The Cotton Club is a dazzling, complex film that attempts so much it would be almost impossible for nearly any director to pull it off. But Francis Ford Coppola is not any director, so The Cotton Club is not just any movie. Rather, it succeeds at practically all levels and is certainly a film worth coming back to again and again.

Set in Harlem in the late 1920s, we are introduced to a group of Jazz Age-products, people who see themselves exactly as they are but all hope to go somewhere better. Two story lines occupy the plot; we get a good-looking young musician Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere) who gets involved in the mob after falling for one of the gangster's girlfriends (Diane Lane) and we get the story of a very talented black dancer (Gregory Hines) trying to prove his love to a half-black and half-white chorus girl who seems to struggle with her place in this more or less racist society. Almost every night, everyone gathers at The Cotton Club, one of the most famous clubs in the city and the blacks entertain while the whites drink and watch. But Coppola gives us a view from all angles so it doesn't feel as if we are missing anything important.

One of the biggest achievements of this film is its staging of the dance sequences, which are to say the least quite exquisite. Filled with colorful costumes and some mind-boggling tap numbers, at times you may forget that this is also a gangster picture. Indeed, some scenes feel just like Coppola's The Godfather with its quick bursts of violence but also in its tone of sad, elegiac setting. People come and go and some regret the things they do, but the music lives on. The acting is also very strong as Gere and Lane are quite wonderful in their first of three films together. Both were very good-looking and they do bring out the best in each other. Two supporting actors that really do steal the show are Bob Hoskins and Fred Gwynne as a mob boss and his head bodyguard. They share a tenacity and ferociousness in their dealings, but also have one really terrific scene involving Gwynne coming to see Hoskins after being kidnapped. A young Nicolas Cage also shows here he had incredible potential.

This Broadway version of the gangster film so familiar in Hollywood refreshes both genres as we see the similarities between the two. Indeed, many of the participators in the entertainment were also involved in the mob and Coppola shows how the two lives intertwine and bring a lot of trouble to everyone. This may seem as a strange mixing of genres and story lines for some people, but it is well worth the two hours. It is funny, sad, violent, poetic but also enormously entertaining and isn't that what the movies are all about? Coppola seems to think so.

It's 1928 Harlem. At Bamville Club, cornet player Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere) saves gangster Dutch Schultz (James Remar)'s live. It becomes widely known and his brother Vincent Dwyer (Nicolas Cage) is excited to join his gang. He falls for Vera Cicero (Diane Lane) but she becomes Dutch's girl. Dutch kills a rival bootlegger in front of mobsters Owney Madden (Bob Hoskins) and Frenchy Demange (Fred Gwynne). Owney who owns The Cotton Club tells Dutch to lay low. Sandman Williams (Gregory Hines) and his brother are new hires at the legendary Cotton Club where performers are black and only whites are allowed in the audience. Sandman falls for star performer Lila Rose Oliver (Lonette McKee).

This is an extravagant costume drama. It's overly indulgent. There are too many stories. The narrative is too scattered. If the movie could just follow only Richard Gere, it would be a much more compelling watch. None of the characters are compelling. It is a good looking movie from director Francis Ford Coppola but it's not a good watch.

Great costumes, fantastic choreography and sumptuous photography is the main reason to give this visual treats repeat viewings. I didn't find a really strong plot, just a series of situations and character studies and a few minor stories jumbled together in a beautiful box that give us an interesting view of a time that in reflection was filled with racism and violence, but has been romanticize greatly over the years thanks to the great music that remains behind. Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane and Lonette McKee headline this period epic that deals with the racism of the era in a truly violent manner and shows how the club, utilizing mostly black entertainers, objectified an entire race for their talents while banning black customers from entering the establishment. Even Hines, as one of the headliners, must enter from the back, that is until he rises to the top, and even then, he is subject to racist treatment.

This is one of those films that will probably be more appreciated over time, showing how Gere and Hines become successful in different areas of the entertainment business, with Gere becoming a film star, and Hines a great dancing star. This is probably the only opportunity to see the Hines brothers (Maurice appears as well) dancing together onscreen, and fellow Broadway star McKee (Julie in two Broadway revivals of "Show Boat") is striking as the light-skinned black woman who finds being beautiful isn't always easy in the entertainment world. She goes from being treated with prejudice from people who know she's black and those who can't tell (the hotel clerk thinking that she's a white girl checking in with Gregory Hines) and the discrimination of that era. Lane is very good as the life loving moll who wants a new life with Gere.

Several famous characters of the 1920's and 30's appear in cameos, the most memorable a number featuring Larry Freeman performing a great Cab Calloway imitation including his signature "Hi De Ho". It is interesting pretty much as a view of the period, and in detail as directed by Francis Ford Coppola, it is as stunning as his earlier cult musical, "One From the Heart". The passion of the musical numbers has been reflected in such big Broadway hits as "Bubbling Brown Sugar", "Eubie!", "Ain't Misbehavin'", "Sophisticated Ladies", "Black and Blue" and "After Midnight", which particularly focused on the style of entertainment performed at the Cotton Club. An earlier version of that Broadway musical had been entitled "Cotton Club Parade", and the recent musical about the struggles to produce the first all black Broadway musical ("Shuffle Along") dealt with the obstacles they faced as well.

The supporting cast includes such terrific players as Gwen Verdon, Fred Gwynne, Bob Hoskins and Allen Garfield, with future stars Nicolas Cage and Laurence Fishburne in supporting parts. An early party sequence features notorious mobster Dutch Schultz as a major character and results in a particularly gruesome murder. The presence of machine gun toting mobsters shooting up the joint (several times!) adds detail to the struggles of blacks simply trying to make a living at the time. It's stunning in it's passion, making me wish I could rank it higher, but due to its lack of a strong plot, found it ambitious but unsuccessful in fulfilling its goals.