Ten years before The Godfather forged a mythic image of the Sicilian Men of Honor society, an Italian film exposed that same secret society’s inner workings, styles and rituals with a bit more clarity than Francis Ford Coppola was able to muster. After all, Coppola was working primarily off the testimony of a low-level snitch, so even though much of his film rings true for Italian-Americans, he hit some false notes.
One thing about The Godfather: you never hear the words “men of honor” even once, although you will find them sprinkled throughout Alberto Lattuada’s little-known masterpiece. The film is available for free streaming on Amazon Prime right now and I strongly suggest you check it out asap. But please don’t look up the wiki info first as it will only spoil the plot. The less you know, the more you will enjoy this film.
I have to wonder if it was based on an actual event. “Anatomy of a Hit” would be a good subtitle. It’s a black comedy and will keep you laughing, but there’s a reality lurking underneath this comedy. The psychological underpinnings of the Sicilian brotherhood of death and how that society operates are actually quite realistically revealed.
And it’s on Blockbuster…I just ordered it. Can’t wait.
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watch godfather part 3. i almost got to tell mr. copola how much i appreciated it but it’s hard to get a comment in, even when he shows up in the valley. i must be the only movie goer who thinks part 3 is a good movie.(for those not into cinema, godfather part 3 is notorious for it’s bad reviews, including nasty inferences and outright charges of nepotism regarding sophias’ performance which i was surprised to be much better than i had been led to believe by trusted movie reviers check out the scene, in blue, when a banker is hanged with a bundle of bricks from black friars bridge in london. banco ambrosiano the vatican bank, connected to child molesting priests. how au currant. it’s actually a distraction from the nazi gold they helped disappear, along with most of the war criminals who were not hired into the usa space program and ended up running most of south america for decades. to complete the circle, note that the bushes may be moving to paraguay where a guy named stoesssner used to be president. what an un-paraguayan name. of course nazis tend to be child molesters, but acting like they haven’t taken over here reminds me how much we are like those in any authoritarian religious cult. victims minimize the wrongs that have been done. stockholm syndrome and all that . it’s hard to admit that we are living under fascism because it hasn’t yet turned into nazi type camps except in african countries. here in the usa, we still have a semblance of a justice system that is not yet entirely corrupted as it is in china or mexico. that was too harsh. ‘entirely’ is too likely to omit the 1% who are willing to go to jail, risk death, give up all physical possessions , even endanger fellow humans like friends and family to tell the truth , in a mexican or chinese court .i apologize if i demeaned any honest mexican or chinese judges. perhaps only 98 % are corrupt, or some other figure.