Review of Dick Tracy (1990) by Ken C — 15 Nov 2010

Probably the most stylish and unique comic book films ever made, but not one of the most developed.

The story is pretty simple. There is a guy, his name is Dick Tracy, he is a detective, and he wants to get rid of this other guy who is a gangster named Big Boy Caprice. That is pretty much it. Two guys trying to get rid of each other, not much beyond that.

The characters are also very thin. Dick Tracy was not interesting at all, he just seemed like a bland character with little personality. None of the other characters is much interesting too, the only character who actually grebbed my attention was the villain, Big Boy himself. Not that he is a really interesting character but Al Pacino's fun and engaging performance makes him a much more three-dimmensional character than he actually is. But the problem is, he is not that threatening of a villain. I mean, you do like him, you laugh with him and wish he had more screen time ( at least more than Dick does ) but he is not menacing, he is not threatening, I mean, try to take his death threats seriously while he is making those funny faces and wearing colorful tuxedos. Thinking well, his performance was not that great, he certainly was fun to look at, but that performance and certainly the enviomment around him made him look less like a villain and more like a comedic character. And the fact that he is a much more interesting and fun character than the hero really makes the movie less exciting. Also Al Pacino is the only actor that actually holds up to me. All the other actors, specially Warren Beatty and Madonna have both really bland and wooden performances.

The story is also really devoided of emotion. They do try to add some when Dick's girlfriend sees Breathless Johanne ( Madonna ) kissing him and breaks up with him. But again, we don't feel much about Dick's character, so the movie still doesn't have much emotion to it.

However, the movie does have some really strong points. For example, the visuals. This is probably one of the most outstanding visuals ever in a comic book movie, not because it has awe-inspring visual effects, but because of its style. The whole film is set in a gigantic artificial world where everything seems to be taken from a comic strip. The color pallete is made only of vivid colors, and this include production design, set decoration, costumes. The crew really wanted this movie to look like a comic strip. Every object, every piece of clothing looks incredible, so colorful and so styllish. The cinematographer also had a lot of work because he needed to use the lighning effects while still making the colors of the movie looking vivid and he did a great job. Whether it is day or night, the sets always look impressive.

The look of the characters is also really impressive. When I said they made the movie looks like comic book I mean they made even the characters look like comic book characters. They have characters with giant heads, others have triangle-shaped heads, others have strange lips, there is even a guy that has no face ( not Warren Beatty, he just has no facial expressions, it is slightly different ).

The soundtrack by Danny Elfman is also really good, I mostly enjoy the song sang by Madonna specially two, one is the Academy Award-winning Sooner or Later, which is a slow but surprisingly enjoyable jazz song, and the other is one that I don't remember the name but had something to do with money, this one was much faster and thus, I thought it was much more fun than the other one.

The movie also has some strong and certainly entertaining action scenes, but the movie as a whole isn't very exciting.

The movie was nominated for seven Academy Awards. Best Costume Design ( lost to Cyrano de Bergerac ), Best Cinematography ( lost tot Dances with Wolves ), Best Sound Mixing ( lost to Dances with Wolves too ), Best Supporting Actor ( Al Pacino, lost to Joe Pesci for Goodfellas ) and won Best Art Direction, Best Makeup and Best Original Song ( Sooner or Later ).

So, that's Dick Tracy. A clever and emotional action film? No. Worth a look? Definitively, just its style already deserves a recommendation, and the movie can be pretty enjoyable as well. 6,3/10 - Nice.