Posted on 12/12/2012 2:35:42 PM PST by Alex Murphy
Godfather movies are still a huge industry, it seems. By Godfather movies, I do not mean films about gangsters as such, but more the sort of films that have been spawned by Francis Ford Coppola’s great movie. We’ve just been treated to an example of the genre on Channel 4, entitled The Fear.
The Fear harked back to The Godfather in several ways. First of all it lifted the plot from The Godfather. Ritchie, our Brighton gangster had two sons, Cal who was rather wild and wanted to go in with the Albanian gangs, and Matty who was altogether more respectable. It was Cal’s indiscretions that opened up a crack in the otherwise solid family façade which the drug-dealing and girl-running Albanians were able to exploit. This is exactly what happens in The Godfather, where Il Turco, the drug-dealer, spots that Sonny Corleone does not agree with his father’s rejection of any deal to do with drug-running. As Don Corleone says to Sunny: “Never tell anyone outside the family what you are thinking.” It is a mistake that costs Sonny his life.
If it pinched the plot device from The Godfather, then The Fear pinched the setting from Brighton Rock. Of course, Brighton is a rather seedy place, and it sure makes a better backdrop that let us say, Basingstoke. Drugs and prostitution are a feature of Brighton life, and Brighton is one of the few places in Britain that owes its existence to the leisure industry. It is the nearest we have to Vegas or Atlantic City.
The Fear was good enough to keep me watching, and the acting and dialogue were both fine, to my mind. (Having catch-up sure helped, as four evening appointments might have been a stretch.) But what is the appeal of this sort of movie? The key to it is of course what Francis Ford Coppola identifies – family and family loyalty. Cal and Matty seemed very fond of their old man, as did their mother, who otherwise didn’t seem very married to him. The crime family with its tightly held code of conduct is perhaps emblematic of the sort of family life that has otherwise disappeared. They were an unholy family in The Fear, but a family nevertheless, and we are all fascinated by families. One of the best things about The Fear was to see how sibling rivalry was contained by the conventions of criminal fraternity. How closely related males get on is interesting. Nowadays a lot of men do not “get on” with their fathers; the fact that we like Godfather movies is some indication, surely, that though we have rejected the traditional family structure (or so we are told) we do not seem to have found anything quite as interesting to replace it.
The Fear lacked one ingredient that Francis Ford Coppola and Graham Greene use in abundance: religion – and not just any old religion, but Catholicism, in particular pre-Vatican Two Catholicism. It is an odd thing to note, but one cannot really think of an Anglican crime family, a Methodist gang, or a bunch of Presbyterian mobsters. Organised crime, in artistic terms at least, is best left to the Catholics, and of course the Jews: Hymen Roth, a relatively minor character in The Godfather saga, makes a huge impact (“He’s been dying of the same heart attack for forty years,” as Michael Corleone remarks.) The same is true of Mo Green, who is supposed to be based on the character of Bugsy Seigel. Roth is supposed to be based on Myer Lansky. Say what you like about these mobsters, they had a certain panache.
Why the nexus between religion and the mob movie? My feeling is that The Godfather cycle is the greatest Catholic movie of all time. The outward show of the faith makes a superb backdrop for some of the climactic scenes – such as when Don Fanucci is murdered while a religious procession is passing through the streets of Little Italy. But religion is not just wallpaper for Francis Ford Coppola. It is at the heart of what the movies are about.
First of all there is the question of death, which, in the world of the Corleone family, is never far away. Traditional Catholicism is very much at home with the idea of death. In the novel, by Mario Puzo, Kay Corleone, originally a nice American and Episcopal girl, becomes a convert and a daily Mass goer, along with her mother-in-law and sister-in-law. The Mass is the only rationalisation we have for the world of sin and death. Because prayer and liturgy deal with death in this way, they become associated with it too: hence Fanucci dies on the sidelines of an act of worship, and Freddie Corleone is shot dead while he innocently recites a Hail Mary, hoping that this will help him catch a fish. The words of that prayer “… at the hour of our death” might have provided an alternative title to the film.
But the title we have explains it all. The greatest scene is when Michael stands as godfather to his nephew, and where the Latin phrases are intercut with the various scenes of the Corleone family settling its accounts with its enemies. Michael will of course go on to have his nephew’s father killed too. As godfather, he is, to put it mildly, a deeply ambiguous figure, holding his friends close and his enemies closer. Godfather is a religious role, and a deeply evil one too – a contradiction that meets in the person of Michael and his father Don Vito Corleone, two people in whom good and evil combine. And, this is the hard bit, that makes the film so great, we love them both. The godfathers of Francis Ford Coppola’s world disturb our stupid assumptions that we would ourselves be on the side of the angels. Oh no we would not.
In The Fear, both Matty and Cal told their old man that they loved him, and the words were backed up by manly hugs. But it never quite convinced me. As for the deep love Michael Corleone had for his family, that chilled my blood.
