Reception
The film itself was a critical and commercial flop when it was released. The film cost an estimated US$47 million to make, but initially grossed just over US$15 million at the US box office, making it a huge box office bomb.
Critical reception was largely negative. The film scores a 23% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on thirty reviews. In Leonard Maltin's annual Movie Guide publication, the film was given a "BOMB" rating, and described as an "appallingly heavy-handed 'comedy'".
Many critics complained about the casting, especially the casting of Hanks and Willis as McCoy and Fallow. Others complained that despite opening with a well-executed tracking shot, the first two acts of the film were horribly paced and that too much time was spent making Sherman McCoy a likeable character rather than advancing the plot of the story.
Of the way Tom Wolfe's story was adapted, Brian De Palma said, "The initial concept of it was incorrect. If you're going to do The Bonfire of the Vanities, you would have to make it a lot darker and more cynical, but because it was such an expensive movie we tried to humanize the Sherman McCoy character – a very unlikeable character, much like the character in The Magnificent Ambersons. We could have done that if we'd been making a low-budget movie, but this was a studio movie with Tom Hanks in it. We made a couple of choices that in retrospect were wrong. I think John Lithgow would have been a better choice for Sherman McCoy, because he would have got the blue-blood arrogance of the character."
De Palma has, however, been quick to downplay the notion that the movie suffered because of studio interference: "The initial producers, once we had cast Tom Hanks, moved on and went over to Columbia Pictures, so I was sort of left to my own devices and pursued ways in which I thought I could make this movie more commercial and keep some edge of the book...I thought we were going to get away with it, but we didn't. I knew that the people who read the book were going to be extremely unhappy, and I said, 'Well, this is a movie; it isn't the book.' And I think if you look at the movie now, and you don't know anything about the book, and you get it out of the time that it was released, I think you can see it in a whole different way."
Overall, the film was nominated for 5 Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Actress (Melanie Griffith), Worst Supporting Actress (Kim Cattrall) and Worst Screenplay, but did not win any of those categories.
However, the film achieved cult status in Europe, especially in Eastern Europe, where it is considered one of De Palma's major works. For example, in the countries of former Yugoslavia it has been aired on various TV stations dozens of times and is still regularly aired each year.
Read more about this topic: The Bonfire Of The Vanities (film)
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