“I knew dozens of guys whose dads were “heavy fathers”. I knew guys whose dads were kidnapped for ransom, murdered or just ‘disappeared’.
Every ‘father’ I knew was a loser, all a bunch of ignorant assholes who got what they wanted because they we willing to go right to violence. That violence is about all that’s accurate in the movie...the rest is a fairy tale.”
In that regard, would you say that “Goodfellas” is more accurate? I got a lot more sense of what you describe from that movie.
Two more tidbits...
The Tom Hagen character in TGF had a real-life counterpart. His name was Sheridan and he lived two doors away from Gambino in the cul-de-sac (mapquest Club Drive in 11758 I lived on Exeter - Seinfeld on Riviera).
There was a guy named Cardinale a few doors up the cul-de-sac. Just by being there he had to be a made guy. I had an old '58 Buick (this was in '70). I was driving up from Sheridan's house (I knew his kids). Cardinale came running down the driveway waving for me to stop, like I was Mister Softee. I did, because, well, it seemed the prudent move. He said, "Hey, what's this, a 58? Come'ere, I got somethin' to show you...". I followed him to his garage where he had hundreds of brand new tires of all kinds...I found a couple of snows and paid him ten each.
A made guy, living in what is now a $1.5 million house, hustling hot tires to a kid...that's the Mafia I know.