The Bonfire of the Vanities (film)

The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1990 American comedydrama film adaptation of the bestselling novel of the same name by Tom Wolfe, originally serialized in Rolling Stone. A critical and commercial flop, the movie was directed by Brian De Palma, and stars Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy, Bruce Willis as Peter Fallow, Melanie Griffith as Maria Ruskin, and Kim Cattrall as Judy McCoy, Shermans wife. The screenplay was written by Michael Cristofer, and the original music score was composed by Dave Grusin. The film was marketed with the tagline An outrageous story of greed, lust and vanity in America.

Meanwhile, indigent alcoholic journalist Peter Fallow Bruce Willis, anxious for a story to make good with his editor, comes upon the hitandrun case as a rallying point for the black community calling upon Jewish district attorney Abe Weiss F. Murray Abraham, who is the Bronx District Attorney seeking reelection. According to Judge Leonard White Morgan Freeman, almost all of DA Weiss prosecutions end up with black and Puerto Rican defendants going to prison and Weiss is seeking a white defendant for purposes of convincing the minoritymajority community that he is worth reelecting.Weiss recognizes the press coverage inherent in prosecuting the callow Sherman, who has been discovered as the hitandrun driver, in order to cultivate the image as an avenger for the minorities and be propelled to the mayorship of New York City. As Sherman is brought to his knees, New York City fragments into different factions who use the case to suit their own cynical purposes. ........

Source: Wikipedia