You seem to have overlooked the Klu Klux Klan. Not too many Catholics or Jews amongst their ranks but they were definitely an organized crime gang.
Peace and Blessings.
Dixie Mafia? Not to mention the black gangs. Most of them aren't Catholic or Jewish. This is playing up Italian (or lesser extent Irish) stereotypes. (Darren McCarty)
Stereotypes are indeed exaggerated truth; but the element of truth is usually imbedded somewhere...and, as I said, exaggerated.
Take the Brooklyn crime family boss, Joseph Profaci (1896-1962). Profaci "has often been described as the most devout Catholic of the Mafia leaders, although there were those in the underworld, among them the Gallos and their followers, who said Profaci embraced religion most fervently after he developed cancer. Profaci attended St. Bernadette's Catholic Church in Brookly and even had a private altar constructed in his basement so that mass could be celebrated at family gatherings by a priest who was a close friend of the Profacis. In 1949 a group of leading Italian Americans, including some priests, petitioned Pope Pius XII to confere a knighthood on Profaci, a 'son of Sicily' who, they said, had become a benefactor to the Italian-American community...These citizens...pointed out that Profaci was a most generous donor to many Catholic charities. Profaci's dream of papal approval was shattered however when the Brooklyn district attorney, Miles McDonald, protested to the Vatican that Profaci was a leading racketeer, extortionist, murderer and Mafia leader." (The Mafia Encyclopedia, Carl Sifakis, pp. 297-298)
There was a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in the Borough of Queens, New York comprised entirely of Irish-American Catholics in the 1980’s, Natural Law.
Thought you might find that an interesting historical fact.
And Irish gangs were more than a mere "stereotype"...for a full century plus...
Besides the NY 19th-century gangs, many of which were Irish-based, by the end of that century, several powerful Irish gangs had combined on the Brooklyn waterfront to form the Irish White Hand Gang.
"Following the pattern of the Irish-American gangsters of the 19th century, the White Handers were a violent lot and could be counted on to kill one of their own if there was a quick profit in so doing." (The Mafia Encyclopedia, p. 382)
From about 1900-1925, the turf gangster war was waged there between Irish and Italians.
"After World War I, the White Handers retained a firm grip on he Brooklyn Bridge-Red Hook sections and collected tribute from barge and wharf owners. Those who declined to pay saw their wharves and vessels looted, burned or wrecked. All longshoremen had to pay a daily commission for the right to work. Some paid willingly because they were Irish and saw their salvation in the vows of the White Handers to keep the docks clear of Italians." (The Mafia Encyclopedia, p. 382)
So what about almost a century later?
"An argument could be made on both sides whether the most kill-crazy mobsters in New York in recent years [book published in 1999] were the btural hit men of the Gambinos under Roy DeMeo, who maintained what can only be called a slaughterhouse flat in Brooklyn, or the Westies, who terrorized Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood and the surrounding West Side...Those aficionados who favored the Westies (many of whom were former choirboys) could cite as an example the fate of one of the gang's own members, Patrick 'Paddy' Dugan."...Dugan murdered one of Westies leader Jimmy Coonan's close buddies and his fate was sealed. Dugan was murdered, and in typical Westies style his body was sliced up into little pieces for disposal. Coonan retained the severed fingers, which he added to a bag full of the fingers of other victims. Coonan showed the bag to others to encourage them to be more cooperative. This hardly meant the Westies were not a sentimental bunch. They decided Dugan still was a reasonably good lad, so they took his severed head to a local ginmill, propped it up on the bar and for several hours Coonan, other Westies and frieds of Dugan sentimentally toasted the deceased's memory. They even lit a cigarette of Dugan's brand and placed it between the dead man's lips. The Westies never comprised more than a couple dozen men, but they were so kill-cracy their foes must have thought they were up against a Roman legion." (The Mafia Encyclopedia, p. 380)
Oh, and in case anyone was wondering where it was located: Far Rockaway, Queens, New York.
It apparently existed in the seventies as well.
Source:
Anyway, she and her siblings used to try to get to sleep in a bit on Sunday by promising to go to Mass at the Italian church later. Her mom used to tell them “Italians aren't real Catholics!”, which she always found hilarious.
The grandfather of the Mafia was the Camorra, who are from the region of Naples. It predates the Sicilian Cosa Nostra by about a hundred years. What also confuses the issue is that some of these groups were at least partially like the secret patriotic revolutionary organizations, such as the Carbonari.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camorra
Sorry, I shouldn’t have said mafia when I meant specifically La Cosa Nostra. Of course I realize there were forerunners in the old country, and frankly I don’t know enough about the institution to say where it started or how it spread. What I do know is that the basis for the family in The Godfather, the group out of which grew the five families, the most significant and powerful organized crime syndicate in US history, began as a Sicilians only club. That’s all I meant to say.
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