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Synopsis: Warren Beatty and Annette Bening star in the incredible true story of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, the playboy mobster who betrayed the mafia for love. A cold-blodded killer who dreamed of Hollywood stardom, a crazed 'patriot' who plotted agains Mussolini, and the brilliant visionary who carved Las Vegas out of the dry Nevada desert, Bugsy had it all. Until he fell for the one woman who wanted more.
By David Denby
A critical masterpiece, "Bugsy" is a remarkable collaboration of Hollywood's best: director Barry Levinson, screenwriter James Toback, and an all-star supporting cast that includes Harvey Keitel, Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley, Joe Mantegna, and Elliot Gould. But at the center of it all is the white-hot romance between Bugsy and the insatiable starlet, Virginia Hill. Their passionate love affair, tempestuous and ultimately tragic, makes "Bugsy" "the most entertaining and exciting American movie of the year."
[ Copyright© DD 1991, New York Magazine ]
By Leonard Maltin
Beatty gives the most forceful performance of his career as Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, the fabled crackpot gangster who helped build Las Vegas. Long but well-told tale manages to dodge gangster clichés. Beatty and Bening set off sparks together (just as they did in real life), and a strong supporting cast fleshes out James Toback's intelligent script (though Mantegna, as George Raft, is wasted). Keitel, cast as Mickey Cohen, played Siegel in the TV movie "The Virginia Hill Story." Oscar winner for Art Direction-Set Decoration and Costume Design.
[ Copyright© 1998, Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide ]
By Jeff Shannon
Bugsy represents an almost miraculous combination of director, writer, and star on a project that represents a career highlight for everyone involved. It's one of the best American gangster movies ever made--as good in its own way as any of the Godfather films--and it's impossible to imagine anyone better than Beatty in the movie's flashy title role. As notorious mobster and Las Vegas visionary "Bugsy" Siegel, Beatty is perfectly cast as a man whose dreams are greater than his ability to realize them--or at least, greater than his ability to stay alive while making those dreams come true. With a glamorous Hollywood mistress (Annette Bening) who shares Bugsy's dream while pursuing her own upwardly mobile agenda, Bugsy seems oblivious to threats when he begins to spend too much of the mob's money on the creation of the Flamingo casino. Meyer Lansky (Ben Kingsley) and Mickey Cohen (Harvey Keitel) will support Bugsy's wild ambition to a point, after which all bets are off, and Bugsy's life hangs in the balance. From the obvious chemistry of Beatty and Bening (who met and later married off-screen) to the sumptuous reproduction of 1940s Hollywood, every detail in this movie feels impeccably right. Beatty is simply mesmerizing as the man who invented Las Vegas but never saw it thrive, moving from infectious idealism to brutal violence in the blink of an eye. Director Barry Levinson is also in peak form here, guiding the stylish story with a subtle balance of admiration and horror; we can catch Bugsy's Vegas fever and root for the gangster's success, but we know he'll get what he deserves. We might wish that Bugsy had lived to see his dream turn into a booming oasis, but the movie doesn't suggest that we should shed any tears.
[ Copyright© JS, Courtesy of Amazon.com ]