{"id":43159,"date":"2020-08-08T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-08T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/alan-parkers-bugsy-malone-remains-an-endearingly-odd-gem\/"},"modified":"2020-08-08T20:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-08T17:00:00","slug":"alan-parkers-bugsy-malone-remains-an-endearingly-odd-gem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/alan-parkers-bugsy-malone-remains-an-endearingly-odd-gem\/","title":{"rendered":"#Alan Parker\u2019s \u2018Bugsy Malone\u2019 Remains an Endearingly Odd Gem"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a26e4d279ce0\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a26e4d279ce0\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/alan-parkers-bugsy-malone-remains-an-endearingly-odd-gem\/#Whats_it_about\" >What\u2019s it about?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/alan-parkers-bugsy-malone-remains-an-endearingly-odd-gem\/#What_makes_it_sublime\" >What makes it sublime?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/alan-parkers-bugsy-malone-remains-an-endearingly-odd-gem\/#And_in_conclusion%E2%80%A6\" >And in conclusion\u2026<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#Alan Parker\u2019s \u2018Bugsy Malone\u2019 Remains an Endearingly Odd Gem<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div><em>Welcome to\u00a0<strong>The Prime Sublime<\/strong>, a weekly column dedicated to the underseen and underloved films buried beneath page after page of far more popular fare on Amazon\u2019s Prime Video collection. We\u2019re not just cherry-picking obscure titles, though, as these are <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">movies<\/a> that we find beautiful in their own, often unique ways. You might even say we think they\u2019re sublime\u2026 and this week our pick is a small tribute to the recently departed Alan Parker as we take a look at his oddly wonderful gangster picture, <\/em>Bugsy Malone<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cSublime \/s\u0259\u02c8bl\u012bm\/: of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/hr>\n<p>Film fans lost a legend recently with the passing of filmmaker <strong>Alan Parker<\/strong>. His filmography is devoid of conventional box-office hits, but a quick look at his movie titles reveals his penchant for delivering memorable films including <em>Midnight Express<\/em> (1978), <em>Fame<\/em> (1980), <em>Pink Floyd: The Wall<\/em> (1982), <em>Birdy<\/em> (1984), <em>Angel Heart<\/em> (1987), and <em>Mississippi Burning<\/em> (1988). He was never a director tr<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ed with genre or expectation as evident with his moves between drama, comedy, musicals, and more, but nowhere is that \u201coutside of the box\u201d style more prevalent than with his feature debut.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Bugsy Malone<\/em><\/strong> (1976) is a gangster picture about warring factions that takes time for character beats, romance, and a message about taking control of your own destiny. It\u2019s also a musical with original songs written (and occasionally performed) by the great <strong>Paul Williams<\/strong>. Oh, and did I mention the cast consists entirely of children?<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Whats_it_about\"><\/span>What\u2019s it about?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>An accountant for the mob runs, panicked, through the city streets. Three men follow and gun him down in an alleyway. There\u2019s a war on between organized crime outfits \u2014 Fat Sam (<strong>John Cassisi<\/strong>) runs a snazzy nightclub alongside a handful of shady schemes, while Dandy Dan (<strong>Martin Lev<\/strong>) is living the high life as king of the city \u2014 and into it walk two people unaware of what\u2019s heading their way. Blousey (<strong>Florence Garland<\/strong>) is a wannabe singer looking for a big break, and Bugsy Malone (<strong>Scott Baio<\/strong>) is a man of many talents hoping for a legitimate paycheck but willing to do some dirty work for Sam if the money\u2019s right.<\/p>\n<p>Dan takes the upper hand after getting those hands on automatic weapons, and with his back against the wall Sam makes a last ditch stand against the violent takeover. Bugsy\u2019s trying to hold on to Blousey even as he\u2019s being pursued by Sam\u2019s girl, Tallulah (<strong>Jodie Foster<\/strong>), but romance becomes the least of anyone\u2019s concerns as armed henchman converge for a final showdown at Fat Sam\u2019s Grand Slam speakeasy.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_makes_it_sublime\"><\/span>What makes it sublime?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>A gangster-themed musical with a cast whose average age is twelve-years-old is no easy undertaking, and Parker\u2019s decision to tackle it as his writer\/director feature debut shows a filmmaker fueled as much by confidence as he was by madness. Impressive sets, production design, and costuming, mostly built and crafted at the historic Pinewood Studios, help bring the film to life, and Parker unleashes kids throughout all of it. Gangsters, molls, dancers, sidekicks, dames, working stiffs \u2014 all of them are played by kids.