poster
Directed by Robert Benton
Screenplay by Tom Stoppard
Based on Billy Bathgate 
by E.L. Doctorow
Starring Dustin Hoffman
Nicole Kidman
Steven Hill
Loren Dean
Bruce Willis
Music by Mark Isham
Cinematography Néstor Almendros
Edited by Alan Heim
David Ray
Robert M. Reitano
Production
company
Distributed by Buena Vista Pictures
Release dates
 November 1, 1991
Running time
 106 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $48 million
Box office $15,565,363

Billy Bathgate is a 1991 American gangster film directed by Robert Benton, starring Loren Dean as the titular character and Dustin Hoffman as real-life gangster Dutch Schultz. The film co-stars Nicole Kidman, Steven Hill, Steve Buscemi, and Bruce Willis. Although Billy is a fictional character, most of the other characters in the film represent real people from 1930s New York. The screenplay was adapted by British writer Tom Stoppard from E.L. Doctorow's novel of the same name. However, Doctorow distanced himself from the film for the extensive deviations from the book.

Plot

Billy Behan is a poor 15-year-old kid in the 1930s Bronx. After the wealthy gangster Dutch Schultz takes him under his wing, Billy adopts the name of a neighborhood street and begins to work for the organization.

Billy is taught the ropes by Dutch's business associate Otto Berman and given menial chores. Dutch, meanwhile, is busy trying to beat a rap in court and also determine whether his partner Bo Weinberg has been betraying him. Even though he likes Bo, it is Billy who eventually helps prove that Bo lied about his whereabouts.

Dutch and his thugs take Bo captive and prepare to send him to a watery grave. Dutch proceeds to claim the attentions of beautiful Drew Preston, a married young socialite Bo has been seeing who clearly has a weakness for powerful, dangerous men.

Facing a court case in an upstate New York rural community, Dutch brings along his "protege" Billy and the sophisticated lady Drew to put up a front of respectability, ingratiating himself to the locals with good manners and money. While his boss Dutch stands trial, Billy's job is to keep an eye on Drew, a free spirit who likes having Billy's eye on her as she bathes nude in the woods.

Billy falls for her and admires his new boss, at least until witnessing first-hand exactly how ruthless a criminal Dutch really is. Unable to intervene on Bo's behalf, the best Billy can do in the end is try to save Drew's life and his own. Realizing Drew is about to be killed, Billy calls Drew's husband who comes and takes her home before Dutch's men can do anything about it.

Having beat the rap in court, Thomas Dewey indicts Dutch again on federal charges. Dutch wants Dewey killed but gets no support from anybody. Billy is given a wad of cash to try to pay another gangster for assistance, but he refuses. As Billy is returning to the restaurant Dutch uses as a hideout to deliver the bad news, he lets it slip that he saw Drew talking to Lucky Luciano earlier and Dutch angrily slugs Billy and but did not fire him for not saying something earlier. Dutch's accountant Otto later "fires" Billy telling him that firing is his job and that nobody, except Dutch, ever liked to have Billy on the team. It seems obvious that Otto likes Billy but fired him to save Billy from being killed during an attack from rival mobsters that Otto understood was imminent. Otto let Billy keep the wad of cash as a severance payment and tells him to get lost.

As Billy is leaving, a group of mobsters take him captive and then enter the building and shoot everybody. During the shootout, Dutch is in the bathroom and suddenly comes out shooting to try to surprise the mobsters, but they kill him first (which is supposedly a very accurate portrayal of Dutch's death). Billy is brought before Lucky (who hired the hit). Lucky likes Billy and doesn't want to hurt him, but Billy also knows a lot of information that could get a lot of people in trouble. Lucky admits he's not sure what to do with Billy, so he simply tells him that he knows everything about his family and can easily have them all killed at any time, but would rather not so they have an understanding that if Billy keeps quiet, he and his family will not be harmed. Billy agrees and leaves the mobster life behind for good.

Cast

Production

The film was shot in Hamlet, North Carolina and Saratoga Springs, New York.

Reception

Critical

The movie received generally mixed reviews.[1][2][3] It has a "Rotten" rating of 47% on Rotten Tomatoes.[4]

Box office

The movie debuted at No. 4[5] and underperformed against its $48 million budget.

Awards and nominations

The film received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (Nicole Kidman).

References

  1. ↑ "MOVIE REVIEW: 'Bathgate': Gangsters Without Any Soul". Los Angeles Times. 1991-11-01. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
  2. ↑ "Review/Film; Dutch Schultz's World Of Kill and Be Killed". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
  3. ↑ "Billy Bathgate". Chicago Sun Times. 1991-11-01. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
  4. ↑ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/billy_bathgate/
  5. ↑ "Weekend Box Office : 'People' Tops a Lackluster Bunch". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-06-08.

External links