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Actors: Burt Lancaster, Susan Sarandon
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Atlantic City |
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Lou Pasco (Lancaster) is an aging small-time bookie in Atlantic City who fancies he was once a big mobster. He looks after Grace (Kate Reid), a woman who came to town long ago for a Betty Grable lookalike contest and married a real gangster who later died on the boardwalk partly due to Lou's negligence. Meanwhile, Lou's much younger neighbor Sally (Sarandon) wants to become a croupier to realize her dream of moving to Monte Carlo, but her ex shows up with drugs he stole from the Mafia and convinces Lou to sell the stuff. (Ex-hubby ran off with Sally's little sister, who's now pregnant.) The ex gets killed before Lou can give him the money, and the owners of the drugs show up and threaten to kill Sally. Despite the lurid plot outline, this is a lyrical, character-driven story, with the May-December romance between Sally and Lou taking center stage in a tale of moldering desperation and foolish dreams (parts of Atlantic City were being demolished during filming, and director Louis Malle worked that in). The two leads are fantastic, and there are cameos by Robert Goulet as a singer and Wallace Shawn as a waiter. This 1980 picture received five Oscar nominations, including best picture, director, screenplay, actor, and actress.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of Atlantic City |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Comedy, primarily
Yes
Time/era of movie:
- 1960's-1970's
Romance/Love/Hugging
Yes
Kind of romance:
- seduction (yum!)
Crime & Scandal
Yes
Story of
- criminals stealing from other criminals
- criminals killing each other
- criminal becomes sensitive
Kind of comedy
- bungling criminals
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- criminal
Age:
- 60's-90's
Events of movie makes character more...
- tougher
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor?
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- red
Hair style
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn straight
Unclothed?
- chest
How much in movie?
- 80%
Main Adversary
Identity:
- an organization
Profession/status:
- criminal
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 20%
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
City?
Yes
City:
- dirty, grimy (like New York)
Misc setting
- resort/hotel
- bar
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
Movie makes you feel...
- encouraged
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- kissing
- seeing breasts
- sex under blankets
Any profanity?
- Some foul language
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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