A place for those who "Trust the Fungus"

Ah yes, Dick Tracy. One of the more influential comic strips from the 30's created by Chester Gould of Felix the Cat fame. In many ways Tracy was more of a superhero than an actual hard boiled detective. He had the iconic outfit, the nifty gadget, and most importantly, Dick Tracy was one of the first comic strips to feature a unique rogues gallery. The most famous bad guys would have to be Flat-top: a hit man with a literal flat top shaped head, Prune-Face: a man with a face that's exactly what his name suggest, not to mention Mumbles: a guy who...well mumbles.

Anyone wanting a complex set of stories with multi-dimensional characters are undoubtedly not going to get it here. But then again, that's most likely not the point. Dick Tracy was in many ways a marketing tool, a character to make money by appeasing to people looking for escapism.

It also provided interest in a different way, the question to ask wasn't wether Tracy would make it out alive, but how he would make it out. It doesn't hurt that most of the strips are very fun to read. Even the moon based strips are enjoyable, albeit in a so bad it's good kind of way.

One of the bigger aspects of Tracy's career would have to be the 1990 Warren Beatty film called Dick Tracy, featuring our favorite banana coat wearing dick, and many of his colorful rogues gallery. It was also knoon for having a lot of celebrity actors like Al Pacino as the big bad Big Boy Caprice, Madonna as Breathless a lounge singer, even Dick van Dyke as a D.A hoping to become mayor. The film is very faithful to the earlier comic strips, which unfortunately means that it's not a very though provoking film, nor is it incredibly suspenseful. But it's very fun despite that, with a serviceable score by Danny Elfman, and some great performances by Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, and Warren Beatty is very good as Dick Tracy.

Other notable foot notes would be the film serials starring Ralph Byrd, featuring almost none of the comic strip characters aside from Tracy himself, and the radio shows which began in 1934 starring Bob Burlen.

And also there this was very stupid 1960s cartoon where Tracy and a bunch of odd, and even racist characters solve crimes. Scratch that, the stereotypes solve the crimes whereas Tracy just sits on his ass throughout most of the episode and then comes at the end to arrest the criminal and then most likely take credit for solving the crime.

I saw the movie, it was a little too... esoteric for me.

Who wouldn't love Dick Tracey in the 50's when he was on the moon with martian men? Or those cartoons when he had stereotype's as his agents? Oh yeah, and when the movie came out it gave us all an excuse as a kid to say the word Dick.

ultimateemail5000 wrote:Oh yeah, and when the movie came out it gave us all an excuse as a kid to say the word Dick.

Hell, I think the cause for the entire name's inception was an excuse to say the word Dick!

The movie definitely is a good looking film, I'll give it that... the sets, the makeup and the practical effects are all amazing. But I think it was as soon as that precocious little kid invades the movie that I completely lost track of the story.

Serum wrote:The movie definitely is a good looking film, I'll give it that... the sets, the makeup and the practical effects are all amazing. But I think it was as soon as that precocious little kid invades the movie that I completely lost track of the story.

Yeah, "The Kid' is without a doubt, the weakest aspect of the movie. It really does seem like he's nothing but an executive mandate. Another problem for some is the story itself,which is very two dimensional and provides little suspense or twists. I myself don't have a problem with it, as I kind of like the simpleness of it all. But it's not for those who prefer complex thought provoking stories.

It really didn't seem that simple, to me. It felt like they were trying to cram in as many references to every single character from comics that had been written almost seventy years prior in an attempt to please everyone, inadvertently creating a complex mishmash of a story that even I couldn't make heads or tails of. And I've watched Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo. Upside down, in reverse while underwater.