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| The Cotton Club | 
 enlarge | Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Actors: Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane, Lonette Mckee, Bob Hoskins
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $11.98
You Save: $3.00 (20%)
Buy New/Used from $11.38
Avg. Customer Rating:  (40 reviews)
Sales Rank: 8109
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 129 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: 1002205
ISBN: 0792850254
UPC: 027616864369
EAN: 9780792850250
ASIN: B00005IA7Y
Release Date: July 10, 2001
Theatrical Release Date: December 14, 1984
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Oscar-winners* Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo rejoin forces to create a mesmerizing (L.A. Weekly) homage to 1930s gangster films and musicals. Nominated** for three Oscars The Cotton Club is a genuine vision (Newsweek) of the golden age of jazz you won t soon forget!1928 New York. Spirits are high and sultry jazz lively dancing and ruthless gangsters rule supreme. In the center of it all is Harlem s Cotton Club. Playing on stage is cornet player Dixie Dwyer (Gere) who dreams of the big time but he s too mixed up with the club s owner (Hoskins) -- and his sexy moll (Lane) -- to get anywhere fast. Add the frustration of tap sensation Sandman Williams (Hines) who can t touch his girl the lovely lounge singer Lea Rose Oliver (Lonette McKee) and you ve got a short fuse ready to go. As tensions rise so do tempers and the legendary nightclub becomes a pressure cooker of jilted loves and mob jobs that blows the lid off one of the most shocking showdowns ever staged.System Requirements: Running Time 129 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre:DRAMA Rating:R UPC:027616864369 Manufacturer No:1002205
Amazon.com
The Cotton Club is routinely eclipsed by the controversies that surrounded its tumultuous production, but the film itself offers abundant pleasures that should not be overlooked. If Apocalypse Now represents the triumph of director Francis Coppola's perilous ambition, then The Cotton Club represents the ungainly glory of uncontrolled genius, as brilliant as it is out of its depth. As an upscale homage to classic gangster films it's frequently astonishing, cramming a thick novel's worth of plot and characters into 129 minutes, gloriously serviced by impeccable production design, elegant cinematography, and stylistic flourishes that show Coppola at the top of his game. What The Cotton Club lacks is cohesion. As written by Coppola and novelist William Kennedy (then enjoying the peak of his critical acclaim), the movie struggles to exceed the narrative scope of The Godfather, but its multiple early-'30s plot lines fail to form any strong connective tissue. It's three (or four) movies in one, with cornet player Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere, playing his own jazzy solos) drifting from one story to the next--loving a young, ambitious vamp (Diane Lane, with whom Gere shares precious little chemistry), enjoying the success of a hotshot hoofer (Gregory Hines), and protecting his brazen bother (Coppola's then-newcomer nephew, Nicolas Cage) from the deadly temper of mob boss Dutch Schultz (James Remar). Bob Hoskins and Fred Gwynne also score big in grand supporting roles, but The Cotton Club is perhaps best appreciated for its meticulous re-creation of Harlem's Cotton Club heyday, and the brilliant music (Ellington, Calloway, etc.) that brought rhythm to gangland's rat-a-tat-tat. --Jeff Shannon
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| Customer Reviews: Read 35 more reviews...
 The First Gere-Lane Movie October 28, 2008
This movie made me feel like I was actually sitting in the Cotton Club. I developed an appreciation of the music from this era that has never gone away.
Part of the reason to watch this movie is the late, great Gregory Hines and his also-talented brother Maurice. Not many movies can legitimately incorporate tap-dancing into the plot. I am glad that Coppola took advantage of the opportunity to do so.
You also have to love Fred Gwynne. It was rather a shame that he was so type-cast via the Munsters. He had aspirations of being a more serious actor. He had a brief role as Michael Douglas' boss in Fatal Attraction.
Jennifer Grey played Nicholas Cage's wife in this film.
Ownie Madden had a hand in boxing back in the Cinderella Man days.
Dixie Dwyer was based on the actor George Raft, who had a role in Some Like it Hot.
This movie did not go over terribly well at the box office. It is not exactly uplifting to witness racism and mob violence. However, if you are a history buff, it follows true organized crime events pretty closely.
I was in it more for the music and the tap-dancing, which were outstanding. Richard Gere in his prime didn't hurt either.
 A good jazz film October 24, 2008
The Cotton Club has a fine Duke Ellington atmosphere and the casting is excellent. The only drawback is that Richard Gere is a much better actor than a cornet player. There are still cornetists or trumpetists in USA capable to play the traditional tunes required for this film reaching the top quality.
Ruined By Producer And Star June 25, 2008
The Cotton Club was supposed to be a stage-door romance starring Gregory Hines. Robert Evans & Richard Gere ruined the movie by turning it into a cliche ridden mob story. I give this 3 stars for the look of the film, the music & the black performance pieces. A sad waste.
