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The Cotton Club
1984
Combining electric song and dance performances with drama (both on and off screen), Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club (1984) looks back to the 1920s-1930s peak of the legendary Harlem nightclub where only blacks performed and only whites could sit in the audience. Mixing historical figures with characters loosely based on .. Read more
| Starring | Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Bob Hoskins, Lonette McKee |
|---|---|
| Director | Francis Ford Coppola |
| Genres | Drama, Music/Musical |
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The Cotton Club
Combining electric song and dance performances with drama (both on and off screen), Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club (1984) looks back to the 1920s-1930s peak of the legendary Harlem nightclub where only blacks performed and only whites could sit in the audience. Mixing historical figures with characters loosely based on actual people, Coppola and co-writers William Kennedy and The Godfather's Mario Puzo create a panorama of love, crime, and entertainment centered on the Club. Among them are cornet player Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere, playing his own solos), who escapes psycho gangster benefactor Dutch Schultz (James Remar) for a George Raft-type Hollywood career as a gangster film star; Schultz's nubile mistress Vera Cicero (Diane Lane), who loves Dixie against her mercenary instincts; Cotton Club Mob owner Owney Madden (Bob Hoskins) and close associate Frenchy Demarge (Fred Gwynne); Vincent (Nicolas Cage), Dixie's no-good Mad Dog Coll-esque brother; Club tap star Sandman Williams (Gregory Hines), who woos ambitious light-skinned Club singer Lila Rose Oliver (Lonette McKee); and cameos by Charles Honi Coles and Cab Calloway impersonator Larry Marshall. Complementing the period story, Coppola evokes the style of '30s gangster movies and musicals through an array of old-fashioned devices like montages of headlines, songs and shoot-outs. Conceived by producer Robert Evans as his crowning achievement and directorial debut, Evans had to hand over the troubled production to Coppola, but the budget spiraled out of control as the script was repeatedly re-written throughout the chaotic shoot. By the time it was released, The Cotton Club's epic production story of power struggles, financial bloat, and even a murder overshadowed the reunion of The Godfather's creative team. Neither a Heaven's Gate-sized failure nor a wallet-saving hit like Coppola's Apocalypse Now, The Cotton Club got some favorable critical notices (although it drew fire for subordinating the African American stories). It did not, however, find a large enough audience to justify its expense and controversy, becoming another mark against 1970s auteur cinema in increasingly blockbuster-driven 1980s Hollywood.~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
| Starring | Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Bob Hoskins, Lonette McKee, James Remar, Diane Lane, Allen Garfield, Nicolas Cage, Jennifer Grey, Fred Gwynne, Lisa Jane Persky, Gwen Verdon, Tom Waits, Julian Beck, Laurence Fishburne, Nico |
|---|---|
| Director | Francis Ford Coppola |
| Studio | ELEVATION |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 3 mins LOVEFiLM Instant: 2 hrs 3 mins |
| Certificate |  DVD LOVEFiLM Instant |
| Genres | Drama, Music/Musical |
| Language | DVD: English LOVEFiLM Instant: English |
| Released | Production year: 1984 To Watch Online: LOVEFiLM Instant: 19 May 2011 To Rent: DVD: 08 Sep 2003 |
| Watch now | Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant. Subscribe. |
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Critic's review
View all critics' reviews (4) -
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A lumpy vehicle, eventually costing fifty million dollars, for some of the talents who made The Godfather ten years earlier. Despite a few effective moments, a prime example of the careless extravagance which all but killed the film business.
- 32775
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- Halliwell's Film Guide
- 02 Mar 2006 at 15:43
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Most helpful member's review
View all members' reviews (6) -
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- 1
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Gere, Gangsters and tap-dancing
This semi-musical sees Gere as a musician in 20s America who gets mixed up with gangsters when he falls for the wrong woman. There's a great subplot with a... read more »
- 11697
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[Highly rated reviewer]
- a customer
- London
- 22 Jul 2004 at 14:45
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Most recent members' reviews
View all members' reviews (6) -
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- 0
- 0
Pick a bale a cotton
An attempt to portray the famous Cotton Club in New York's Haarlem in the 1930's. Worth seeing for the tap dancing alone. They squandered $20M on this ... read more »
- 932059
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- a customer
- Doncaster
- 15 Oct 2010 at 22:02
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- 0
- 0
Good fun...
With plenty of 'LOOK WHO IT IS!' moments. reccomended.
- 748499
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- JimiTheSaint
- 61 reviews
- London
- 26 Apr 2009 at 21:36
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- 0
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Not authentic
I failed to appreciate this movie. Having seen the wonderful 'Hoodlum' recently, I wanted to delve further into the genre. Firstly the movie is miscast... read more »
- 683210
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- a customer
- London
- 07 Jan 2009 at 19:54
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Nic Cage on the Loose
- 17 May 2010
‘I have an acronym for myself. Know what it is? B.A.D. B.A.D: Balls. Attitude. Direction. You should give yourself an acronym...it helps you visualize your goals.’ - Nicolas Cage as Little Junior Brown, Kiss of Death. Is Nic Cage a great actor, or is he just pretending? You will find passionate advocates for both sides of that coin, and with evidence to back them up. He’s an eccentric among movie stars, an A-lister with a taste for B movie barnstorming; a showboat who... Read more
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The Cotton Club
Combining electric song and dance performances with drama (both on and off screen), Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club (1984) looks back to the 1920s-1930s peak of the legendary Harlem nightclub where only blacks performed and only whites could sit in the audience. Mixing historical figures ...
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