History Film / BulletsOverBroadway

-->'''Julian:''' It's not the money. I told ya that. We dump Olive, you, me, [[AndYourLittleDogToo even the dog]] [[CementShoes will wind up
at the bottom of the Hudson.]] It won't take that long. He'll kill us here in Boston. We'll be at the bottom of the Charles.

* TheMafia

--->♪ ''Down by the lazy river, come as you please...'' ♫

* EnforcedMethodActing: Near the end.

* RealitySubtext: The running theme of the film is that a ''true'' artist has their own moral code. This is probably a rebuke by Allen to those who decried his affair and marriage to Soon-Yi Previn.

* ThrowItIn: Olive thinks you can do this in a play. She claims it's ad-libbing, but it's completely inappropriate.

* BigEater: Warner Purcell is a compulsive eater.

* MythologyGag: A dying Cheech tells David to have the Sylvia Poston character, played by Diane Wiest, reveal she's miraculously pregnant. That's basically how ''HannahAndHerSisters'' ended, with Wiest's character making that revelation.

With the help of his associate Julian Marx, David gets a play produced even though his last two endeavors were flops. Unfortunately there's a catch: the play is backed by Nick Valenti, the head of a violent [[TheMafia Mafia gang]]. Despite worries that he's selling out, David agrees to direct the play according to Valenti's conditions. The main condition being that Valenti's girlfriend Olive (Creator/JenniferTilly, who earned an AcademyAward nomination for her performance) receive a starring role in the play despite her terrible acting skills. Olive's hostile bodyguard Cheech (Chazz Palminteri) is required to sit in on rehearsals and guarantee that everyone treats her right.

The rest of the cast is David's dream cast. He manages to persuade one-time legendary actress [[GrandeDame Helen Sinclair]] (Dianne Wiest in her second AcademyAward under Woody Allen) to play the lead role, but her overbearing personality and constant demand for script changes proves problematic. David also hires Warner Purcell (Jim Broadbent), an excellent performer with [[BigEater a serious eating addiction]].

With the help of his associate Julian Marx, David gets a play produced even though his last two endeavors were flops. Unfortunately there's a catch: the play is backed by Nick Valenti, the head of a violent [[TheMafia Mafia gang]]. Despite worries that he's selling out, David agrees to direct the play according to Valenti's conditions. The main condition being that Valenti's girlfriend Olive (Creator/JenniferTilly) receive a starring role in the play despite her terrible acting skills. Olive's hostile bodyguard Cheech (Chazz Palminteri) is required to sit in on rehearsals and guarantee that everyone treats her right.

With the help of his associate Julian Marx, David gets a play produced even though his last two endeavors were flops. Unfortunately there's a catch: the play is backed by Nick Valenti, the head of a violent [[TheMafia Mafia gang]]. Despite worries that he's selling out, David agrees to direct the play according to Valenti's conditions. The main condition being that Valenti's girlfriend Olive (JenniferTilly) receive a starring role in the play despite her terrible acting skills. Olive's hostile bodyguard Cheech (Chazz Palminteri) is required to sit in on rehearsals and guarantee that everyone treats her right.

[[TheRoaringTwenties In the 1920s]], idealist playwright David Shayne (JohnCusack) moves to New York City to produce a play. He and his girlfriend Ellen (Mary-Louise Parker) fit in well enough in the show business world and David finds a mentor in Sheldon Flender (Rob Reiner), a bohemian artist who says that artists can get away with things normal people can't [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible because artists live in their own moral universe]].

** The first line of the film is David shouting, "'''I'm an ''ARTIST''!'''" The last line of the film is David admitting, "I'm not an artist."

This 1994 film is one of WoodyAllen's dramedies on the creative process.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible.[[invoked]] Flender firmly believes this ("My plays are written specifically to go unproduced!"). David initially believes this. Cheech thinks it's pure bullshit (and he turns out to be the best writer of them all.)

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible. Flender firmly believes this ("My plays are written specifically to go unproduced!"). David initially believes this. Cheech thinks it's pure bullshit (and he turns out to be the best writer of them all.)