By David in TN
Sunday, July 4, 2021 at 7:34:00 P.M. EDT
On Monday Night July 5, at 8 p.m. ET, TCM is having a “Premiere” of Brian De Palma’s flop of The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990). There’s been some hand-wringing recently, as to why Tom Wolfe’s mammoth best-seller was a bomb as a movie.
Well, among other things, they didn’t emphasize, nor put in context, the book’s main plot point--the Bronx District Attorney and his deputies dreamed of The Great White Defendant.
The studio didn’t like not having a sympathetic black character, so they changed the judge from a Jewish man who is realistic about his job, to a Magic Negro played by--who else?--Morgan Freeman.
The novel was a satire which hit on many truths. The movie tried to be a comedy instead. The author, Julie Saloman, of the book on the making of the film now says, “You can't have the racial stuff today.”
3 comments:
Brian DePalma 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 suspect 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.
Wolfe was a prophet. The book was superb and very predictive of later NYC. The movie,predictably, was awful. Just pc junk. Don't waste your time on it.
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 noninformative as you would expect.
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