The Bonfire of the Vanities

Buy This Item The Bonfire of the Vanities by Warner Home Video  Available from Amazon  $9.98  on 11-27-2008     Handle with care--this one's a bomb! Director Brian De Palma seemed an unlikely choice to transfer Tom Wolfe's mammoth bestseller-- a vibrantly satiric story about race, politics, and greed in 1980s New York--to the screen. In this case, the first impression was correct. Made with a tin ear to everything that made the book so real, the movie gets it wrong every time, starting with casting Tom Hanks in the central role (which, as anyone with brains knew, should have been played by William Hurt). Move along to the choice of Bruce Willis for the sneaky British tabloid journalist and, well, need I say more? As stylish as any De Palma film, this story of a Wall Street broker whose extramarital shenanigans trigger a racial incident that becomes front-page news gets no help from Michael Cristofer's tone-deaf script. After watching it, read Julie Salomon's behind-the-scenes book about its making, <I>The Devil's Candy</I>, which is much more entertaining. <I>--Marshall Fine</I> Reader Reviews I saw this film in the theaters as a teenager having not read or even heard of the book. I really enjoyed it because of the actors, the characters and their backstories. I just love satire. I hadn't even heard of Reverand Al. Now, this movie still amuses me, but on more levels. A year after I saw this film, I took a cinema class in college, where the instructor blamed the trashing of the film on its New York City premiere, where the local reviewers panned the movie for airing their city's dirty laundry. Whether civic pride or an unachievable high standard created by the prestige of the novel are to blame, this film got a bad rap. There's a lot in the film and lots to like, now as then.

The Bonfire of the Vanities Available from Amazon Price: $9.98 Updated on 11-27-2008.

SPONSORED LINKS