THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES
US, 1990, 125 minutes, Colour.
Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, Kim Cattrall, Saul Rubinek, Morgan Freeman, F. Murray Abraham, John Hancock, Kevin Dunn, Clifton James, Louis Giambalvo, Donald Moffatt, Alan King, Beth Broderick, Kurt Fuller, Adam Le Fevre, Richard Libertini, Andre Gregory, Mary Alice, Robert Stephens, Rita Wilson, Kirsten Dunst.
Directed by Brian De Palma.
The Bonfire of the Vanities was a celebrated novel by Tom Wolfe (author of The Right Stuff). It came during the 1980s, the greed decade (as in Gordon Gecko’s character and behaviour in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street).
While the novel was celebrated, the film version was heavily criticised – though, later, it experienced some rehabilitation when audiences understood what the style of the storytelling was, the parody as well as the critique.
The film was written by Michael Cristofer, Tony award-winning playwright of The Shadow Box, director of several films including Original Sin and Gia, both with Angelina Jolie. He also wrote a number of screenplays including The Witches of Eastwick and Falling in Love.
The film was directed by Brian De Palma, one of the Italian-American? directors who emerged with Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese at the end of the 1960s. Initially, De Palma was praised for his thrillers including Obsession, Carrie, Dressed to Kill. He was then noted for his gangster films including Scarface, The Untouchables and Carlito’s Way. His career has been varied.
A very strong cast was collected for this film version of Wolfe’s novel. Tom Hanks was riding high as a comedian at this particular stage of his career. However, he embodies the all-American, Sherman McCoy?, a ‘Master of the Universe’. Hanks was soon to win two Oscars for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. The film is also a star vehicle for Bruce Willis who was at the beginning of his screen career, in the headlines after Die Hard. He portrays the alcoholic journalist, Peter Fallow. Melanie Griffith plays Sherman Mc Coy’s mistress. There are very interesting character performances, especially from Morgan Freeman as a hard-hitting judge, F. Murray Abraham (uncredited) as the DA. Donald Moffatt appears as Sherman Mc Coy’s father – Kim Cattrall as his pretentious wife and a glimpse of a young Kirsten Dunst as their daughter. Tom Hanks’s wife, Rita Wilson, appears as one of those welcoming Peter Fallow at the opening of the film.
The film has many targets: the wealthy of Wall Street and their greed and presumption, American and New York society and its pretensions, the role of the law, the exploitative African American religious leader, pretentious and devious behaviour of district attorneys and lawyers, the world of pretentious art society...
The film is interesting in retrospect, recreating the atmosphere of a past era – but, with recurring themes such as the global financial meltdown in 2008.
1. Tom Wolfe’s novel, its reputation? The United States, the 1980s, satire? Critique? Wall Street, capitalism, the Masters of the Universe, their behaviour, presumptions and morals? Issues of justice, the law? Racism? The American critique?
2. Bringing the book to the screen, the adaptation, the ingredients, the satiric tone, realism? Audiences being on the wavelength of the treatment or not? The poor reviews?
3. The title, its apocalyptic tone? The United States, self-destruction?
4. Peter Farrow, the framework for the film? Bruce Willis, Fallow’s voice-over, the sardonic tones, the self-deprecation? The journalist, his drinking, his failure in his profession, gaining an opportunity, exploiting it, writing the book, some genuine feelings as well as being a hack writing for his bosses? The truth? The book, his arrival, drunk, the various hosts trying to get him dressed and to the function? The end, the acclaim all round, everybody present and praising him? Peter Fallow as a character, the influence of his boss, the information about Sherman Mc Coy, his shrewdness, the interactions with Maria, with Sherman coming out of the courthouse, driving him home, the information about Maria driving, his interaction with the lawyers, the rescue, the follow-up? The film’s commentary on the media?
5. The introduction to Sherman Mc Coy, the voice-over praise of him, his confidence, his wife and her manner, his daughter, the expensive apartment? Going out in the rain, the encounter with his friend Pollard Browning, his arrogance? Taking the dog for a walk, the phone call, mistakenly ringing his wife, her reaction, his reaction? Going to work, the six hundred million dollar deal, the phone calls? Going to the airport, meeting Maria, the kiss? The discussions, the turnoff, missing it, the taunts? The black men, the tyre in the road, Sherman trying to move it, the men and their attack? Maria, from the South, her prejudices and fears? Driving, knocking the man down, getting out? Maria, callous, her life, her plan? The later interview and the tape, and her admitting her guilt?
6. Sherman, Wall Street, the deals, the risks, his failure, his co-worker coming to say that he was not welcome back?
7. Judy Mc Coy, her artificiality, wealth, age, makeup, her way of talking, pouting, socialite, the strained relationship with her daughter, wanting to kiss her goodbye? Reaction to the phone call? The visit to her in-laws, discovery of what happened on the television, maintaining the party, then leaving?
8. Sherman’s parents, decent, his father travelling on the subway, building up his empire? The visit, the meal? His father coming to visit him, urging him to lie? His father in court, proud of his son?
9. The young black men, the attack on the car, the hit, the young man in hospital, in the coma? The media, putting a halo around the boy, potential student, the paper headlines? His mother, her dealing with the lawyers, the expense account, the clothes, the manipulation of the press and the law?
10. The lawyers, the DA, the campaign, voters? Jed Kramer and his task? The co-lawyer? Their working on the case? The discovery of Sherman Mc Coy, wanting to bring him down? The DA wanting a victim? Kramer and his brashness, the pressures, the complexities of the issue, the tape, his pressurising Maria? His performance in front of Judge White? His being put down? His behaviour in the court, his desperation, leap across the desk? Humiliation?
11. Judge White and the irony of his name, black, the area, his control and commands? His putting Kramer down? The case, the uproar, the demonstrators in the court? The tape, his interrogation, his verdict? The strong lecture – and everyone in the front row? How effective – preaching at the audience as well?
12. Albert Fox, owning the paper, his hold over Peter, his command to investigate and expose Sherman Mc Coy? The Reverend Bacon, the angles from which he was photographed, his preaching, his jewellery, his hypocrisy? His presence in the court? At the hospital? With the victim’s mother? The revelation of the plan to sue the hospital for mismanagement?
13. Sherman, his bewilderment, admitting the truth, his arrest, in the cell, his being charged? The hearing? The hostility? His ingenuousness? Peter rescuing him, telling him the truth? His reaction to Maria, the social, the pretentious people at the party – and the discussions with Aubrey Buffing, heart, AIDS? Maria and her escape to Italy, her plans, with the artist? Her return, his accosting her, her anger? His being wired – and her finding it? his decision about the tape, the discussions with his father, playing the tape in court, his smug smile?
14. The character of Maria’s husband, the discussions with Peter, the joke about the landing and the Arab passengers? His dying of a heart attack?
15. The owner of the apartment, her setting up the bugging in the apartment, the reasons, her ownership, Sherman obtaining the tape, the lawyer and its use, his playing it in court?
16. Maria, her testimony, her lies, fainting at the expose?
17. Peter Fallow’s final comments, about himself and celebrity, about Sherman Mc Coy losing everything? His comment on the greed decade – and the opening up of the 1990s?
