Harockerce What a beautiful movie!

ThiefHott Too much of everything

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Madilyn Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

grantss Mildly interesting, but doesn't really make a point in the end and lacks fizz, just kind of meanders along. Despite the all-star cast and Oscar-winning director just seems fairly conventional and uninspired. Even Robert De Niro seems fairly wooden at times. Best acting performance probably comes from the then-unknown Theresa Russell.Is of great historical significance though. Was the last movie Elia Kazan directed. Also the only movie to star Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson.Is also interesting as a behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood, but doesn't really go far enough in its expose.

Robert J. Maxwell I stopped reading Fitzgerald's novel about half way through because it was embarrassingly bad, coming as it did after his masterpiece, "The Great Gatsby," and left unedited. The film isn't much of an advance as far as plot is concerned. It's more of a character sketch than a gripping story. A man only loves two things and loses them both.But what a cast and crew! Elia Kazan directs De Niro, Mitchum, Curtis, Moreau, Nicholson, Theresa Russell, Donald Pleasance, Ray Milland, Jeff Corey, Dana Andrews, Angelica Huston, and other familiar presences in a screenplay by Harold Pinter from a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. What a pedigree.De Niro has never been better, not even as an Italian-American hood. He's thrown himself into the role, altering his appearance so that he's hardly recognizable -- pale, very thin, perceptive, sensitive, taciturn, blunt.As the Thalberg figure at MGM, he loves making movies. He's as demanding with himself as he is with everyone else. He has no genuine social life until he falls in love at first sight with Ingrid Boulting. That's the second thing he loves. And after she has a brief fling with him, she ditches him to marry another man. Boulting, alas, isn't much of an actress. She has a fine figure but the overall impression she generates in the viewer is that of some kind of animated, life-sized kewpie doll. The other recognizable names in the cast don't really have much to do, while Boulting has too much screen time.The final scene, after De Niro is fired, is pretty stylized. He repeats an earlier scene, this time speaking directly to the camera, and the last we see of him is when his figure disappears into the vast, black maw of an empty sound stage. The real Thalberg died of a heart ailment while still in his thirties. Sad.

Waerdnotte How can a film starring Robert De Niro, Robert Mitchum, Tony Curtis, Jean Moreau, Donald Pleasance, Ray Milland, Dana Andrews, and Jack Nicholson. adapted by Harold Pinter from an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, and directed by Elia Kazan not be good? Well watch this and you will see a perfect example of how not to make a film.As hard as the actors work, they could never overcome such an achingly dull and banal script. Add to that Kazan's flat and uninspiring, pedestrian direction and a dreadful score from Maurice Jarre you have possibly one of the worst "quality" movies I have ever watched.I just had to ask the question "why", and I think you can perhaps argue that Kazan hadn't really done much since the early sixties, and the movie business had changed. The New Hollwood of Coppola, Scorcese, Polanski, Spielberg et al was making inroads; Movies like Chinatown, The Godfather, Taxi Driver and Jaws were taking movie making in a new direction. The story, script, direction and soundtrack of The Last Tychoon were old Hollywood.Definitely one to miss. Even though, as I read somewhere, this is a mess of a movie with a classic struggling to get out, it really isn't worth investing the time to find out where that classic has gone.

bkoganbing At one time a film that had Robert Mitchum, Ray Milland, Tony Curtis, and Dana Andrews all in the same cast would have blown some studio's budget. But all of these guys who were leading men in the past are in support of a young Robert DeNiro in F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished, The Last Tycoon.This film was one of the few failures of Robert DeNiro's career. I don't think he was able to get inside his character mainly because I don't think F. Scott Fitzgerald ever really fleshed him out in the first place. In fact as legend has it, Monroe Stahr is based on Fitzgerald's friend, movie executive Irving Thalberg. But I think there's just as much on that other boy genius over at MGM, David O. Selznick. There's no way Irving Thalberg would have ever gotten drunk and try to duke it out with the bargaining agent for the newly formed Writer's Guild. But Selznick was perfectly capable of that. Selznick was also the guy who did marry the boss's daughter, Louis B. Mayer's daughter Irene was his first wife whom he left for Jennifer Jones.This was Elia Kazan's last film and sad that he went out on a career note of middle C. Theresa Russell made a nice debut as the Irene Selznick character here. The real Irene was not quite the naive school girl that we meet in The Last Tycoon. I liked also what Tony Curtis and Jeanne Moreau did as a pair of neurotic married stars.Best in the film however is Jack Nicholson who is the agent from New York organizing the Writer's Guild. Remember Elia Kazan's background as a friendly witness at the House Un-American Activities Committee. Believe it or not, there really were Communist party members trying to organize in the labor movement back in the day. This was Kazan's last attempt at explaining his actions. Anyway Nicholson who only comes in for the last 10 minutes of the film, makes his brief scenes with DeNiro really count.The Last Tycoon did get an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design and the film certainly did look like the Thirties in Hollywood. Maybe if Fitzgerald had ever finished his story, The Last Tycoon might have been better.