Le bûcher des vanités

I loved this film; rented it and watched it twice in 2 days. I was captivated by the titles (a 24-hour timelapse shot of the New York skyline taken from the top of the Chrysler Building!) and then by the first scene: Bruce Willis's drunken peregrination with sycophantic handlers through the bowels of a hotel, leaving chaos in his wake. It may not have improved from that point, but I never lost interest. What did I miss that led so many people to dislike the film?

The back cover for the DVD calls this movie "hilarious" and "the quintessential story of the go-for-it '80s." In truth, it is neither. The Bonfire of the Vanities is, however, funny in parts, poignant in parts, and entertaining throughout.

The protagonist is Sherman McCoy, a man whose one fatal flaw (an affair we know of from the beginning) leads to the downfall from his envious position as a "Master of the Universe." Tom Hanks gives an excellent performance and shows real emotion in bringing this highly plausible character to life. Unfortunately, his character is the only one with enough depth to be realistic. Even Morgan Freeman's Judge White, representing a refreshing dose of intelligence and honesty in the film, is perhaps too good to be believed. All of the other characters are mere caricatures, appearing too greedy, too pretentious, too self-absorbed, or too flighty to be believed. Bruce Willis might have made himself an exception as well, but I feel he simply lacked enough screen time to flesh out the different faces he had to show.

Nevertheless the story is very well told. If the other characters appear less than convincing, accept them as colorful background for McCoy, who is the real focus anyway. There are numerous laughs, and the other characters represent elements that are definitely present in society - even if not to the extent shown here. Wolfe's story is entertaining enough to make this movie worth seeing. And it might even make you think twice about the names you see next time you open a newspaper.

7 / 10 stars.

This film will probably be re-discovered in later years and be described as the classic--albeit flawed--that it really is. The script is excellent in places and neatly captures the irreverence and cynicism that this kind of satire needs. People have criticised this film merely on the basis of wanting to shoot down the successful careers of those working on it---but I suspect that Willis, Hanks, De Palma,et al, will be secretly pleased that they have this lost treasure in their back catalogues to be resurrected and discussed long after their more popular films might be.

I think this is a well-crafted movie. It is an intriguing story, nicely filmed with interesting NYC locations (you will even see the former WTC towers in a few shots, which now seem poignant yet oddly sobering).

I LOVE the performances: everyone comes across as quite compelling and convincing in their respective roles. (The only part that didn't work for me was when Tom Hank's character goes a little wacko with that shotgun in his apartment, but I guess I can forgive that minor deviation.)

The story seems very much like a fable... and it brings to mind the old saying that every fable has its grain of truth.

Go see it. It's better than critics would have you believe. (I haven't read the book, but I intend to shortly).

Bonfire of the vanities. A movie that has the reputation of being awful. I didn't think so. I saw it a long time ago but liked it. I have heard so much about how bad this movie was and never understood why. It isn't the best movie definitely not but there are so many BAD movies-this movie had a message (a pretty sad one) and the story was Involving. My attention was captured. I wanted to see what would happen next.

This movie is so true to life. There ARE people out there whose actions would be worse then some in this movie. People whose lives are motivated by greed. (The worst bad movie out there that I've seen that tells the story of truly horrendous people motivated by greed and power is "in the company of men". Much more unpleasant then this movie.) This movie, I GUESS is controversial, not considered as good as the book and maybe it was ahead of its time. I think it's worth seeing though and would give it a 7.