Bugsy (1991)

Big dreams can build empires, but they can also destroy the dreamer. Barry Levinson's "Bugsy," written by James Toback, tells the remarkable true story of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (Warren Beatty), the charming, hot-tempered gangster who hated his nickname. A cold-blooded killer with dreams of Hollywood stardom, he even schemed to assassinate Mussolini, and he envisioned turning a dusty Nevada crossroads into a glittering gambling paradise. In the 1940s, the Mob sends Siegel from New York to Los Angeles to oversee its West Coast interests, and though he leaves his wife and daughters behind, he throws himself into the Hollywood high life, buying a mansion, charming movie stars and even shooting his own screen test. On a movie set, he falls hard for Virginia Hill (Annette Bening), a fiery, ambitious starlet who's every bit his equal, and their passionate, stormy romance, which also brought Beatty and Bening together offscreen, gives the film its heat. Driving through the desert one day, Siegel has a vision of a lavish casino resort, the Flamingo, and persuades his partners to invest. But as the costs balloon far beyond the original budget and the grand opening turns into a fiasco, his bosses begin to suspect that money is disappearing, and that Virginia is involved, putting him on a collision course with the men who made him. Meanwhile, Siegel must deal with an old friend, played by Elliott Gould, who has become a liability to the Mob. The superb supporting cast includes Harvey Keitel as the hotheaded Mickey Cohen, Ben Kingsley as Siegel's loyal, shrewd partner, Meyer Lansky, and Joe Mantegna as actor George Raft. Siegel didn't live to see it, but his dream helped turn Las Vegas into a gambling mecca. It earned 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and won for art direction and costume design.