Beatty. Beatty is on the all-time actor list (like others including Eastwood, Chaplin and Keaton) but also directed a total of five films (he didn’t direct Bugsy– Levinson did—people always think it was Beatty), four of them in the archives and two of them (Reds, Dick Tracy) land very easily on the top 100 of their respective decade. Beatty’s strengths for the purposes of this list are those two films—two gorgeous films- that land on the top 100 of their decade—there aren’t many directors with a resume like that left. I can’t call him a style-plus director but the images here speak for themselves. Both Reds and Dick Tracy are absolutely beautiful—tying them together is a little tougher or I would’ve got to Beatty long ago on this list.
Best film: Dick Tracy. I’ll die on this hill if I have to!- haha. I had to stop myself with 5-6 images on the page here. Gorgeous work (justifiable wins for production design). The coloring and world-building goes even farther than Tim Burton’s Batman the year before—close to Blade Runner or Metropolis (yep, I said Blade Runner and Metropolis). Beatty and DP Vittorio Storaro (simply one of the greatest of all-time) weave the split diopter usage in as a reoccurring motif, the color design (wild), the lighting is extraordinary. In front of the camera is an intelligent narrative, some of the world’s best actors (Pacino in particular is extraordinary).
total archiveable films: 4
top 100 films: 0
top 500 films: 1 (Dick Tracy)
top 100 films of the decade: 2 (Reds, Dick Tracy)
most overrated: Not a thing. He only has five films a director- a much more illustrious and famous career as an actor. Reds is the only film of the five on the TSPDT top 2000 actually and even that is underrated at #924. I’m higher on it but several hundred slots.
most underrated : It is without a doubt Dick Tracy. It’s in my top 500 and it isn’t on the TSPDT top 2000. Frustratingly wrong.
gem I want to spotlight : Reds. It’s a big prestige epic period biography film that made a lot of money in 1981 and 1982, was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, Beatty won for director—and now nobody talks about it because it’s long (just under 200 minutes). It isn’t Lawrence of Arabia but it isn’t some stale old biopic either– it is sumptuously photographed by Vittorio Storaro (Oscar win for him), Beatty weaves in these interviews as part of the form and structure of the film (taken from this and used years later in When Harry Met Sally) and Diane Keaton and Beatty have rarely been better as actors. Nicholson absolutely slays in a smaller role playing Eugene O’Neill as well.
stylistic innovations/traits:
- Loners, idiosyncratic and monomaniacal characters
- All five films star Beatty- never a bad thing—and it’s no doubt that because of his friendships and connections he managed to get a great cast in nearly every film—the cast for Dick Tracy never gets mentioned as one of the all-time greats but it should
- worked with the great Vittorio Storaro as DP, Richard Sylbert as production design (did Chinatown, too), Stephen Sondheim with the music—murders row of talent behind the camera
- the use of lighting in Reds and Dick Tracy is just something special
top 10
- Dick Tracy
- Reds
- Heaven Can Wait
- Bulworth
By year and grades
| 1978- Heaven Can Wait | R |
| 1981- Reds | MS |
| 1990- Dick Tracy | MS |
| 1998- Bulworth | R |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-see- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
What do you think is the best platform for a blog ? WordPress.com ? Blogger ? Or something else maybe?
@Cinephile– can’t really say. I’m not a blog or software expert by any means (if you couldn’t already tell by looking at the site- haha). This is wordpress- the only one I’ve used. Been happy
The Dick Trslacy movie is good. I won’t call it great. I dont like pacino or hoffman in it (two of my favorite actors) but tess and dick are superb. Great images from beatty. Thank you for recommending. I had to do a dick tracy play as the title character recently and I didn’t grow up with the comics or show so this helped for inspiration. Also though I’m not the biggest madonna fan her music was superb and reminded me of sugar from some like it hot.
@D.WGriffith- thanks for the comment. I believe the evidence for it being great is up there on the screen so I don’t defend it further here. I’m surprised to hear you don’t like Hoffman or, especially, Pacino in this role. I’m with the Academy here (who nominated Pacino for an Oscar). I think he’s quite brilliant.
Drake I understand that. But to me I think pacino and hoffman were too cartoony and didn’t feel like real characters. Beatty however i thought was terrific as tracy and madonna I thought was just as good.
I think it’s the point. Pacino goes full cartoon (like Nicholson the year before for Batman) and in both case, it’s work.
Dick Tracy (1990):
Everything looks vibrant and pops off. Vittorio Storaro, one of the great cinematographers, pulls off Beaty’s vision of a hyper-stylized comic book world put onto film. Not many films are this ambitious in colour and production design. The costuming is great too, and compliments the scape of this playful city. I thought a lot of the gangsters looked like they could be extras in Frankenheimer’s Island of Dr. Morreau (minus the colourful suits), they look like abominations which is another choice from Beaty, contrasting them against the police. I didn’t realize till the film was over that Dustin Hoffman and James Caan (RIP) were even here. It’s a pretty easy 100 minutes too, I do feel the ambition drops off in the last 40 minutes or so too. Madonna is so good here, a tonne of screen presence and she carries a montage with her singing in the background.
I also counted over ten glorious deep focus shots and there’s some fine parralel editing going on as well.
MS, one of the most underrated films of the 90s.
@Harry I am loving this. Great work here!