Product Description
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Warren Beatty and Annette Bening star in the incredible true
story of Benjamin Bugsy Siegel, the playboy gangster who betrayed
the Mob for love. A cold-blooded killer who dreamed of Hollywood
stardom, a crazed patriot who plotted against Mussolini, and the
brilliant visionary who carved Las Ve out of the dry Nevada
desert, Bugsy had it all. Until he fell for the one woman who
wanted more. A critical masterpiece, BUGSY is a remarkable
collaboration of Hollywood's best: director Barry Levinson,
screenwriter James Toback, and an all-star supporting cast that
includes Harvey Keitel, O(r)-winner Ben Kingsley (Best Actor,
Gandhi,1982), Joe Mantegna, and Elliott Gould. But at the center
of itall is the white-hot romance between Bugsy and the
insatiable starlet, Virginia Hill.
.com
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Bugsy represents an almost miraculous combination of director,
writer, and star on a project that represents a career highlight
for everyone involved. It's one of the best American gangster
movies ever made--as good in its own way as any of the Godher
films--and it's impossible to imagine anyone better than Beatty
in the movie's flashy title role. As notorious mobster and Las
Ve visionary "Bugsy" Siegel, Beatty is perfectly cast as a man
whose dreams are greater than his ability to realize them--or at
least, greater than his ability to stay alive while making those
dreams come true. With a glamorous Hollywood mistress (Annette
Bening) who shares Bugsy's dream while pursuing her own upwardly
mobile agenda, Bugsy seems oblivious to threats when he begins to
spend too much of the mob's money on the creation of the Flamingo
casino. Meyer Lansky (Ben Kingsley) and Mickey Cohen (Harvey
Keitel) will support Bugsy's wild ambition to a point, after
which all bets are off, and Bugsy's life hangs in the balance.
From the obvious chemistry of Beatty and Bening (who met and
later married off-screen) to the sumptuous reproduction of 1940s
Hollywood, every detail in this movie feels impeccably right.
Beatty is simply mesmerizing as the man who invented Las Ve
but never saw it thrive, moving from infectious idealism to
brutal violence in the blink of an eye. Director Barry Levinson
is also in peak form here, guiding the stylish story with a
subtle balance of admiration and horror; we can catch Bugsy's
Ve fever and root for the gangster's success, but we know
he'll get what he deserves. We might wish that Bugsy had lived to
see his dream turn into a booming oasis, but the movie doesn't
suggest that we should shed any tears. --Jeff Shannon
Bugsy: Extended Cut special features
Anyone who's heard how intense (or perhaps the word is
"torturous") it can be to make a film with Warren Beatty will be
captivated by the behind-the-scenes extras on the Bugsy: Extended
Cut DVD. The highlight is the chat among screenwriter James
Toback, director Barry Levinson, and star and co-producer Beatty
on how the project and the final film came to be. Tellingly,
Beatty is sitting quite apart from the other two, though they're
in a semi-circular banquette at Perino's in Los Angeles.
The conversation starts out slowly, with Toback, a genial
blowhard, talking about losing the original script, but it picks
up steam when the topic turns to the casting of the excellent
actors in the film, including Sir Ben Kingsley and Elliott Gould,
who also participate. And of course the most interesting
off-screen component of the project--Beatty meeting his future
wife, costar Annette Bening--is given a fun spotlight in the
film. Levinson remembers that after meeting Bening for the first
time, Beatty called him enthusiastically saying, "She's great, I
love her, I'm going to marry her" ("you know, just a throwaway
line," Levinson says, laughing), and Toback and Levinson and
Bening herself talk about the signs the two were slowly falling
in love. It's as dishy as anything you're likely to see about the
notoriously private Beatty, and well worth the investment.
Other extras include several deleted scenes that are now
included in the film (and unlike many other "extended cut"
releases, actually enhance the depth of the story). One is a
harrowing scene in which Bugsy contemplates, and nearly commits,
suicide, via Russian roulette. Another is an amusing screen test
that Siegal takes, thinking his roguish charm will translate to
the big screen. Though it takes Beatty's considerable talents to
make that happen, the earnestness of Siegal's outsider character
is touching in glimpses like this. --A.T. Hurley
Beyond Bugsy
Other Gangsters films on .com (
/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/541986/ref=d_ap_inc_27 )
More Films staring Warren Beatty (
/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/412330/ref=d_ap_inc_27 )
See the true story (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/%20B0009HMTGC/ref=d_ap_inc_32 )
Stills from Bugsy (click for larger image)
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