The Canadian Cinephile’s Reviews

Bullets Over Broadway is classic comedy at its best, a riotous trip through the backstage happenings of the play from an up-and-coming Broadway playwright. This 1994 Woody Allen film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and a slew of Best Supporting Actor/Actress awards. Dianne Wiest won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in the film, a rollicking turn as the alcoholic leading lady, Helen Sinclair. Bullets Over Broadway is Allen at his resourceful best and is a film packed to the brim with wit and top-tier comedy from start to finish.

The film takes place in 1928 as idealistic young playwright David Shane (John Cusack) has newly arrived in Broadway. He’s trying to get his play put on and doesn’t want to sacrifice his artistic integrity to do so. Shane has extended ostentatious discussions with his artistic friends about the merits of art and how artists create their own principles. This lends itself immeasurably to the character of Cusack’s Shane and ups the ante on the comedy as the film winds along. Shane is trying to get financing for his play and grudgingly agrees to hire the girlfriend (Jennifer Tilly) of a gangster to be one of the actresses in the play. Naturally, she’s a dreadful actress and can barely read her lines correctly. If Shane wants financing for his play, however, he must make this regrettable compromise. He does and winds up berating himself as a whore and a sellout.

The girlfriend is escorted to rehearsals by a security thug, Cheech (Chazz Palminteri), who winds up having an incredible inclination for writing. He sputters critiques of Shane’s work while watching the play from the back of the theatre, leading the enraged Shane to barely be able to contain himself. After some time, however, Shane begins accepting Cheech’s ideas and the play transforms into something magical. Shane is soon over his head with the whole situation and finds himself cheating on his partner Ellen (Mary-Louise Parker) with the leading lady Helen Sinclair (Wiesst). He also discovers that his leading man, the habitual eater Warner Purcell (Jim Broadbent), is beginning an affair with the gangster’s girlfriend.

The beauty of Woody Allen’s work, by and large, is that he brings a comedic touch to serious, philosophical elements and it is terrifically effective. Allen is the type of filmmaker that actively worries within the construct of his films, a director that wonders aloud as to some of the philosophical and logical questions of our time. Bullets Over Broadway is no different from the typical Allen themes. Allen’s protagonist in Bullets Over Broadway is a largely Nietzschean artist, one who desires the creative process and has the “will to power,” accepting no conciliation along the way. The film explores the morality of such a character and follows the inexorable logic behind his actions, using comedy to shed light on the predestined path that such a character would take.

The idea here is that the character of Shane succumbs to darn well every single temptation that crosses his path and his partner does too. Shane makes a pact with a mobster to finance his play, he has an affair, and he allows his work to be tampered with. In every way, Shane goes back on his character because of his will to power. He crosses every moral bridge a few times too many and, thus, is left with the inevitable spoils of his war against himself. Shane, as a result, discovers that the artistic talent he believed he once had is astonishingly non-existent and his motivations were certainly indeterminate. Instead, the character of Cheech is the true artist here and Shane is left on the outside looking in towards a shell of his work. Shane’s value, thus, must come from somewhere else, despite the fact that he has chased truth away in his quest for glory. As Cheech takes the reigns of the play, he constructs a take-no-prisoners attitude towards his own glory and stops at nothing to see his project through to success. Shane, in final moments of lucidity, decides that this stop-at-nothing approach exhibited by Cheech does not match his own desires and flees the scene back to Pittsburgh with his partner back in tow. It is a recovery from the will that Shane thought he had and it comes not a moment too soon.

Woody Allen is one of my favourite directors and he remains practical in a moribund Hollywood because he is a master of his own genre. He has given us variations of comedy throughout his career, from the peculiar comic stylings of Zelig to the bitter sweet comedy of Annie Hall. With Bullets Over Broadway, Allen gives us a witty and clever version of the comic masterpiece we have come to expect. The film is not hilarious or outrageous, but it has no intentions to be. Instead, Bullets Over Broadway intends to be smart and provoking, shining a light on the inner workings of the artist and the person who thinks he’s an artist. It’s a film about the imprudent notions of character that many of us have within and about self-denial in the most extraordinary of situations. It’s a film about the will to power and the will that many people have within to construct their own morality as they go along. In short, it is a masterpiece.

The cinematography here is amazing, too. The camera often sits perched as an observer of a disorganized scene, with each performer acting out different motivations. It is an observer and a colourful reminder of our existence in the world, all at once. Allen directs the film with careful balance. Nothing is out of place and the scenes unfold with memorable perfection. Flowers, colourful palettes and other factors all influence the overall stroke of Allen’s piece.

The performances are all tremendous. Each one resonates with pragmatism and unimpeachable comic timing, especially the prevailing performance of Dianne Wiest. The “don’t speak, don’t speak” gag that runs throughout the film is an immensely hilarious send-up of has-been actresses that still believe in their fiery sensuality. Cusack is good here too, as the Woody Allen archetype. Allen would have appeared in the film himself, as he mostly does, but he elected to provide the character of Shane with a younger edge. It works, as does everything else in this enormously entertaining and provoking comedy. Bullets Over Broadway is a tour de force and one of the best films of 1994.

10/10