Product Details

• Actors: Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman, Loren Dean, Bruce Willis, Steven Hill
• Directors: Robert Benton
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Touchstone / Disney
• VHS Release Date: October 8, 2002
• Run Time: 107 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302320429
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #27,318 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #94 in

  Video > Mystery & Suspense > Crime > Gangsters

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The oily allure of underground power is compelling. During the heyday of New York's mob scene, it was more than a mysterious, dynamic draw, it was a ticket out of poverty and stepping stone to notoriety. Based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow, Billy Bathgate is the story of a street-smart boy (Loren Dean) who, after a chance encounter with racketeering kingpin Dutch Schultz (Dustin Hoffman), sets out to apprentice himself to the Mafia and ride the roller-coaster life of a gangster.

Central to the story development is the idea of fate and circumstance. Except for Billy, who is merely a criminal voyeur, all the characters play out the hand they were dealt, good or bad, live or die. Moving from misunderstood businessman, struggling to legitimize his line of work, to a steely, vengeful egomaniac, Dustin Hoffman gives a powerful performance. The role of Schultz is so strong, however, that Hoffman overpowers the cast, leaving some characters underdeveloped. Despite being the movie's namesake, Billy always seems a bit vacuous and leaves the audience wondering if he appreciates and values his luck. Bo Widerberg, played by Bruce Willis, is a slick gangster with a weasely demeanor and Drew Preston (Nicole Kidman), the girl to be fought over. Although Kidman's performance isn't her most memorable, she does a good job in balancing and evolving her character amid all the gunslinging and testosterone of the mob. If you're a Hoffman fan, and like gangster flicks, this movie's for you. --Jeff Leinaweaver

From The New Yorker
A refined, stately gangster movie, based on E. L. Doctorow's refined, stately novel about the decline and fall of Dutch Schultz. The director, Robert Benton, and the screenwriter, Tom Stoppard, are scrupulously faithful to the book. Their studied, reverential approach has a perverse kind of appropriateness: it reflects all too accurately the novel's high-art air of importance. (Doctorow's literary exquisiteness had already drained the vulgar energy from the material.) Actually, the movie is marginally livelier than the novel, but this material is much more familiar to moviegoers than to readers of prestigious, ambitious fiction: the filmmakers' evocation of violent crime in Prohibition-era New York can only be seen in the context of the rich American gangster-movie tradition, and this picture simply doesn't have the raw vitality and the headlong drive that the classics of the genre-from the original "Scarface" to "Once Upon a Time in America"-have led us to expect. The movie sustains our interest mostly by virtue of two remarkable performances. Steven Hill plays Schultz's middle-aged business manager, Otto Berman, and his acting is miraculously nuanced and complex: we feel as if we can read the whole history of the gang's triumphs and disasters in Berman's cunning, weary eyes. And Dustin Hoffman, as Schultz, is terrific. He's very funny and volatile. Playing a mean, stupid man, Hoffman-probably the most intelligent actor of his generation-is terrifyingly precise about the human deficiencies that make a great, legendary crook. Also with Loren Dean (in the title role) and Nicole Kidman. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Over looked, underrated Robert Benton period film, July 5, 2002

By	Matthew Horner (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Billy Bathgate" had the misfortune to be released the year after "Goodfellas", Scorsese's great gangster film which revived interest in the genre. True, "Billy Bathgate" is also about gangsters, but if you know the works of its director, Robert Benton, and those of Scorsese, you know they are not similar directors at all. While both men are fascinated by interesting characters, Benton is more intellectual and less visceral. Even in his most famous early screenplay, "Bonnie and Clyde", the characters spend a surprising amount of time sitting around and talking prior to the movie's infamous and violent climax. So, "Billy Bathgate" does not provide as much action or as many gut level situations as a typical gangster film. What is has is great atmosphere, a literate script by Tom Stoppard, brilliant cinematography by Nestor Almendros, and some interesting performances.

Billy [Loren Dean] is a bright kid growing up in New York in the 1930s. The son of impoverished immigrants, he is getting most of his education in the streets. In his neighborhood, the heroes are gangsters like Dutch Shultz [Dustin Hoffman] and his men because they represent a way to climb out of poverty and to earn respect. One day Billy catches Shultz's eye and is soon working for him. The kid's not violent but he witnesses many acts of violence. These obviously unnerve him, but the lure of a fast buck is strong. Things get complicated when he is put in charge of looking after a rich society dame [Nicole Kidman], who has a sham marriage to a gay but powerful New Yorker. She gets her kicks by dating gangsters. She's in terrible danger because of something she saw, but she doesn't seem to be aware of it, though Billy is. He's also aware that she's the most beautiful and desirable woman he's ever met.

