HBO's 1998 The Rat Pack

[zengrifter]

In case you never saw HBO's 1998 The Rat Pack, or even if you did, here it is online.
Great movie, catch the opening song with Danny Gan's best Sinatra voice applied to Ray Liotta's marvelous Sinatra --

The Rat Pack

[zengrifter]

American cable channel HBO makes a fair attempt to tell the story of Frank Sinatra and pals. Directed by Rob Cohen(before he started inflicting Vin Diesel films upon the world), 'The Rat Pack' is a stylish film that aims to contrast the gang's public high life with their private traumas.

Of course, in a film such as this casting is key and here 'The Rat Pack' mostly passes the test. Ray Liotta takes the lead role of Sinatra despite not looking or sounding a great deal like him, but he gives a strong enough performance to carry the picture. The real success stories lie in the supporting cast. Joe Mantegna nails Dean Martin's swagger and wry one liners and portrays him as a character casting a jaded eye over the soulless showbiz scene. He may play up to the womanising, partying image but he sleeps alone.

However the real star here is Don Cheadle who superbly plays Sammy Davis Jr. Davis is shown to be a slightly insecure man who knows Sinatra and Martin are often condescending to him but he needs their friendship. The most poignant scenes in the film occur when Sinatra vows to stand by Davis over his controversial marriage to May Britt in the face of hostile bigotry.The script gives short shrift to the rest of the cast. Peter Lawford is well played by Angus MacFayden while Joey Bishop is marginalised into irrelevance. But William Petersen has fun as a sleazy JFK.

'The Rat Pack' is not without it's flaws. It often tries to cram major events into floating newspaper headline montages while the likes of Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe and Mickey Cohen vanish as soon as they appear. The film glosses over Sinatra's mob connections and did we really need Davis' dream sequence where he faces off against the racists? It really jars with the realistic tone elsewhere and takes the viewer out of the picture.

While 'The Rat Pack' doesn't have all the details(those interested might like to check out Shaun Levy's excellent book of the same name), it's solid cast make it a more than entertaining chronicle of an era when a select group of entertainers could have, and do, anything they wanted.

[Brutus]

a few quick thoughts on the film.

* Nixon in 1960 might have been alot less eventful.
* an elderly Sam Giancana would have made a very interesting interview, or book deal, had he lived to tell the story. as it is, he was possibly gunned down by tony spilotro in his kitchen. this brings another issue up. did any of you guys have contact with frank rosenthal before he died? I invited him here to the ZZ. I guess there was no advantage for him to make public statements about sensitive national issues.
* who else wanted to raise their hand when Dean Martin tried to sell back his shares of the Cal-neva to Frank Sinatra?

[zengrifter]

Originally Posted by zengrifter

In case you never saw HBO's 1998 The Rat Pack, or even if you did, here it is online.
Great movie, catch the opening song with Danny Gan's best Sinatra voice applied to Ray Liotta's marvelous Sinatra --

The Rat Pack

WATCH IT FREE ONLINE... just don't tell QFIT. zg