A really good movie to watch is Miller's Crossing, IMHO, it's on par with Goodfellas and The Godfather. That and Casino is kinda like Goodfellas part 2 Chris From: [email protected] Subject: Re: New movie The Purge (Spoiler for Into A Dark Realm) Date: Sun, 26 May 2013 09:15:18 -0700 To: [email protected]
On May 26, 2013, at 12:14 AM, Nick Andrews <[email protected]> wrote:I have always enjoyed reading about it. Not quite the romanticized Hollywood world many seem to think of it, but I still like the movie Good fellas. Except Goodfella's isn't "Hollywood." It's a biography of the character played by Ray Liota, Henry Hill, who is a real person. Two other exceptional films on the mob are Casino, another biography of a real person, and L.A. Confidential, which is fact based fiction. Books like Murder Machine paint quite a different light on the subject. The results of Prohibition had such a profound effect on the development of this nation in the first half of the twentieth century. Makes me wonder what might have been if those guys had simply reported the income and paid the taxes... But I imagine you're right and eventually the massive corruption in the government officials would have toppled it anyway. Not unlike certain recent events. They couldn't, given while it would have made the iRS happy on one hand, getting their taxes, it would have alerted them on the other hand. Most people don't recall that at that time the IRS had enforcement responsibility over Prohibition, not the F.B.I which was seen as strictly an information gathering agency until 1932 when it got more enforcement authority. The movie Gomorrah was interesting and not quite what I expected. What books about the Mafia did you find to be the most interesting? Start with Godfather. While highly fictionalized, it represents to a large degree the evolution of the culture from the old "Mustache Pete's" Manzaria and Maranzano, to the five families. Bill Bonnano's four books on growing up as the son of a Don are fascinating. The one I mentioned above, Wiseguy by Nick Paleggi (which became Goodfella's because of a title issue which meant they couldn't call it Wiseguy), For a more modern take, check out Organized crime by Howard Abadinsky. Best, R,.E.F.
