IMDb > Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
Bullets Over Broadway
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Bullets Over Broadway (1994) More at IMDbPro »

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Bullets Over Broadway (1994) -- In 1920s New York, a struggling playwright is forced to cast a mobster's talentless girlfriend in his latest drama in order to get it produced.

Overview

User Rating:
7.5/10   14,222 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 4% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Woody Allen
Writers (WGA):
Woody Allen (written by) and
Douglas McGrath (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for Bullets Over Broadway on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
18 January 1995 (USA) more
Genre:
Comedy | Crime more
Tagline:
A killer comedy! more
Plot:
In 1920s New York, a struggling playwright is forced to cast a mobster's talentless girlfriend in his latest drama in order to get it produced. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Won Oscar. Another 15 wins & 12 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(21 articles)
Vera Farmiga Interview, Up In the Air
 (From MoviesOnline. 26 November 2009, 8:00 PM, PST)
George Lucas, Meg Tilly, Kirk Douglas: Governors Awards 2009
 (From Alternative Film Guide. 15 November 2009, 5:42 PM, PST)
User Comments:
takes on the egotistical qualities in artists- and gangsters- in Allen's very funny send-up of Broadway more (69 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

John Cusack ... David Shayne

Dianne Wiest ... Helen Sinclair

Jennifer Tilly ... Olive Neal

Chazz Palminteri ... Cheech

Mary-Louise Parker ... Ellen

Jack Warden ... Julian Marx

Joe Viterelli ... Nick Valenti

Rob Reiner ... Sheldon Flender

Tracey Ullman ... Eden Brent

Jim Broadbent ... Warner Purcell

Harvey Fierstein ... Sid Loomis
Stacey Nelkin ... Rita
Malgorzata Zajaczkowska ... Lili (as Margaret Sophie Stein)
Charles Cragin ... Rifkin
Nina Sonja Peterson ... Josette (as Nina Sonya Peterson)
more
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Additional Details

MPAA:
Rated R for some language.
Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parents
Runtime:
98 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono
Certification:
Iceland:L | Finland:K-11 (cinema release) (1996) | Canada:14+ (Ontario) | Netherlands:MG6 | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | France:U | Germany:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:R
Filming Locations:
110th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA more
Company:
Miramax Films more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
When David Shayne and Julian have just seen Olive for the first time and are discussing putting her in the play at Nick Valenti's apartment building, the hallway which they walk down was also used in the movie The Godfather (1972) when Lucca Brasi goes to visit the Tatalia family. more
Goofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Helen gives David a gift on his birthday, she calls him a Scorpio, but two scenes later it is only September 24th. The Sun does not enter the sign of Scorpio until the end of October. David is a Virgo or a Libra. more
Quotes:
Sheldon Flender: Hey, look who's here. The big Broadway success. I don't write hits. My plays are art. They're written specifically to go unproduced. more
Movie Connections:
References Sunset Blvd. (1950) more
Soundtrack:
Poor Butterfly more

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User Comments

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful.
takes on the egotistical qualities in artists- and gangsters- in Allen's very funny send-up of Broadway, 15 March 2007
8/10
Author: MisterWhiplash from United States

Now this is something sort of rare, though not really: Woody Allen mixing satire and drama, and the satire actually even more convincing than the drama. The opposite was in a more serious affair, Crimes and Misdemeanors, where art and murder and infidelities all get into one big pot of personality crises. This is the same case with Bullets Over Broadway, though this time Allen's tackling of the ego-maniacal crutches of the Broadway scene- the aging star Helen Sinclair (Dianne Wiest, one of her very best performances, funniest too), the bumbling boob Olive Neal (Jennifer Tilly, appropriately annoying- and then how it sort of infects the outsiders to the major Broadway scene, one the protagonist David Shayne (John Cusack, excellent here), and Olive's bodyguard, Cheech (Chazz Palminteri, a character he could play in his sleep, but played pretty well anyway). Cheech is hanging around during rehearsals of David's first play he's writing and directing, following getting funding (on the condition of Olive as a psychiatrist) from a heavy-duty mobster, and soon he's suggesting ideas, and in the process becomes David's uncredited collaborator. But meanwhile infidelities are abound, with David falling for the wonderfully self-indulgent Helen, and a goofy romance between Olive and the thespian Warner Purcell (Jim Broadbent), leading to a purely ironic climax.

Allen's skills at navigating the neuroses of all the characters is very skilled, and sometimes the one-liners are surprisingly funny, all based on the personalities (Wiesst especially, in a voice that is a little startling at first, gives a classic line about the world 'opening' up, and her running gag with "don't speak"). Even with the more dramatic connections, which doesn't seem to be as much of Allen's concerns since it's pretty one-note with the mob side of things (and, frankly, the fates of Olive and Cheech sort of seem a little too contrived for the sake of the irony par for the course), we do get a very memorable bit to make things worth the while, like David and Cheech's down to earth talk at the bar. But if there's anything else to recommend more strongly it's for the sharpness of the script in the theater scenes, the backstage banter, the hilarious tension stirred up by grudges and ill-timed romances. Plus, there's a bit of an added treat for fans of past Allen films, where he casts Rob Reiner in a role sort of similar to that of Wallace Shawn in Manhattan. Not a masterpiece, but a very enjoyable work that's successful on its dark-light terms.

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