David in TN on the Movie, The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), in Retrospect

[“On Monday Night July 5, at 8 p.m. ET, TCM is Having a “Premiere” of Brian De Palma’s Flop, The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990)”.]

By David in TN Monday, July 5, 2021 at 12:41:00 P.M. EDT

Brian De Palma has said something like, “I should have made it like Sweet Smell of Success, cynical and tough. I couldn’t make it with that budget. They would not have made that movie.”

Yes, “cynical and tough,” with a realistic look at New York City crime--prosecutors having to deal with dead-bang guilty black and brown suspects all the time, while slavering for The Great White Defendant.

This movie couldn’t be allowed in 1990, much less now.

Let’s see if the TCM hosts discuss/admit it should have been a similar film to Sweet Smell of Success.

[N.S.: I think De Palma’s full of crap. And Sweet Smell of Success wasn’t cynical; it was an “anti-anti-Communist” propaganda movie attacking Walter Winchell.

By David in TN
Tuesday, July 6, 2021 at 12:20:00 A.M. EDT

I think this is the first time I have seen The Bonfire of the Vanities film since watching it in a theater in 1990. It does mention “The Great White Defendant” and how the Bronx DA is willing to prosecute a White suspect without grounds to do so. Early on Morgan Freeman’s Magic Negro judge dismisses a “POS” case against a Riverdale rich white man: “He needs a White man.” The detectives interview a teacher from the supposed black victim’s school who says something like, “An honor student is somebody who doesn’t try to kill you.”

The first hour isn’t bad, better than I remembered.

Ben Mankewicz and Julie Saloman’s intro and outro were as uninformative as you would expect.