Dick Tracy (1990)
Script: Jim Cash en Jack Epps jr.
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In short: Sondheim wrote five 1930s-style songs for the film Dick Tracy, all of which have been widely covered. One of them earned Sondheim an Academy Award.
Dick Tracy has just about everything required of an extravaganza:
Vincent Canby (The New York Times)
a smashing cast, some great Stephen Sondheim songs, all of the technical wizardry that money can buy, and a screenplay that observes
the fine line separating true comedy from lesser camp.
Overview Dick Tracy - background and excerpts
With so much to win,
there’s too much to lose.
Dick Tracy is a film directed by and starring Warren Beatty in the title role, alongside Al Pacino, Madonna, and Mandy Patinkin. Based on Chester Gould’s 1930s comic strip, the film follows the adventures of the eponymous detective. Sondheim contributed five songs to the soundtrack, three of which were featured on Madonna’s successful I’m Breathless album.
Plot Summary
Detective Dick Tracy is determined to dismantle the city’s criminal underworld, ruled by mob boss Big Boy Caprice. With the help of his girlfriend Tess Trueheart and his young protégé, The Kid, Tracy battles Caprice and his gang. Complications arise with the enigmatic singer Breathless Mahoney, who plays both ally and potential traitor. Despite numerous obstacles and betrayals, Tracy manages to defeat the criminals and free the city, but not without personal sacrifices and difficult decisions.
Reception
The film was praised for its bold visual style, which stayed true to its comic-strip origins, and for strong performances, particularly Al Pacino as Big Boy Caprice and Warren Beatty as Dick Tracy. While commercially successful, the film’s profits fell short due to its high production costs. Dick Tracy earned seven Academy Award nominations and won three, including Best Original Song for Sondheim’s contribution.
Video excerpts (in film's order)
Sondheim’s songs for Dick Tracy were crafted with a playful nod to the musical style of the 1930s.
- The song “Sooner or later” earned Sondheim his first and only Academy Award. Performed by Madonna at the 1991 Oscars, the song is one of the nightclub numbers sung by Breathless Mahoney (Madonna) in the film.
- Another nightclub number is “More”. It is another of Breathless’s showstoppers. Featured here are renditions by Ruthie Henshall and Brigitte Heitzer from the Sondheim revue Putting it Together.
- In “What can you lose?” Mandy Patinkin, as Breathless’s pianist, sings about his unrequited love for her, while Breathless joins in, lamenting her unrequited love for Dick Tracy.
- The song “Back in business” underscores a montage where the mob seizes control after Tracy is falsely accused of murder. This segment includes scenes with Al Pacino from the film and a concert performance by Liza Minnelli.
- “Live alone and like it” captures Tracy’s independent spirit and his tendency to prioritize work over relationships. The song is performed in the film by Mel Tormé as a background track.
Stephen Sondheim about Dick Tracy
“Not only was it for a movie based on a cartoon I had grown up with, it was set in the 1930s and thus invited pastiche, something I loved writing. Better yet, the songs were to decorate the plot rather than enhance it, which made them easy to write, and when Warren [Beatty, red.] hired Madonna, no less, to play Breathless, I thought it might even be my chance to have a hit record. In the fullness of time, I didn’t get a hit, but I got an Academy Award and, more important, had another good time working with Warren.
Warren had told me that he wanted to edit according to the song [“Back in Business”, red.], and so I fashioned a lyric that punned on words like “bang” and “boom,” which were designed to coincide with gun-shots and bombs—designed to, but not filmed that way. Perhaps it hamstrung him too much, as the scenario for “The Glamorous Life” in the film of A Little Night Music had hamstrung Hal Prince. It was a disappointment, but, like the rest of the score, it was a blast to write.”
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Reviews of Dick Tracy
Film (1990)
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