OSCARS '91: Bugsy

Macintosh & Maud Haven't Seen What?!

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CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of allegations of sexual harassment, misconduct, and assault against a writer. Also, misogyny, verbal and physical abuse, murder, humiliation, death.

We’re going over to the mob this week by discussing the most-nominated film of this Oscars series, and also one of the most boring. It’s so dull, it can’t even cut through butter. There’s a dozen incredibly good stories just waiting to be told about Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Vegas, and the mafia in the 40’s and 50’s, and absolutely none of them get coverage in this movie. No, instead we get a psychosexual abusive romance that somehow is supposed to be the throughline for a bunch of historical exposition and horribly unwarranted violence. The writing is so bad here that there are multiple deserved acting nominations and some really incredible technical achievements and all of them get lost by the wayside. Flip on your screentest and brace yourself as we watch Bugsy on Macintosh & Maud Haven’t Seen What?!

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Intro and outro music taken from the Second Movement of Ludwig von Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Hong Kong (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 HK) license. To hear the full performance or get more information, visit the song page at the Internet Archive.

Excerpt taken from “Bugsy (Act of Faith #2)” from the soundtrack to the motion picture Bugsy. Written and composed by Ennio Morricone. Copyright 1991 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.

Excerpt taken from “Prologue” from the soundtrack to the motion picture JFK. Written and composed by John Williams. Copyright 1991 Warner Bros. Inc.; Regency Enterprises; Le Studio Canal+; Elektra Entertainment.