 | |
List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 46161
Released: June 1, 2004 |
| Our Price: $2.09 |
| Used Price: $1.29 |
|
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
|
Editorial Review:
Satire on the greed of the 80's. A Wall Street bondsman and his mistress become involved with a scheming journalist when they take a wrong turn one night.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: R
Release Date: 1-JUN-2004
Media Type: DVD
Description of The Bonfire of the Vanities:
Handle with care--this one's a bomb! Director Brian De Palma seemed an unlikely choice to transfer Tom Wolfe's mammoth bestseller-- a vibrantly satiric story about race, politics, and greed in 1980s New York--to the screen. In this case, the first impression was correct. Made with a tin ear to everything that made the book so real, the movie gets it wrong every time, starting with casting Tom Hanks in the central role (which, as anyone with brains knew, should have been played by William Hurt). Move along to the choice of Bruce Willis for the sneaky British tabloid journalist and, well, need I say more? As stylish as any De Palma film, this story of a Wall Street broker whose extramarital shenanigans trigger a racial incident that becomes front-page news gets no help from Michael Cristofer's tone-deaf script. After watching it, read Julie Salomon's behind-the-scenes book about its making, The Devil's Candy, which is much more entertaining. --Marshall Fine
The Bonfire of the Vanities Reviews:
Contemporary yet today 
2009-04-01 - I caught this film on cable just now (3/31/09) and sat through it again after not having seen it and read the book since close to when they each came out many years ago. Against the backdrops of the recent financial sector meltdown and our current "Great Recession," the election of our first black (well, mixed-racial) President and all that, seen from the perspective of today this movie ZINGS. It is as topical a satirical send-up of Wall Street things present as it was of things then. I quite enjoyed it, though Melanie Griffith as the dipstick tart is still a bit much. Recommended as an interesting period yet also contemporarily relevant work.
As good as new
2008-12-21 - Orson Welles felt the only point in making a movie out of existing material is to make something completely different out of it, and DePalma sure knows how to make it his own!
prophetic social commentary
2008-11-27 - Watch it now as Wall Street falls apart under the weight of poorly structured derivatives. It takes on an eerie immediacy. Deja vu, all over again.
Terrible Adaptation 
2008-08-28 - This movie was probably the worst adaptation of a book I have ever seen in my entire life. De Palma missed EVERYTHING that made Tom Wolfe's book so incredible. The fact that this movie is billed as comedy should be enough to deter those who enjoyed the book from watching it. Absolutely terrible film. Read the book and don't see the movie.
The truth shall set you free, and if it doesn't,... LIE LIKE HELL!
2008-02-10 - I saw this film in the theaters as a teenager having not read or even heard of the book. I really enjoyed it because of the actors, the characters and their backstories. I just love satire. I hadn't even heard of Reverand Al. Now, this movie still amuses me, but on more levels. A year after I saw this film, I took a cinema class in college, where the instructor blamed the trashing of the film on its New York City premiere, where the local reviewers panned the movie for airing their city's dirty laundry. Whether civic pride or an unachievable high standard created by the prestige of the novel are to blame, this film got a bad rap. There's a lot in the film and lots to like, now as then.
