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The Bonfire of the Vanities
After his mistress runs over a black teen, a Wall Street hotshot sees his life unravel in the spotlight; A down-and-out reporter breaks the story and opportunists clamber to use it to their advantage.
1990 · Directed by Brian De Palma · 125 min · Comedy · Drama · Screenplay in the scene database · 15 frames
Tagline
Take one Wall Street tycoon, his Fifth Avenue mistress, a reporter hungry for fame, and make the wrong turn in The Bronx...then sit back and watch the sparks fly.
Plot
Sherman McCoy is a Wall Street bond trader who makes millions while enjoying the good life and the sexual favors of Maria Ruskin, a Southern belle gold digger. Sherman and Maria are driving back to Maria's apartment from JFK Airport when they take a wrong turn on the expressway and find themselves in the "war-zone" of the South Bronx.
Sherman and Maria are approached by Henry Lamb and Roland Auburn, two black youths, after Sherman exits the car to move a tire from the road. He jumps back into the car and Maria guns the engine in reverse, running over Henry and they drive away. Sherman wants to report the incident to the police, but Maria talks him out of it, fearing public exposure of their affair.
Alcoholic journalist Peter Fallow, anxious for a story to make good with his editor, comes upon the hit-and-run case as a rallying point for the black community and calls on Abe Weiss, the Bronx District Attorney seeking re-election. Almost all of DA Weiss' prosecutions end up with black and Puerto Rican defendants going to prison and Weiss is seeking a white defendant for purposes of convincing the predominantly ethnic community he is worth re-electing.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Michael Cristofer
- Cinematography: Vilmos Zsigmond
- Edited by: Bill Pankow, Beth Jochem Besterveld, David Ray
- Music: Dave Grusin
- Production design: Richard Sylbert
- Produced by: Brian De Palma
Cast
- Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy
- Bruce Willis as Peter Fallow
- Melanie Griffith as Maria Ruskin
- Kim Cattrall as Judy McCoy
- Saul Rubinek as Jed Kramer
- Morgan Freeman as Judge Leonard White
- John Hancock as Reverend Bacon
- Kevin Dunn as Tom Killian
- Clifton James as Albert Fox
- Louis Giambalvo as Ray Andruitti
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Warner Bros. Pictures
- Budget: $47,000,000
- Box office: $15,691,192
- Themes: journalist, dark comedy, success, satire, lovers, bad luck, broker, social satire, yellow-journalism, stock broker
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