 23 Years later I can give it one more star OR "What not to do in Film Making 101" October 9, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
What is THE COTTON CLUB about?....well,since the first time I saw it in 1984 I have seen countless films on crime lords of the 1920's,PBS Specials on Prohibition,read numerous books on the subjects of Broadway Theatre and Vaudeville as well as The Great Depression; SO...THE COTTON CLUB is about ALL of that!!!!!One fact for sure; The Harlem New York "Cotton Club" DID exist as the premiere place for stars to appear and for stars to be made.
A class could be taught called "What not to do in film making" and this film could be a whole semester topic (and No term paper would be thoroughly correct!)
This film NEVER settles in to any one of these mammoth subjects that alone contains enough material for a 12-Part mini-series by Ken Burns.Instead, the Robert Evans produced (see his autobiographical documentary THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE) Francis Coppola written and directed "debacle" still is one of the most singularly made hatchet-jobs that Hollywood ever released.It is hard to divorce all of the controversy that surrounded the production of this film,because the "turf war" that this film was embroiled definitely translated to the screen....and NOT in a good way either.The fact that this film was so over budget and behind schedule shows in the incomprehensible narrative that exists in THE COTTON CLUB.Instead, we have lots of quick edits and plots and subplots and characters in an out with not a single follow-through.This film is a study in frustration.It is 129 minutes of crammed material shoved into and edited into "a film" that needed to "get released" or investors would lose money.
I chuckled when I consulted IMDB.COM ; no one has been brave (or stupid) enough to put a plot synopsis.Who really can? One would have to write a book that no one would comprehend; and it would be longer than a James Michener novel.
If you want to see "Godfatheresque" crime shootings,it is in THE COTTON CLUB;if you want to see great dancing and singing,it is in THE COTTON CLUB (albeit so edited and interrupted that there is not ONE SINGLE MUSICAL PERFORMANCE remaining whole and in tact);if you want great acting?....well, the scenes are so short and abrupt that one cannot really critique the actors.Diane Lane was nominated for a "Razzie" as worst actress,which to me seems a little harsh in light of my recent viewing, but that gives you an idea of the numerous problems in this film.
I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND this film to anyone who has not seen it. WHY??? The curiosity value,alone,is worth the price of admission (or rental or cheap purchase); this film does merit that and more,but overall it is a horrible,discombobulated mess.
There is one great line from Diane Lane's character Vera Cicero: "You have the style of a bowl of turnips!" Turnips are bland in color, which THE COTTON CLUB is not; that they stink to High Heaven, THE COTTON CLUB does!
Great talent somewhat wasted by a messy plot--can anybody help me write this review? June 4, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The Cotton Club just plain tries too hard. It's a movie about gangsters; it's a movie about a love affair between two black people who work as dancers at The Cotton Club; it's a movie about one newcomer gangster who falls in love with a gangster's girlfriend; it's a movie about...oh, well, you get the idea.
The music is wonderful; and I admired the superb talent of Gregory Hines when he dances in this movie. Not only does Richard Gere actually play his own cornet solos; he also acts very convincingly as Dixie Dwyer, a young man who just by chance saves a gangster's life and gets the reward of being inducted into the mob. And what a mob--Fred Gwynne as a mobster, Diane Lane as the girlfriend of gangster "Dutchman" Dutch Schultz (James Remar) and Nicolas Cage as Gere's younger brother who gets swept up by the mob and who ultimately pays a hefty price for it.
The plot twists and turns as Dixie (Richard Gere) and his mobster friends try to manage the Harlem numbers business--and Dixie even winds up spending some time in Hollywood acting in a movie within a movie after he is noticed by Gloria Swanson at The Cotton Club. The mobsters fight over territory in Harlem; and there's a fair amount of violence in this film. If graphic violence makes you uncomfortable, I would suggest a different movie for tonight. It's also interesting to follow the relationship between Dixie and "Dutchman's" girlfriend played by Diane Lane.
At the same time that the mob world spins around, there is a subplot between the two black dancers who work at The Cotton Club. Gregory Hines and Lonnette McKee have good chemistry between them. Unfortunately the two plots never really intertwine; and I think it would have been a better movie if the production team let go of some of the complications and twists in the plot, let go of a couple of characters to focus more on the remaining principle characters and then tied the two plots together. That's a serious disappointment; and with the corny ending (I won't specify what you'll get) it just plain lets me down.
The cinematography reflects good judgment; and the choreography is excellent. I loved the lighting and the dancing scenes in The Cotton Club; and the set design reflects a lot of care, too. It's too bad that the quality of the set design and choreography don't carry over into the movie's plot. Sigh.
If you like entertainment that allows you to just relax and be taken wherever a movie takes you with its plot, then you very well may enjoy this film. The superlative dance numbers enhance the quality of this film, too. Don't be surprised, however, if midway through the film you realize there's just too much action going on. I agree with the majority of the other reviewers when they write that there are too many "principle characters."
I would recommend The Cotton Club for diehard fans of mobster movies as this is not one of the better gangster films that would attract larger audiences. In addition, people who enjoy excellent dance numbers will also enjoy this movie. It's not The Godfather nor is it West Side Story; and that's a crying shame.
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