Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy may be in the shadow of Tim Burton's Batman movie - a highly designed comic book/strip pulp with a pretty similar climax - but it goes its own, I think. Rather than make something more realistic, which has been the trend in the last couple decades, it goes further into the comic strip aesthetic, and ends up looking gorgeous. It's a world that follows the rules of four-color comics, with a limited, but vibrant palette used in props, costumes, and lighting. Much of the all-star cast is covered in latex, according to the srtip's caricatural style, but it's amazing who Beatty got to be in this movie considering! I'm a big fan of Stephen Sondheim, and he wrote all the songs for Breathless (no, I don't really mind Madonna in this, being in a noir and/or comics film allows for a limited performance, and she's better in this than in anything else I've seen her in). On a plot level, the film is nothing too special. A supercop must stop a gangland turf war and so on, with a love triangle and a kid that needs adoption. But it works as pastiche, the action is less important than the visuals, which give the project a sort subversive humor, and much of its charm.
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Earring72
Entertaining comic book adaptation with great cast, production design and lots of fun.Hadn't seen it in 15years but still holds up.Siskoid
Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy may be in the shadow of Tim Burton's Batman movie - a highly designed comic book/strip pulp with a pretty similar climax - but it goes its own, I think. Rather than make something more realistic, which has been the trend in the last couple decades, it goes further into the comic strip aesthetic, and ends up looking gorgeous. It's a world that follows the rules of four-color comics, with a limited, but vibrant palette used in props, costumes, and lighting. Much of the all-star cast is covered in latex, according to the srtip's caricatural style, but it's amazing who Beatty got to be in this movie considering! I'm a big fan of Stephen Sondheim, and he wrote all the songs for Breathless (no, I don't really mind Madonna in this, being in a noir and/or comics film allows for a limited performance, and she's better in this than in anything else I've seen her in). On a plot level, the film is nothing too special. A supercop must stop a gangland turf war and so on, with a love triangle and a kid that needs adoption. But it works as pastiche, the action is less important than the visuals, which give the project a sort subversive humor, and much of its charm.ExPtreize
A very good 80's visual, but what is that it is boring ...