<\/p>\n<p>Acting-wise, that choice leaves something of a mixed bag with the mostly amateur cast sharing more enthusiasm than pure talent, but there are plenty of standouts. Cassisi is fantastic as the over the top Fat Sam chewing his way through every scene, while Lev plays his equally entertaining counterpart as a slick, cool crime boss. <strong>Albin \u2018Humpty\u2019 Jenkins<\/strong> shines as a club janitor pining for the chance to audition as a dancer, future filmmaker <strong>Dexter Fletcher<\/strong> is crazy great as the smallest gangster, Baby Face, and others are memorable throughout. All of them, though, play in the shadow of a thirteen-year-old Foster. She schools them all and plays her scheming moll with sass and attitude (\u201cI like my men at my feet.\u201d), and while she\u2019s a supporting player it\u2019s clear she\u2019s the one destined for big-screen stardom.<\/p>\n<p>The child cast is fun and adds a surreal feeling early on, and Parker deserves credit for the diversity among them. While some period films aim for historical \u201crealism\u201d in that department, Parker\u2019s film casts Black kids and Asians among the gangsters, dancers, and supporting characters. Jenkins\u2019 Fizzy gets the film\u2019s most heartfelt song and emotional beat, Paul Murphy gets to save Bugsy\u2019s life with several enthusiastic punches, and John Lee gets a lot of screen time as one of Dandy Dan\u2019s dapper thugs. (On that last one there\u2019s some confusion as the character of Benny Lee is clearly played by an Asian boy despite IMDB\u2019s listing of a white guy named John Rafter Lee, so I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on there.)<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not long, though, before viewers are drawn into the story to the point where the presence of children becomes the norm. The script, kid-centric gags, and songs step up to share center stage resulting in a sometimes absurd, always engaging time. The automatic weapons? They shoot whip cream puffs. The cars? They\u2019re all pedal-driven meaning the driver brakes by pressing their feet to the ground <em>Flintstones<\/em>-style which makes for an especially entertaining car chase sequence.<\/p>\n<p>Parker\u2019s script for <em>Bugsy Malone<\/em> is suitably playful, and while the dialogue feels like G-rated gangster talk he has fun elsewhere. When Sam speaks Italian to one of his henchmen the poor guy doesn\u2019t understand \u2014 so Sam tells him to read the subtitles. One character pauses mid song &#038; dance to actually say \u201cHey look at me, I\u2019m dancing!\u201d It\u2019s prohibition, so of course Sam has an illegal sarsaparilla business on the side. A radio <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>caster interrupts his own breaking news with \u201cWe interrupt our interruption\u2026\u201d It\u2019s silliness played straight and without punchlines \u2014 remove the child actors and concessions to their age, and you\u2019d have a mostly straightforward gangster script for much of its running time.<\/p>\n<p>The kids break into song and dance pretty regularly, and these scenes are just as important an element to the film\u2019s lasting appeal even with the occasionally mistimed choreography. Their singing voices are dubbed by adult professionals, sometimes including Williams, and there are some great numbers here. \u201cBad Guys\u201d and \u201cSo You Wanna Be a Boxer\u201d are terrific with the former being an especially witty take on henchmen, and it\u2019s hard to argue with the subsequent Academy Award nomination the film received for Best Music\/Original Song Score.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"And_in_conclusion%E2%80%A6\"><\/span>And in conclusion\u2026<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Look, <em>Bugsy Malone<\/em> is a good-looking production with child actors ruling the roost. There\u2019s some roughness to the acting and dancing at times, and it\u2019s silly on the face of it all, but the film remains a weirdly appealing and wholly endearing joy. The songs, like the narrative, build towards a rousing conclusion complete with an epic shootout (with whip cream), a mashup of songs, and the relief of kids being allowed to be kids. The takeaway plays into the innocence of children given a wake-up call about the choices they make in life. They don\u2019t have to grow up to be bad guys, mobsters, or thugs \u2014 they can choose love and friendship instead. And maybe they can just eat the whip cream?<\/p>\n<p>Want more sublime Prime finds? Of course you do.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>if you want to watch Movies or Tv Shows go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/dizi.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dizi.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a> <\/span> for forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/bugsy-malone-1976\/#utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=bugsy-malone-1976\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Alan Parker\u2019s \u2018Bugsy Malone\u2019 Remains an Endearingly Odd Gem&#8221; Welcome to\u00a0The Prime Sublime, a weekly column dedicated to the underseen and underloved films buried beneath page after page of far more popular fare on Amazon\u2019s Prime Video collection. We\u2019re not just cherry-picking obscure titles, though, as these are movies that we find beautiful in their&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[47065,50772,1394,50773,1354,1361,1396],"class_list":["post-43159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-alan-parker","tag-alan-parkers-bugsy-malone-remains-an-endearingly-odd-gem","tag-amazon-prime","tag-bugsy-malone","tag-columns","tag-movies","tag-the-prime-sublime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}