In 1935, a New York kid was looking for a hero. He found Dutch Schultz.
Overview
In the year 1935, a teen named Billy Bathgate finds first love while becoming the protégé of fledgling gangster Dutch Schultz.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.5/10
IMDb: 5.9/10
Letterboxd: 2.91/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 36%
TMDB: 5.8/10
Director
Robert Benton
Production
Touchstone Pictures
Cast
Loren Dean, Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman, Bruce Willis, Steve Buscemi, Stanley Tucci, Steven Hill, Billy Jaye, John Costelloe, Timothy Jerome, Mike Starr, Robert F. Colesberry, Stephen Joyce, Frances Conroy, Moira Kelly, Kevin Corrigan, Rob Kramer, Xander Berkeley, Katharine Houghton, Jack Mulcahy
Curator Review
Verdict
A handsomely mounted gangster melodrama with strong period detail, a notable cast, and a few memorable performances, but it’s widely seen as emotionally thin and dramatically underpowered. If you’re here for atmosphere, production design, and star turns, it has value; if you want a gripping crime saga, it tends to feel like a lesser echo of better films.
Best for
fans of 1930s gangster settings
viewers who prioritize production design and costumes
people curious about early-90s prestige crime dramas
Nicole Kidman or Dustin Hoffman completists
Skip if
you want a tightly plotted crime film
you’re looking for high tension or big set pieces
you dislike slow, mannered period dramas
you’ve already seen the major gangster classics it resembles
Overview
Billy Bathgate is the kind of movie that should work on paper: Robert Benton, Tom Stoppard, Nestor Almendros, and a stacked cast in a Depression-era mob story. The result is polished and often attractive, with a lived-in 1930s look and a few scenes that let the actors cut loose, especially Hoffman and Kidman.
Worth noting
But the film never quite finds a pulse. It moves like a summary of a better gangster epic rather than a story with its own dangerous momentum, and the central coming-of-age angle never fully deepens the crime material. The pacing is slack, the emotional stakes stay hazy, and the movie feels more admired than felt.
Bottom line
Still, there’s enough craft here to make it worth a look for viewers who enjoy prestige period crime films, especially if they value texture over propulsion. It’s a respectable near-miss rather than a disaster, but it remains most interesting as a reminder of how hard it is to make gangster mythology feel fresh.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Ken B (2.5★) · 39 likes
De Niro, Hackman, Hoffman, Nicholson and Pacino...a journey
Dustin Hoffman Ranked
Hoffman #21
Billy Bathgate is a decently crafted gangster film. It has the look of a classic era gangster film and indeed Francis Ford Coppola. However, it seems to me that there exists a general lack of tension throughout. It begins and then it ends. I don't remember much about the middle. Not the hidden gem I had hoped it might be.
Jacob Knight (2.5★) · 32 likes
A handsomely made bore with some decent performances and gorgeous production design, but little else. However, there’s a 5-10 minute stretch where Hoffman’s Dutch Schultz basically makes a “just like you” PR tour in the small town where his racketeering trial is supposed to be set that I’d love to see expanded into its own feature; like Mamet’s STATE AND MAIN with period gangsters. Mark Isham’s Morricone impersonation ain’t half bad either. Outside of that: eh, it’s now yet another movie that I have seen and will file away in the dustbin that is my brain.
Rob Hill (3.5★) · 31 likes
Unbelievable cast! Every time you turn around they add in another A-lister or character actor. Bring them together for an interesting story, and it's hard to not have a good time.
I liked this, but I do worry that I'll find out forgettable as time passes. Ever feel like that with a movie? Hope I'm wrong.
100% worth the watch even if it were just for Stanley Tucci as Lucky Luciano alone. Imho about the most interesting (and influential!) character in American organized crime history.
Krommedijk (3.5★) · 22 likes
One of my most favorite authors is E.L. Doctorow (1931 - 2015). Three of his films have been made into films: Ragtime (Miloš Forman, 1981, starring James Cagney, Mary Steenburgen, Elizabeth McGovern, Jeff Daniels and Debbie Allen), The Book of Daniel (as Daniel, Sidney Lumet, 1983 starring Timothy Hutton, Mandy Patinkin, Edward Asner and Lindsay Crouse), and there's Billy Bathgate, the lesser of the three.
Dustin Hoffman plays the complex mobster Dutch Schultz whose power is starting to diminish, something… more
porksweats (3★) · 20 likes
worth it for nicole kidman, stick around for stanley tucci