Madonna and Warren Beatty in ‘Dick Tracy’ (1990)
Directed by: Warren Beatty
Written by: Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. based on Characters by Chester Gould
Starring: Warren Beatty, Al Pacino, Madonna, Glenne Headly, Charlie Korsmo, Charles Durning, Dick Van Dyke, Kathy Bates, Dustin Hoffman, William Forsythe
In Warren Beatty’s many cinematic endeavors, one thing about him stands loud and proud: he is a consummate professional, and no matter the story, Beatty, who celebrates his 83rd birthday on March 30, always delivers an experience that very few directors have been able to replicate.
Take 1990’s “Dick Tracy,” which is currently on Cinemax. There is a vibrancy in the look and feel of the film, and two of the three Academy Awards that the film won in 1991, for Best Makeup and Best Art Direction, are a testament to Mr. Beatty’s excellence in craft.
As both director and producer on “Dick Tracy,” Beatty also creates a vibrant performance out of a comic book character from the 1930s. It isn’t just that the pages flip as the story moves forward; the characters manage to become bigger than life and in a three-dimensional way.
The character Dick Tracy is nothing without the characters that surround him, namely Al Pacino as Alphonse “Big Boy” Caprice, the man who has designs on Old Chicago. Pacino offers an over-the-top, but not-overdone performance in the way that Pacino can: unrelenting and undemanding, yet able to offer restraint in even the smallest of details, he constantly is ahead of Dick Tracy in their ongoing game of Cat and Mouse.
Interestingly, Big Boy is nothing without Madonna’s Breathless Mahoney, as she woos the crowd at the Club Ritz. Scribes Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr (“Top Gun,” “Turner & Hooch”) use Tracy and Big Boy to bookend Breathless; there’s almost a symbiotic relationship between the three main characters, with Madonna the seductress trying to take Tracy from his sweetheart, Tess Trueheart (Glenne Headly) and by questioning Big Boy at every turn.
I hadn’t seen the film since the summer of 1990, and watching it again some thirty years later, I had a newly found perspective for Beatty’s film. Age and experience certainly have a lot to do with my impression of the film. The characters just leap off the screen; they are bigger than life and the makeup work is absolutely first rate. As an example, it took me several minutes to recognize Dustin Hoffman as Mumbles, who is singly the funniest character in the film. William Forsythe, who is menacing without any makeup is twice the menace as Flattop; the character doesn’t have much in the way of dialogue, but his presence on screen is noticeable.
Beatty brings out the best in his circle of characters. Charles Durning and Dick Van Dyke have smaller roles as the Police Chief and the District Attorney, but it is their interactions with Beatty as Dick Tracy that make them stand out. Also, of note, are Seymour Cassel, James Keane and Michael J. Pollard as Sam Catchem, Pat Patton and Bug Bailey respectively who comprise Tracy’s lieutenants. They know their jobs, they trust their boss and are willing to stand by his side, even as Big Boy gives Tracy the slip.
What gives Tracy a humanity that I didn’t expect is not just Beatty’s performance; it certainly is more than that. At the beginning of the film, Tracy and Tess Trueheart are certainly an item, but there is an awkwardness to their relationship; Tracy is more invested in his job than he is in Tess, which leads to Breathless being able to wedge her way in. Tracy is, of course, wise to the fact that he does truly love Tess, but it takes The Kid (Charlie Korsmo) to really bring the two of them together. The Kid starts the film out as a street rat with a careless caretaker. Once Dick Tracy gets his mitts on the kid, he melts our hearts.
None of the characters are able to leap off the screen without the technical craftsmanship that Beatty employs, namely Vittorio Storaro’s (“Apocalypse Now,” “The Last Emperor”) stunning cinematography. Between the matte paintings, the scenic backgrounds and all the makeup on the individual characters, Storaro creates a brilliant image which adds another dimension to the characters and the actors’ performances. Danny Elfman, who just a year earlier had scored “Batman” created a dynamic and lush score to match the vibrant images on the screen.
The story doesn’t always work as well as it thinks it should, but Beatty doesn’t mind. He was having way too much fun in front of and behind the camera.
Thirty years later, Warren Beatty’s “Dick Tracy” still feels cartoonish, though not in a juvenile way. Beatty’s attention to every detail created a film that simply leaps off the page through over-the-top performances and craftsmanship that is second to none.
