Horrible film. We get two hours of droning conversations about how evil the big Hollywood studios are and how gallant the communist writer's unions are. And I don't use the term communists as a jab, because in this film the screenwriter's union leader, played by Jack Nicholson, is a proud "open" communist (who probably makes a lot of money) and he gets to punch the evil tycoon, played by DeNiro, in the face and then say "I always wanted to hit ten million dollars." Hurray for the little guy! Oh silly Hollywood, you always choose your champions and it's just amazing that this kind of drivel gets green-lighted. And it's such a shame that the only time we get two legends, DeNiro and Nicholson on screen together, it's for a propaganda film that only shows one side of the coin clearly. Which is the only side Hollywood likes to show, and when it shows, it glistens. This movie was a waste of time. It was horrible. I never read the novel and I don't even want to. Sam Speigel produced it and Sam, so I've read, was liken to a tycoon; Kazan directed it and didn't he "rat" on actors who were interested in communism, or who were accused of attending meetings? Maybe there's some guilt going on; two big-wigs "giving a little back to the working class", so to speak. Oh just avoid this hog-wash of a film. And the saddest part is, DeNiro sleepwalks through the role. He's boring, uninteresting, and in my opinion much too young looking for the part. Horrible. Horrible.
Review of The Last Tycoon
