Bugsy, 1991.

Ashley Matthews

2/11/12

Bugsy (1991)

Director Barry Levinson

            This movie is about the brutality New York mobs and the willingness one man has to stop at nothing in the name of money and revenge.  Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel (Warren Beatty) is a mobster whose brutal, greedy actions lead him to his death by the enemies he has established.  Levinson uses different aspects of placement in scene such as rule of thirds, balance, color, and zoom to convey themes in the film such as ruthlessness, seduction, and greed.

             Levinson uses the concept of leading lines and rule of thirds to foreshadow betrayal of family in the first scene.  The way the railing of the porch, the bushes, and the driveway all angle toward the two children and their mother at the doorstep bidding their father and husband goodbye seeks to highlight the family and Bugsy’s going back and forth between two lives.  They are off to the side rather than directly in the middle of the shot to convey that there is more to come. 

            Just as the white snow on the ground in the previous scene serves to represent purity and virtue of family, the color red is used to represent fire, heat, passion, and murder throughout the film.  The lips of the woman in the elevator who tempts Bugsy are a deep red, suggesting seduction.  The lips of Virginia Hill (Annette Bening), the woman Bugsy cheats on his wife with, are also bright red when Bugsy first meets her.  The red satin sheets, red strawberries, and red cakes from room service in the hotel room also represent seduction.

            Lens focus is used to connote “big horizons” when Bugsy walks down the road in the middle of the desert.  After just zooming in on the faces of Virginia and Mickey Cohen (Harvey Keitel), both skeptics of Bugsy’s vision for the casino, the camera angle widens as we see Bugsy and Mickey walking down the open road toward a glowing horizon.

            Rule of thirds is used again when Bugsy is at home in New York and bakes a cake for his daughter’s birthday but has only come home to be rejected by his children.  When Bugsy is sitting at the table, miserable after trying to hide his secret romance with Virginia from his wife and kids, his wife walks into the kitchen and her face is placed in the upper right intersection, while the cake is placed in the lower right and Bugsy’s face stands in the upper left.  The focus on these three images as individuals connote Bugsy’s miserable state, the poor helplessness of a betrayed wife, and the sorrow Bugsy feels after rejection from his children.  Levinson made a conscious choice to keep one candle on the cake lit, signifying the final chance he has to hold onto his family, and his humanity.