Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, who also directed the film) is a hotshot police detective who makes life difficult for the local mobsters. When Big Boy Caprice (Al Pacino) decides to off Lips Manlis (Paul Sorvino) and take over Club Ritz and all of it’s trappings, including Lips’ girlfriend, crooner Breathless Mahoney (Madonna), he kicks off a chain of events that will forever change the landscape of the city. He decides to bring all of the city’s gangsters together, in the hopes of uniting on a common front against Tracy. That way, everybody gets rich and nobody goes to the clink. Not all of the gangsters agree, but they soon find out that Big Boy means serious and deadly business, so before long, compliance is won all around.
As Tracy tries to bust Big Boy for murder and gambling, he comes into contact with Breathless, who decides she has quite an interest in Tracy and like her famous song says, "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)." However, Tracy is devoted to longtime girlfriend Tess Trueheart (Glenne Headly), although he just can’t seem to make that permanent commitment to her. His life gets further complicated when he rescues a young thief known only as "The Kid" (Charlie Korsmo) from his abusive father and ends up with a semi-permanent roommate in the child. But The Kid’s a natural at detective work and ends up being a true asset to Tracy.
Once Tracy has Big Boy and his clan on the run, another secretive mobster steps in with an offer to take Tracy out of the picture for Big Boy, for a cut of the profits, of course. "The Blank" appears to have no face and has a hidden agenda, but what could it be? Before you know it, Tracy’s in jail for murder, Tess has been kidnapped, and pandemonium ensues. Watching Tracy unravel the mystery, catch the bad guys, and save the girl, all with tremendous style, is great fun.
The cast list for this film is chock full of greats including the earlier mentioned folks, who all do a tremendous job. But there’s also Dustin Hoffman who is brilliant as the stuttering stoolie "Mumbles," James Caan, Mandy Patinkin, Charles Durning, Kathy Bates, Dick Van Dyke, and Catherine O’Hara (in a very brief onscreen appearance). While I’ve never been a fan of Madonna’s acting, she does a great job as Breathless. She’s perfect in the role.
The makeup and sets are the most outstanding aspects of the movie, though. Everything is brightly colored and very cartoony, but absolutely lush looking. The characters’ faces are so well made up that some are hardly recognizable. Take the normally handsome and dashing Al Pacino. He is positively repugnant as Big Boy, as is Paul Sorvino as Lips Manlis.
If you’ve never seen Dick Tracy, now is the time because it looks better than ever. While there are no special features to speak of, and I was really disappointed that there wasn’t even a retrospective, the film still looks beautiful on Blu-ray and this is the best possible way to view it.
