NationStates Jolt Archive


The Godfather Vs Goodfellas

Klonor
13-04-2005, 16:00
The Godfather is a fictional movie, it has no basis in reality and its creators don't claim that it does. Goodfellas is "inspired by" and "based on" a true story, but was no doubt changed a bit to better fit the Big Screen and to be received more openly by the public when released in theatres. The two movies both portray very different views of the Mafia and view the organization from the viewpoints of different people in the Mafia. Which do you think more accurately represents the real-life institution (if such an institution exists)?

In The Godfather the Mafia is portrayed as high-society crime. The members are more than willing to murder, steal, and break laws as they see fit; but they live lives of leisure in their off time in mansions seated in the middle of broad estates. They dine with senators and judges and have Hollywood celebrities as Godchildren (Okay, they movies only mention one Hollywood Godchild, but I feel that it helps illustrate my point). They are public figures, known and feared not just in 'the hood' but also in Washington and Wall Street. The organization itself is very structered and ordered, different Families have long established methods of communication, interaction, and cooperation that speaks of years of experience. Negotiations are held and Alliances are formed in the same manner as different countries. Here we see the "Organized" part of "Organized crime".

In Goodfellas the Mafia is portrayed more as a bunch of petty thugs who happen to work together in one small part of town. They're rich and successful thugs, but they don't live in multi-million dollar houses and don't hold thousand-person parties where you'd expect to see a Presidential candidate show up. They run their part of town, they've bought off the cops and threatened the district attorney, but they hold no real for-reaching power; if a New York guy went out to Vegas he wouldn't be able to start ordering the Mayor around and have the muscle there to help him out if the Mayor says no. But, even though it's not as smoothly oiled and well-controlled as the Mafia in The Godfather, they seem to be just successful, if not more so, in their criminal activities. If I'm not mistaken one scene has them stealing six million dollars in a single night. In The Godfather the expected yearly return on their investment in the Heroin business is only three million dollars. Here we see the "Crime" part of "Organized crime".

In all likelihood neither movie is dead on. Even if the Mafia bosses in real life do hold the power and live like the Corleone's do there's going to be people lower on the ladder who live and act like Paulie, Jimmy, and Henry. A blending of the two movies, so to speak. Still, one is probably closer. Which do you think?
The Tribes Of Longton
13-04-2005, 16:09
Well the Mafia did control many of the unions in the US for a while - Bobby Kennedy tried to fight them - most notably the 'Teamsters'. That sounds more organised to me. Also, in Goodfellas, the only reason Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro (their characters) don't progress far is that they are not Italian. The Italian Mafia crime lords in it do live in fairly large houses, just not on the scale of the Godfather.
Drunk commies reborn
13-04-2005, 16:10
Goodfellas is closer to the truth. Most people in the mob don't make enough money to live in huge mansions. Most are just getting a middle class income from their crime. The guys who run the families do live in mansions, but high level politicians don't want anything to do with them because it can ruin their career.

BTW, there's no such thing as the mafia. It's just a way to slander honest Italian-American businessmen.
Klonor
13-04-2005, 16:18
Yeah, Liotta and De Niro were both Italian/Irish, but don't forget Joe Pesci's character who was full blooded Italian and got whacked anyway.........okay, he was killed because he'd killed a made man and was a jackass, but that's besides the point.
Armed Bookworms
13-04-2005, 16:24
You do realize that at this point the mafia has defacto control over the city of Chicago.
QuentinTarantino
13-04-2005, 16:26
I think Goodfellas is closer to the truth.
There was a tv documentry a while back that followed a small British Manchester Mafia family who ran Protection rackets, extortion schemes and in the ol' days armed robberys. They wern't exactly raking it in and the police arrested him numerous times for mild infractions like an untaxed car.

Off-topic but anyone seen Walking Tall? Apperently thats based on a true story.
Klonor
13-04-2005, 16:29
Continuing Off Topic: Walking Tall is based on Sheriff Buford Pusser, they changed the name to Chris Vaughn because, though they tried to stay as close to his story as they could, they did have to change it to make it into a movie and they didn't want to tarnish his real-life activities. Supposedly everything that The Rock did in the movie, being beaten up in the Casino, left for dead, going back with the two-by-four, all happened in real life (Though not exactly as in the movie).

On Topic: I did not know that the Mafia has de-facto control over Chicago, and I still don't. ;)
Klonor
13-04-2005, 17:26
Come on guys, these are two great movies, let's get some dialogue going
Carnivorous Lickers
13-04-2005, 17:54
I think the Godfather One and Two are excellent movies and Goodfellas was too. All were entertaining and very well made-they are full of some of the things the average guy finds appealing about gangsters.
Its hard to say which of them was the most accurate portrayal of the lifestyle. One is a work of pure fiction from Puzo's imagination-likely has some elements based in actual events. The other is based on real life accounts of Henry Hill, who is pretty much an actual scum bag.
Who knows unless they are in the lifestyle? I'm betting its a combo of these, with some "Sopranos" added for good measure.
Carnivorous Lickers
13-04-2005, 17:55
BTW, there's no such thing as the mafia. It's just a way to slander honest Italian-American businessmen.

Thats why we all have to join the Knights of Columbus too..
Soviet Narco State
13-04-2005, 17:57
Yeah, Liotta and De Niro were both Italian/Irish, but don't forget Joe Pesci's character who was full blooded Italian and got whacked anyway.........okay, he was killed because he'd killed a made man and was a jackass, but that's besides the point.
The one thing I always wondered was you would think the mob would die out since you need full blooded Italians for made men right? It is not like there are boatloads of new Italian immigrants coming in these days and sooner or later most of Italians will marry non italians and you would think they would not have enough canditates to become mobsters.

Also, I thought Casino was a superior movie to Goodfellas.
Strawb3rry Fields
13-04-2005, 17:57
ive never seen either
Drunk commies reborn
13-04-2005, 18:04
ive never seen either
:confused: What? How? What? :confused:


Go to your local video store immediately. These are films not to be missed.
Dobbs Town
13-04-2005, 18:06
The Godfather is a fictional movie, it has no basis in reality and its creators don't claim that it does. Godzilla is also a fictional movie.

Simply put, could Don Corleone muster enough firepower and resources to stop a 50-storey fire-breathing monster from laying waste to downtown Tokyo? Would he care?
Soviet Narco State
13-04-2005, 18:08
The Godfather is a fictional movie, it has no basis in reality and its creators don't claim that it does. Godzilla is also a fictional movie.

Simply put, could Don Corleone muster enough firepower and resources to stop a 50-storey fire-breathing monster from laying waste to downtown Tokyo? Would he care?
Don Corleone? No, but Joe Pesci would probably take out Godzilla's kneecaps with an aluminum baseball bat, than stomp on his ugly lizard head.
Klonor
13-04-2005, 18:08
No, the Corleone family couldn't gather enough firepower, and they wouldn't care either.

Your point?