Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #182175 in DVD
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Running time: 134 minutes

Amazon.com
Bugsy represents an almost miraculous combination of director, writer, and star on a project that represents a career highlight for everyone involved. It's one of the best American gangster movies ever made--as good in its own way as any of the Godfather films--and it's impossible to imagine anyone better than Beatty in the movie's flashy title role. As notorious mobster and Las Vegas visionary "Bugsy" Siegel, Beatty is perfectly cast as a man whose dreams are greater than his ability to realize them--or at least, greater than his ability to stay alive while making those dreams come true. With a glamorous Hollywood mistress (Annette Bening) who shares Bugsy's dream while pursuing her own upwardly mobile agenda, Bugsy seems oblivious to threats when he begins to spend too much of the mob's money on the creation of the Flamingo casino. Meyer Lansky (Ben Kingsley) and Mickey Cohen (Harvey Keitel) will support Bugsy's wild ambition to a point, after which all bets are off, and Bugsy's life hangs in the balance. From the obvious chemistry of Beatty and Bening (who met and later married off-screen) to the sumptuous reproduction of 1940s Hollywood, every detail in this movie feels impeccably right. Beatty is simply mesmerizing as the man who invented Las Vegas but never saw it thrive, moving from infectious idealism to brutal violence in the blink of an eye. Director Barry Levinson is also in peak form here, guiding the stylish story with a subtle balance of admiration and horror; we can catch Bugsy's Vegas fever and root for the gangster's success, but we know he'll get what he deserves. We might wish that Bugsy had lived to see his dream turn into a booming oasis, but the movie doesn't suggest that we should shed any tears. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
This opulent period gangster movie, written by James Toback and directed by Barry Levinson, is largely a showcase for the old-fashioned star magnetism of Warren Beatty, who plays the legendary Benjamin (Bugsy) Siegel. The screenplay portrays Bugsy as a charming, mercurial psychopath with a rather touching taste for glamour; it concentrates on the last few years of the hero's life, when he became a Hollywood celebrity and built the first hotel-cASINo in Las Vegas. He's a vivid, unpredictable, one-of-a-kind guy, and the filmmakers seem to realize that they can't take their eyes off him for a second. Siegel is a fascinating monster; we don't want to take our eyes off him, either. This is a rich role for Beatty, and he tears into it hungrily. It's the best kind of star performance: Beatty seems entirely himself, but in a new way. He's ferociously, mesmerizingly funny. Annette Bening plays Bugsy's lover, the tough, wily, independent-minded mob courtesan Virginia Hill, and she more than holds her own in her scenes with the star. And the movie is filled with pungent, memorable supporting performances. Ben Kingsley brings a surprisingly dry, elegant sense of comic timing to his portrait of sober Meyer Lansky (one of the hero's partners in the New York mob). Harvey Keitel, as Mickey Cohen, Bugsy's right-hand man in Los Angeles, spits out his profane lines as if they were live firecrackers. Elliott Gould plays the tiny role of Harry Greenberg, an aging, flabby mob schlemiel, and he's absolutely inspired; he plays this dazed character as a Willy Loman who has wandered too far from the old territory. Despite its lavish surface, this is essentially a movie of small, lovingly crafted pleasures. It's smart, swanky fun. Also with Bill Graham (as Lucky Luciano) and Joe Mantegna (as George Raft). Allen Daviau did the glamorous cinematorgaphy. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Snake Eyes
Bugsy Siegel: mobster lunatic visionary, poet, prophet, a mercurial monster and marketing supergenius, a living contradiction, a man known to fly into a wild rage if a stranger called him "Bugsy" to his face, who simultaneously encouraged his Nom De Guerre among his friends, his enemies, and his publicists.

Bugsy Siegel, who revelled in his gangster image, even had screen-tests shot of himself with a Tommy-gun looking hard and "blazing" away at the screen---this hardboiled felon worked slavishly at English diction to erase traces of his Brooklyn brogue.

A suave wildman and visionary who made water---and money---flow in the middle of the desert, and even volunteered his services to put a bullet through Mussolini's heart. '

Now: to crawl over the crater-pocked landscape of cinematic exposition here would be a bore and a waste, compared to the embarrassment of riches that is Barry Levinson's masterpiece "Bugsy", a flick that will go down with "Scarface", "The Godfather", "Goodfellas", and "Heat" as one of the greatest gangster classics of all time. This is a gorgeous, sumptuous, lush, seductive movie. Watch it.

