I have seen the Cotton Club countless times on video and on cable and saw it when it first release about 20 yrs ago. The picture always holds up. The combination of story, music and characters is as solid know as when it originally debuted. Because of the problems with the production, especially the problems that Robert Evans the producer was having, the picture was basically dumped, and disappeared. Everyone attached to it seemed to disown it, which is too bad, since it ranks as good as anything Francis Ford Coppola has ever done -- and he has done a lot of the greatest cinema ever made. Most, if not all of Cotton Club was done on sound stages, but Coppola makes the whole thing believable and he ties several stories together at once: Richard Gere and Diane Lane; and Gregory Hines and Lonette McKee. With the great music, the original stuff by Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington etc., neatly held together with new stuff by John Barry, The Cotton Club is a genuine musical, that, for my money, is more effective than Chicago, that Gere would star in more than 20 years later. If you have the chance, catch The Cotton Club on DVD or on cable. You will not be disappointed, and, if you are like me, you will rank this film as a worthy cousin to Mr. Coppola's masterworks, The Godfather I & II, and The Conversation.
Review of The Cotton Club
