Back in 1991, an
Irish chain of video libraries called
Xtravision ran the following ad on
radio:
“'Bonfire Of The Vanities' is the new film from Brian De Palma, starring Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith. 'Bonfire Of The Vanities' is also the worst film ever made. In fact, we hate this film so much that if anyone is stupid or desperate enough to rent this film, we’ll give it to you for free.”
Reviews don’t come much worse than that. The story of how one of the defining novels of the 80s turned into one of the worst cinematic disasters of the 90s is captured brilliantly in the wonderful book, The Devil’s Candy.
The novel by Tom Wolfe is a searing satire on yuppiedom. Sherman McCoy, an Ivy League stockbroker with a great apartment, sexy mistress and no soul, accidentally runs over a black kid in Harlem. A Farrakhan-esque black leader turns this into a PC cause celebre, leaving Sherman desperately trying to clear his name. It’s kind of like a funny American Psycho, in that it’s a scathing attack on 80s materialistic culture.