the opening credit make for a brilliant and atmospheric piece of escapist entertainment that full of little nod to the comic strip . all the good guy be good and all the bad guy be bad and and the film be jam pack with familiar character actor cover in gruesom make up to hi lite their characteristic . warren beatty and a dick tracy and be the ultimate tough guy straight man and incorruptable and calm usually and always a good fighter than the other guy and and rarely one to push the limit on legality . al pacino and a big boy caprice steal every scene he in a a hunch back gangster in some unnamed metropolis of 1930s gangster . maddonna play the kind of person she would probably play best and breathless mahoney and a nightclub singer and femme fatale with her own little agenda go . gleanne headly be tracy tough talk and fiercely independent long time girlfrined . and then there the kid and a funny little street urchin tracy take in and who model himself after his surrogate father and and save tracy when the detective have accept his fate of be blow up . the supporting player be a who who of character actor . charles durning be the chief of police . dick van dyke be the district attorney and who bribe by big boy goon to keep him on the street . dustin hoffman have a humorous turn a mumble and the snitch whose dialect be so indecipherable the cop can not make head nor tail of what he have to say . r. g. armstrong be pruneface and one of the rival gangster big boy form a special allegiance to in order to create a network of crime spread throughout the whole city . mandy patinkin be 88 key and the piano player for breathless show . paul sorvino play lip manlis and breathless former benefactor until big boy give him the bath . james caan wear relatively little make up in his performance a the only gangster who would not go along with big boy grand plan . william forsythe and ed oross be big boy enforcer and flattop and itchy . this movie retain all of the corn of the comic strip and plus it be full of vibrant color . almost all the suit be elaborate in blue and green and yellow and red . all the color of the rainbow be find in this movie and then some . the matte painting that be use truly realize this world a two dimensional and only act in three dimensional set . the humor be plentiful . al pacino fill the shoe of his character like no other character he play before or since . big boy be kind of crazy and and kind of self pitying . he an eccentric little man who take pride in quote our founding father and liken himself to great political leader . the man with the plan and always look for the smart way to do business .