Dick Tracy
- 1990
- Tous publics
- 1h 45m
The comic strip detective finds his life vastly complicated when Breathless Mahoney makes advances towards him while he is trying to battle Big Boy Caprice's united mob.The comic strip detective finds his life vastly complicated when Breathless Mahoney makes advances towards him while he is trying to battle Big Boy Caprice's united mob.The comic strip detective finds his life vastly complicated when Breathless Mahoney makes advances towards him while he is trying to battle Big Boy Caprice's united mob.
- Won 3 Oscars
- 9 wins & 37 nominations total
- Soprano
- (as Marvelee Cariaga)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
This comic strip spring to life similarly the original drawings and being faithfully recreated , though sometimes looks like an extended stage musical . The bad guys all have overblown features and they and the cops , journalists all wear different coloured coats to correspond to the drawings in the original comic strips created by Chester Gould . The timeless and imaginative settings capture the essence rather than reality of the city . There's so much music in the movie mostly from Mandy Patinkin and especially Madonna as the singer Breathless Mahoney doing her best screen acting to date . Good though excessive performances from Al Pacino who is perfectly cast as the gangster Big Boy looking like a caricaturist impression of a cartoon and splendid Dustin Hoffman as his hoodlum named Mumbles . The make-up used for all of the villains was based directly on how they were drawn by Chester Gould in the original comic strip , the only exception was Big Boy Caprice, whose make-up was designed by Al Pacino himself. People expecting Gothic scenarios and spectacular action of Batman may be disappointed , but moviegoers will be thrilled . Colorful and stylistically superior cinematography by the Italian Vittorio Storaro , shot in a few colors , the main colors in the film are only six that the original comic strip appeared in: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, plus black and white . Jolly and amusing musical score by Danny Elffman .
Other films about this classic comic book character are the followings : ¨Dick Tracy¨ (1947) 15 chapters starred by Ralph Byrd and directed by John English and Ray Taylor ; ¨Dick Tracy Detective¨ (1945) the first feature movie directed by William Berke with Morgan Conway and Jane Greer ; ¨Tracy returns¨ 15 chapter serial directed by William Witney with Ralph Byrd ; ¨Tracy meets gruesome ¨(1947) with Ralph Byrd and Boris Karloff ; ¨Tracy vs Crime Inc¨; ¨Tracy vs Cueball¨(1946) by Gordon Douglas with Morgan Conway and Anne Jeffreys ; ¨Tracy's dilemma¨ by John Rawlins with Ralph Byrd and Jack Lambert , among others .
Dick Tracy is a live-action cartoon, with eye-popping visuals decked out in bright primary colors. It's a beautiful film to behold. Everyone involved in the stylized look of this movie should be proud. The sets, the lighting, the matte paintings, the makeup and effects are all superior to any CGI crap we get today. Real work and passion went into this and it shows.
The cast is great. Beatty is criticized by many for not being the right fit for Tracy or for being too old. While he's not a perfect representation of the character, I feel he does quite well and his age never occurred to me while watching it. Madonna gives easily her best performance in this movie. That's meant slightly as a slam I guess, as most of her other work is very weak. But it's also meant as a compliment. Here she plays to her strengths: sex appeal and "oomph." Her double entendres and skin-tight dresses make Breathless Mahoney a very memorable character. There's also some fine support from Glenne Headley and Charlie Korsmo. And who can forget the villains! Chester Gould's distinctive-looking villains come to life thanks to superb makeup, played in many cases by uncredited stars. The leader of the bunch is Big Boy Caprice, played by the wonderfully over-the-top Al Pacino. Pacino was having a lot of fun with the role and it shows.
My only real complaint lies in the music. Not the Stephen Sondheim songs -- they're great. But the Danny Elfman musical score is way too similar to the one he did for Batman the year before. It's very lazy and doesn't seem to fit the action of the film. Forget what you've read from naysayers about this movie and judge it for yourself. It's a fun movie with exceptional visuals and colorful ambiance.
The characters and the story don't match up to the greatness of the photography, but they are all over-the-top, especially the villains. The famous actors who played them here must have a had a lot of fun on the set playing "Flatop," "Pruneface," "Lips," "Mumbles," etc.
Meanwhile, Warren Beatty and Gleanne Hedley are good as Dick Tracey and girlfriend Tess Truehart, and she's as sweet and soft as her name. Another good addition is Charlie Korsmo as the delinquent young boy Dick and Tess take under their wing. The colorful other characters are played by Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, William Forysthe, Paul Sorvino, Mandy Patinkin, Madona and other names you know but are too numerous to list here. Check the full credits on the main page and you'll amazed.
The only negatives I found were Pacino's voice which grates on you after awhile, Madonna's off-key singing voice and the fact that the film would have been better trimmed about 10 minutes. Those "faults" are all minor because overall, this is a fun movie....a cartoon strip coming to life in an incredibly-colorful fashion.....like nothing you have ever seen.
Did you know
- TriviaDanny Elfman was hired to compose the film score because Warren Beatty was impressed with his work on Batman (1989). On working with Beatty, Elfman has said "Warren was insane".
- GoofsWhen Dick Tracy jumps out of a window and slides down the lamp post, he bangs his head on the curve of the pole towards the top. (This was Beatty doing his own stunt.)
- Quotes
Dick Tracy: No grief for Lips?
Breathless Mahoney: I'm wearing black underwear.
Dick Tracy: You know, it's legal for me to take you down to the station and sweat it out of you under the lights.
Breathless Mahoney: I sweat a lot better in the dark.
- Crazy creditsThe opening Touchstone Pictures logo appears in black and white.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Arsenio Hall Show: Episode dated 1 May 1990 (1990)
- SoundtracksSooner Or Later (I Always Get My Man)
Written by Stephen Sondheim
Performed by Madonna
Arranged by Jeremy Lubbock
Strings Arranged by Shirley Walker
Courtesy of Sire Records
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- Will there ever be a sequel?
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Thám tử Dick Tracy
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $47,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $103,738,726
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $22,543,911
- Jun 17, 1990
- Gross worldwide
- $162,738,726
- Runtime1 hour 45 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1