BILLY BATHGATE isn`t a bad film , and takes the trouble to show us the young and impressionable title character attraction towards the criminal underworld , a world where money and molls come easily to hand . It`s also slightly old fashioned and you can imagine Edward G Robinson or James Cagney playing the part of Dutch Schultz and that`s where the problem lies - Dustin Hoffman , who is a fine actor but I found him too laid back and since THE GODFATHER we don`t expect mafia dons to be laid back , we expect them to be played By Pacino and DeNiro and see them throw things around and shout " My family " a lot . But worse still BILLY BATHGATE was released after a certain cinema masterpiece that featured Joe Pesci as a psycho hitman who never uses sentences unless the F word appears in every second word which means every gangster pic from the same era pales in comparison . So if you`re going to watch BILLY BATHGATE judge it on its own merits because the performances are good enough as is the story , it`s just that I kept hearing a voice in my head saying " I`m a funny guy ? Just what is so f***ing funny ? " while I was watching
Review of Billy Bathgate
