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| "The Hit" Inks on Bristol / 2008 |
Today in New York City, the FBI executed its largest one-day bust on organized crime in history. 127 people were arrested in connection with organized crime- that's a pretty large-scale operation. A small business in the United States averages about 25 employees with wages under $50,000 per year. Frank Lewis (
American Gangster) was worth over $50 million.
This is just one reason we're crazy about Gangster cinema in America. Money is glamorous baby and people will go to extremes to secure it (and its sources.) Mafioso in all forms across the world for hundreds of years have protected their communities (often times against local authorities and governments.) Gangsters are in a sense revolutionaries going against the grain and against the rules. They provide simple but effective services. If the local system of law can't do justice to a situation, they step in. This is also also why eventually much of their action got focused on illegal businesses such as gambling and drug trafficking this past century (again, just providing a service where there is a demand.)
Cinema in America and gangster culture have a give and take relationship. This is prevalent in literally every race and culture here in our little melting pot of a country. Movies glamorize the stories of men who get rich quick in a morally questionable capacity... and sometimes they don't make it look too hard (especially if you got the guns.) I find it no coincidence that the sale of certain brand firearms in our country among inner city youth skyrockets as they are represented through various entertainment medias. People learn from watching these movies which set up entire business and power structures, leaving little to the imagination. You can rent a half-dozen movies, take some notes, and essentially know how to run a criminal empire. The more the stories are produced, the more films will get made about them. Wild huh?
So here's my own Top 10 Gangster Films of ALL TIME...