You're in competent hands here, Gangster. Check that Tommy-gun and let's add up the bar tab on this piece of work---you remember things from "Bugsy", forever, seared into memory because that's just how good this movie is:

*Bugsy (Warren Beatty, at an effortless best) catching the scent of a woman and waking up with her hours later, setting the stage;

*Bugsy kicking the tar out of a mobster who lewdly insults new gangster moll Virginia Hill (played winsomely by an insanely delectable Annette Bening), kicking the thug into yesteryear---and still checking his hair in the glass;

*Bugsy, eyes covered in cucumber-slices, lounging in terry-cloth with crony mobster Mickey Cohen (the incomparable Harvey Keitel, underplaying it masterfully) by the pool;

*Cohen and Bugsy, framed against the bleak Nevada desert, suits crisp, sky searing cobalt blue, plotting a gambling Sin-iverse, Virginia Hill stealing off to LA in a steely dorsal-finned Cadillac;

*Bugsy and a pauncy, childish, confused Harry Greenberg (Elliott Gould, packing lots of flesh) going for a 'ride';

*Bugsy, eyes cloaked in stylish tech-noir shades, fulminating against Meyer Lansky's (Ben Kingsley, in fine form) accountants, who serve as the vanguard of the Mob protest against the Flamingo's ever-skyrocketing cost overruns, the sand, the silt, the callousness;

*Bugsy forcing a mobster to crawl on the floor of his office, barking like a dog---and Virginia Hill, realizing the blood of a cruel monster that flows through her mercurial lover's veins, passionately kissing his hand---

*Virginia Hill and Bugsy parting, at the biplane. This is a scene seared in my memory: a classic, like the "We'll always have Paris" Bogey line. Fog. Mist. Merciless Weather. The Mob, moving in for the Kill.

Bugsy Siegel was a shark in human skin, the American Dream made flesh. He deserved a great cinematic biography: Levinson delivers in spades. Watch this one, it's for the Ages: if you don't love it, you don't have a pulse.

JSG

A gangster movie with style
The story about Bugsy Siegel is well documented in this motion picture, although not historically accurate in details, but it doesn't matter as the character and the story of Bugsy comes across very well. The notorious gangster who is credited with bringing high-class gaming to Las Vegas, is played by Warren Beatty. We think it's Beatty's best role so far ... he really plays very good, and so does Annette Bening as Virginia Hill. Siegel was a dreamer, a visionary and a ladies' man no doubt. The movie is inspiring about pursuing your vision, but it is also a warning against wrong affiliations. The set and styling (cars, clothes, etc.) are just great and they look absolutely authentic. The script is also very well written, the cinematogrpahy is excellent, and the soundtrack fits perfectly, and it's certainly one of the best gangster movies ever made.

A cinematic masterpiece! It's what movies should be.
The sets, costumes, cars, clothes, hairstyles, and music were perfectly chosen to take you back to Los Angeles in the 40's. Nuff said.

The dialogue was absolutely brilliant and Ms. Benning's performance is reminiscent of the glamour, style, and crassness that i'm sure was characteristic of many of the Hollywood actresses of the day. I remember thinking when I saw her... Now that's a movie star! And her delivery of many of the classic one liners was fabulous. Unfortunately I couldn't repeat the vulgarity online but it was classic.

Barry Levinson's direction is as always fabulous. His use of camera angles, lighting, depth of field, setup, and overlays was perfect. The scene where Ms Benning first comes over to Bugsy's house was beyond perfectly shot. I would also highly recommend Avalon and Mr Levinson's television work Homicide for quality viewing.

Warren Beatty's performance as Bugsy Siegel was masterful. It's hard to imagine that someone as complex as apparently Bugsy was could be personified so flawlessly. Bugsy was a man of many passions. How one man could be so brutal yet compassionate, stylish yet crude, brilliant but foolish, selfish yet concerned is amazing. And Beatty brings all those elements to his portrayal of Bugsy. An incredibly complex individual.

Just check it out. You won't be disappointed. One of my 10 favorite films of all time!