I thought the movie was interesting and well done. I can see why others might find it too slow and talky. It has an elegance and a dignity that is somewhat at odds with its subject matter, but I found this contradiction fascinating. I also enjoyed watching Ms. Kidman in a role that predates both her American stardom and her years as Mrs. Tom Cruise. No one at the time was aware of the phenomenon she would later become, but looking at her from a decade's distance, all the signs are plainly there.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Billy Bathgate--Cinema's Quiet Godfather, July 12, 2002

By	Fred Sherrill (New York, New york USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Billy Bathgate (DVD)

"Billy Bathgate" charts the seemingly charmed path of a resourceful street kid (Loren Dean) who latches on to the Dutch Shultz gang in Dewey-era New York City. Shultz (Dustin Hoffman) has a gang which has seen the zenith of its power; its fighting to hold his place in a world where Irish and Italian politicians and mobsters are on the ascendancy.
The movie opens with an initial act of betrayal, and the moll (Nicole Kidman) is thrust upon both the man and the boy. The movie is blessed with strong performances by secondary characters played by Steven Hill, Steve Buscemi, Stanley Tucci, Bruce Willis, and a number of other actors whose faces you know but might not be able to name.

Since seeing this movie originally at the theatre and several times on cable tv, I've wondered why it didn't have a bigger following. I'll offer up a few reasons, all of which may explain why a great and touching movie is under-appreciated. First, the ostensible lead character--Loren Dean's Billy--is not really the lead character, he's the witness (and possible catalyst) to the arc of the Shultz gang; Mr Dean, who's turned out to be a terrific and underutilized character actor, alas, does not seemed to have had the kind of star power to give the movie a higher profile. The film's erstwhile "star", Dustin Hoffman, plays a character that doesn't have the dominating screen time to make this his story or the film Hoffman's. Finally, the film doesn't really follow the standard arc of a Hollywood hero's journey: the Shultz gang is on the decline, and its not clear that the boy is on the ascent.

This is a quieter version of Mob-America and yet to me otherwise like the Godfather not a single frame is wasted, and the direction is flawless. I hope you like it.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Big, Expansive, Violent Gangster Story, June 26, 2005

By	C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Billy Bathgate (DVD)

Based on IMDb, I'm evidently one of the few people, critics or public, who likes this movie. It's got some flaws, but on balance I think it tells an intriguing story, has a great look and features some first class performances. It also, admitedly, comes to a slow walk in the last third of the movie and only barely recovers.

Billy Bathgate (Loren Dean) is a young kid, not quite a punk, who is ambitious and wants to make money. The easiest way is to become a gangster, and he figures out a way to be noticed by Dutch Schultz (Dustin Hoffman). The movie is told from Billy's perspective, but it's dominated by Schultz's cunning, violence and loss of power. Dutch Schultz controls the numbers racket, liquor and gambling. He has judges in his pocket with bribes. He has never had anything pinned on him, but now he's facing a tax evasion rap. He moves upstate to find a friendly jury. Although he beats the rap, the prosecutors won't stop coming at him. And more and more of his fellow sharks are circling closer as they realize that one way or another Schultz is becoming history. When he loses the confidence of Lucky Lucciano, his career comes to a violent halt. Billy survives, barely.

Hoffman, in my view, gives a fine performance of a cunning, uneducated, suspicious and violent gangster. Schultz's way of dealing with a problem is to eliminate it as directly as possible. He's unpredictable; he may pat your face one minute and put a bullet through your open mouth the next. Steven Hill as Otto Berman, Schultz' long time operations manager and money man, gives an outstanding performance. Berman is getting a little old and tired, but he remains loyal to Schultz. Make no mistake; he's just as much a crook as Schultz. He develops a liking for Billy that saves Billy's life. Others who come up with compelling turns are Stanley Tucci as Luciano, as fascinating and calculating as a snake; Steve Buscemi as one of Schultz' hoods who does what he's told, Nicole Kidman as a society dame who seems to love the rough stuff and the danger and who gets in beyond her depth; Timothy Jerome as Dixie Davis, Schultz' slimy, dishonest and betraying lawyer, Bruce Willis as Bo Weinberg, Schultz's second-in-command, who makes the mistake of looking out for his own interests. Loren Dean does an okay job, in my view, as Billy. He's not a compelling actor, but neither is the character. Billy is an observer for the most part.

It's the last part of the movie that's problematic. A good deal of time is spent rather humorlessly in a small town in upstate New York as Schultz and Berman go about trying to buy their way into the town's -- and the potential jury members' -- good graces. There's a bit of bracing violence, but too much exposition. And then the extended sequence in Saratoga with Kidman and Dean, and the growing danger to Kidman, kicks in...and it just seems long.

On balance, though, I can watch this movie with pleasure...probably because of the style, the story line and Steven Hill's performance. There are no extras. The DVD picture looks just fine to me.