Many people are turned to crime not only because of material wealth, but also because of glamour and fame they couldn’t have imagined obtaining in different ways. Hollywood contributed to it by taking inspiration for some of its most iconic films from larger-than-life criminals. One of those was Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, whose life is subject of Bugsy, 1991 film directed by Barry Levinson.
Siegel’s character is played by Warren Beatty and the plot begins in 1940s New York City, a decade after Siegel, a Jewish gangster, helped his childhood friend Meyer Lansky (played by Ben Kingsley) and his Italian Mafia associate Charlie “Lucky” Luciano (played by Bill Graham) establish first national criminal organisation in United States. Siegel, unlike cerebral and diplomatic Lansky, is extremely violent and prone to outbursts of bad temper, but these are qualities Syndicate tolerates when they provide solution to certain problems. Siegel is sent to Los Angeles to supervise Syndicate’s criminal operations, which are mishandled by weak local boss Jack Dragna (played by Richard C. Sarafian). When Siegel learns that Dragna’s betting parlours were robbed by Dragna’s rival Mickey Cohen (played by Harvey Keitel), he is so impressed by Cohen’s audacity that he turns over operation to him. Trip to Los Angeles is also an opportunity to meet with an old friend George Raft (played by Joe Mantengna), a Hollywood star. During the visit to the set of Raft’s film Siegel meets and falls in love with starlet Virginia Hill (played by Annette Bening). Although she initially rejects his advances, Siegel uses every opportunity to stay in Los Angeles, seduced by sunny weather and glamour of Hollywood. He also develops an idea to build casino in small Nevada desert town of Las Vegas, which he envisions as start of entertainment empire. Despite scepticism from everyone, he manages to convince Syndicate and various business interests to invest in an ambitious project he would give Virginia Hill to supervise. But his vision begins to clash with realities, delays, bloated budget and Syndicate, already nervous over Siegel’s celebrity lifestyle bringing unwanted public attention, begins to suspect that Siegel intends to steal their money.
Bugsy Siegel’s colourful life, personality and violent death have intrigued and inspired film makers before, including Francis Ford Coppola who had character of Moe Greene in The Godfather based on him. Script by James Toback, which was first to focus solely on Siegel and took more conventional approach to his biography, had, on the other hand, intrigued Warren Beatty, an actor and producer whose earlier work, highly regarded Reds, was an also biography of an interesting historical personality. Unlike in Reds, Beatty wisely decided to leave direction to fellow producer Barry Levinson who did a good job, mainly by compressing Siegel’s story to his final years in sunny and prosperous California instead of chronicling his rise from bleak immigrant slums of New York City. Cinematography by Allen Daviau presents quite attractive panorama of Hollywood in its golden age and even Nevada desert looks appealing as perfect destination for enterprising individuals to build their own American Dream. A great effort is spent in proper costumes, props and big band music numbers and that perfectly conveys the period.
Beatty as protagonist provides one of the best performances of his career. Despite being in his 50s, he effortlessly plays character whose good looks could be mistaken for a proper Hollywood star. But Siegel’s charm and immaculate fashion sense also come hand in hand with more sinister traits of dangerous killer, violent thug and, what it becomes quite apparent near the end, unhinged megalomaniac. Beatty benefits a lot from Toback’s script that paints picture of symbiotic relationship between Hollywood and organised crime – larger-than-life gangsters provide iconic characters for American films, while gangsters themselves see fictional gangsters on screen as inspiration. Beatty was probably further attracted to Bugsy because he saw something of himself in protagonist – a misunderstood visionary who had to fight tooth and nail to make his dream reality in spite of opposition by sceptical men in suits. Beatty’s performance is well-matched by Annette Bening who plays a very complex femme fatale whose ultimate loyalty and motives leave much to each viewer’s interpretation. Her interaction with Beatty is very good and, unsurprisingly, their relationship blossomed in real life making Beatty, one of Hollywood’s most famous bachelors, finally tying the knot with Bening.
Bugsy is well-acted and well-directed film, but it is far from perfect. The same Toback’s script that provided such valuable inspiration for Beatty is also the source of film’s main problems. Toback tried to make film comprehensive to the audience by compressing many events within two hours and fifteen minutes of running time, but he did it at the expense of historical accuracy and pace. One example is subplot involving Siegel’s old and treacherous friend Harry Greenberg, played by Elliott Gould, which in film occurs years after the events in real life. Another thing that nearly ruins film is uninspired and monotonous musical score by Ennio Morriccone. However, even with these flaws, Bugsy could be recommended as one of the better gangster biopics to come from Hollywood.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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