Saw bits and pieces of Bugsy in the 90s. It received numerous Oscar nominations, including a Supporting Actor nom for Harvey Keitel. A movie that gets Keitel acting accolades deserves a thorough review.
Ben "Bugsy" Siegel, played by Warren Beatty, is a mobster from New York who is sent to LA to solidify relationships with a gang running a small gambling operation. A trip that is only supposed to last 12 days turns into a permanent stay. Bugsy loves the glitz and glamor, throws money around and gets involved with an attractive actress, Virginia Hill, played by Annette Bening. While in LA, he brings infamous LA mobster Mickey Cohen (Keitel) into the fold as his lieutenant. With LA solidified, Bugsy is sent to scout a small, run down casino in Las Vegas, bringing Cohen and Hill along. Hill finds the place disgusting, influencing Bugsy to shut it down, but the profitability of the place keeps his mind on the idea of a casino. On the trip back to LA, Bugsy comes up with the idea of a luxury casino/hotel in Vegas, which eventually becomes the Flamingo. Unfortunately, Bugsy's dream proves too costly at the time of its construction, leading his bosses to execute him for his failure to keep it under budget.
The ending is pretty good, until the final scene with Virginia, which is unbelievable crap. First off, they should have just killed her, like any intelligent crime organization would. Second, what did she think would happen after she stole $2 million dollars? She's really shocked the Bugsy was killed? Not even Bugsy was surprised.
While based on real characters, 90% of the story is false, if Wikipedia is to be believed. Bugsy didn't have the brainstorm to build the Flamingo. In fact, he had to have his arm twisted by his boss Meyer Lansky to even get involved in the deal. Bugsy's wife and daughter moved to California with him instead of staying in New York, as the movie portrays. The killing of Greenberg happened seven years before Bugsy began work on the Flamingo and included four killers, where the movie has Bugsy acting alone, during construction of the Flamingo.
Also notable, a 54 year old Warren Beatty is playing a man who died at 41. This is true of every actor in the movie, in fact, except maybe Bening, who's only 5 years older than her character should be. None of the mobsters involved were over 40 when these events occurred, but almost every actor is 50 or older.
Bugsy is standard Hollywood sugar-coating. Instead of telling a real story or having dynamic characters, the story is sweetened into a guy, while he has some character flaws, who just dreams big, and love is his downfall. This Bugsy Seigel is a saint compared to anyone in Goodfellas. I don't believe for a second the real Bugsy is this nice and reasonable. I say reasonable because the movie gives an excuse for his violent rages, something the audience can identify with. Insults set him off. Messing with his money sets him off. These are things all people can understand. Have him kill someone randomly, mix it up, make me think he's truly capable of being a bad guy.
That said, toss out the unreality of everything, and you have an entertaining movie. It's an interesting fabrication. Oscar worthy? I wouldn't say so, but it didn't win any big awards, and it may have been a weak year. Of course, if this HAD one Best Picture, a year after Goodfellas lost, I'd probably proclaim this one of the biggest piles of the 90s.
Review: 3+2+2+2+2 = 11