In Defense of Dick Tracy

I was watching Dick Tracy the other night, and I came to a realization:  Dick Tracy vs. Big Boy Caprice (Al Pacino’s character) is not the primary story in the movie.  In fact, Dick Tracy is not the movie’s true protagonist; Breathless Mahoney (Madonna’s character) fills that role.  The movie is about how she manages to take advantage of the misogyny of both the cops and mobsters and succeeds at her plans until men on both sides destroy her for expressing her sexuality instead of being a sex object.

Let me break it down [WARNING: 22-year-old spoilers ahead].  Breathless, herself, points out that everyone, Big Boy, Tracy, Tess Trueheart (Glenne Headly), sees her as just a cheap floozy.  She in turn uses that perception of her to her advantage, as it allows her to be everywhere without anyone taking issue with her presence.  She is present at Lips Manlis’ murder at the hands of Big Boy, because Big Boy wanted her for arm candy.  Because Big Boy sees her as a status symbol and not a person, let alone a threat, she’s present at all of his business dealings, including the one in which it is revealed that District Attorney Fletcher (Dick Van Dyke’s character) is on Big Boy’s payroll.  She twists Tracy around her finger repeatedly, highlighting that he’s only involved with her for his own ends, in order to get him to follow her and see exactly what she wants him or those around him to see (the mob boss meeting; Tess walking in on her kissing Tracy; etc.).  Yes, Big Boy slaps her around for sticking her nose into his business (a further sign of his more obvious misogyny), but only when she asks questions, which she rarely needs to do, as she remains in the background and observes the machinations around her.

From this position, she is able to accomplish everything that Tracy and Big Boy are not.  When none of Big Boy’s mob can eliminate Tracy after weeks of attempts, she manages to do it in two days, using information gathered while being present in the background (Tess’ rift with Tracy; Fletcher’s corruption).  She then, in turn, incriminates Big Boy when Tracy can’t get any charges to stick by framing him for kidnapping, because she knew exactly where Big Boy’s attentions were and/or were not focused and took advantage of that knowledge.  The thing is, she also did it all by highlighting the perception of her, through her choice of persona.  By removing her face, she’s both pointing out that she is considered a non-entity, and erasing the one aspect of herself which gets her noticed: her looks.  In fact, during the climax, she even points out to Tracy that he considers her a non-entity in the conflict when she tells him exactly where Big Boy escaped with Tess, and he heads in the opposite direction.  It takes her outright asking “What, you don’t trust me?” for Tracy to listen to her.

The only reason her plan fails is that she expresses her sexuality, in her desire for Tracy.  Keep in mind, her sexuality is separate from her sex-kitten persona: one is what she uses to survive; the other is her actual desire (although one could question whether she desires Tracy because he is, in fact, desirable, or if he merely presents an opportunity to escape the situation in which she lives).  When she finally has everyone at her mercy, and attempts to express her desires fully, that is when males from both sides (the Kid/Dick Tracy Jr. (Charlie Korsmo’s character) and Big Boy) inadvertently co-operate to destroy her.  Big Boy’s destruction follows, as right up until the end he dismisses Breathless (in her Blank disguise), which allows Tracy to get the drop on him.

In the end, while the movie is certainly Warren Beatty’s love letter to himself (he is portrayed as the only competent cop on the force; Tess leaves him because he is too busy single-handedly saving the city from the mob; all of the marketing featured his face prominently; I could go on and on), the writers managed to slip one by him and make the movie a secretly feminist one.  The story isn’t Dick Tracy vs. the mob, or gangland violence, but instead the tragedy of a woman trying to escape patriarchy and misogyny and being destroyed by that same patriarchy because she was too independent to let live.