Monday, May 9, 2011

Dick Tracy (1990)

Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty) has to take down a foam-rubber-faced Big Boy (Al Pacino) with the help of spunky ragamuffin Gavroche (Charlie Korsmo). Big Boy slams a piano lid down on somebody's fingers, a mysterious blank-faced person turns out to be sexy singer Breathless Mahoney or Mulroney (Madonna), and Dick Tracy asks whether the enemy of his enemy is his friend but ultimately comes down on the side of the enemy of his enemy's being his enemy. I think Breathless dies in a very Éponine kind of way—a little fall of rain can hardly hurt that creepy blank face now.*

[NOTES: I remember that Al Pacino's character is "Big Boy" because I remember Mumbles (Dustin Hoffman) saying, "Bbddt, bibididit, Big Boy did it" (when Dick Tracy slows down the tape); I remember that Madonna's character is "Breathless" because of the album I'm Breathless;† and I don't know whether the thing that Big Boy slams down is actually called "a piano lid."]

This picture actually sort of makes me feel sick.

* And everyone who said I couldn't make two not-really-justifiable Les Miz references in one Dick Tracy post can EAT IT.
† Sample lyric: "I'm going bananas, and I feel like my poor little mind is being devoured by piranhas."

No comments:

Post a Comment