Bonfire of the Vanities versus The Front Page (spoilers)

If you haven't watched BOTV, don't scroll down..spoilers here










































I enjoyed BOTV. But I also agree with others on here that reckon it's overrated.

Half way through and particularly when the mayor was rousing his troops in front of the ordnance survey Map of new York city on the wall, I was reminded of The Front Page (1974), Directed by Gene Wilder and starring Walter Mathau & Jack Lemmon. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071524/

I'm a huge fan of Tom Wolfe as an author and while I didn't read the book version of BOTV, I was dissapointed. With such a great cast, great director and a top author behind the project, I suppose my expectations were very high.

It's hard to find fault or pick anything in particular out of BOTV to point to, but, there was a pace and punch to The Front Page that was somehow lacking with BOTV.

If you liked BOTV, I strongly recommend you give The Front Page a look. There are similarities in both story lines....The Front Page is told from the POV of the newspaper editor and key journalist rather than BOTV and there are similar moral/ethical undercurrents running throughout both films but The Front Page is so much better IMHO at delivering those ethic/moral ponderings underneath laugh out loud scenes.

BOTV is quite weak in that respect, IMHO. There isn't the same rollercoaster ride towards the finale that exists in TFP. There is a build up, but, the penultimate scenes with the court room speech just didn't cut it for me. The 'moral of this story' narrative in BOTV was far too obvious.

Having said all that...I did enjoy BOTV, but, I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn't seen The Front Page before.