But that doesn’t make an Albanian hood who traffics in the flesh trade cool. It doesn’t make the Camorra thugs in Napoli who torture their victims before they kill them any the more quaint. Nor is there anything democratic about Bal Thackeray’s thugs in Bombay burning copies of any book they consider to be anti-Hindu.
But if Hollywood has screwed us up when it comes to the mafia, what has it done to the hoods themselves?
According to the courageous Robert Saviano, the Italian criminals have done their best to live out the images they’ve seen on the screen. There are mafia bosses who have modeled themselves on Don Corleone, female figures in the mafia who dress like Uma Thurman and there’s scarcely an assassin who doesn’t now shoot his gun sideways like in the Tarantino movies. The result apparently, is a mess that always needs more than one shot.
So the next time you think about opening a business and don’t have to consider how much protection money you’ll have to pay, be grateful. Just like when you don’t have to worry about getting a bullet in the back of the head from being seen with the wrong person. Or having your daughter abducted and sent abroad into forced prostitution.
And if you’ve never really thought about it, it’s because it doesn’t make good cinema.
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