I used to think the Mafia was an organised group based on honour, tradition and hierarchial government. Instead it's just fat, blue collar, incompetent greasy wops. This really opened my eyes.
I used to think the Mafia was an organised group based on honour, tradition and hierarchial government.
>I used to think the Mafia
soprano crew is not a mafia
it's a glorified crew
Not to say they're not the latter, but I think the point in the Sopranos specifically was that the old ways were dying out and that the current day mobsters were glorified LARPers that think they're as cool as the old school
It was always the same shit. It's just nostalgic cope.
I assume this is bait but it's unironically true. The Mafia were nothing more than Italian immigrants who felt they couldn't get enough to get by so they started shaking others down. Anti-Italian discrimination was very much a real thing in the past. It's not that different to Black folks from LA who get pissed off at being poor and on welfare and decide to start slinging weed and shooting motherfrickers, the italians just got much more organized.
"The Godfather" influenced the mob much more than the other way around. Once they started seeing themselves in media as legendary figures, that's how they started acting in real life.
Except that the Italian immigrants were already criminals. Italian police reforms in the turn of the 20th century meant that the networks in Sicily and Calabria just moved theselves across the Atlantic.
Check out the modern iteration. The boomers are trying to keep a low profile and their sons are broadcasting their gangster lives and crimes on social media kek
This is what makes the Irishman hard to watch. They would rather side with the psycho manlet than side with Hoffa. And in the end it only ended up getting a lot of the old timers killed in real life because of constant frick ups.
Mobsters are all fricking morons, anon. I'd be amazed if 1 in 100 had a particularly high IQ. They got rich because they were strong and organized and back in the day the police were also moronic immigrants. Also, Frank Sheeran was a fricking liar who probably at most did some menial task for some mobster. Same with Richard Kuklinski. If someone tells you they're a legendary gangster, they're actually a nobody with daydreams of grandeur.
hpw about sopranos road trip prequel where tony sopranos finally gets laid (you could say he scores some big pussy)
You had a very childish idea of organized crime then. Every major crime family (from their heydays to this very day) has its own hierarchy starting at the very bottom with many bottom tier scammers (check Donnie Brasco for this) all the way to, few, rich cats at the top. Not to mention that “organized crime” doesn’t even narrow it down: there are different crime families and each of them is different in scope, manpower and wealth. To this very day, the Gambinos or the Genovese are considered top-tier criminal syndicates with international connections, whilst a much smaller crime families like the one in Philadelphia is basically a large gambling-loansharking-dope dealing operation that spans between Philly and the Jersey shore.
That said, in the show, the “NJ crew” was constantly mocked by actual NY crime families for being low-level scumbags. NJ couldn’t get into bigger rackets without NY approval or partnership. Which is why the infamous war between NJ and NY during the last season was absolutely ridiculous.
>That said, in the show, the “NJ crew” was constantly mocked by actual NY crime families for being low-level scumbags. NJ couldn’t get into bigger rackets without NY approval or partnership. Which is why the infamous war between NJ and NY during the last season was absolutely ridiculous.
One thing I really liked about the show was the power creep. The scope increasing from most just Tony's crew to the entire Family going against one of the Five Families was great. I mean, they never stood a chance against NY.
VITO SPATAFORE IS AN ASS MUNCHA
>ooooohing intensifies
I think the point is that values in America are declining and the modern mafia reflected that
What’s then benefit of being a low end mobster? You still live in a shitty apartment. You can get killed or beaten up by your bosses are any moment for saying the wrong. Most of your money goes to the capo. You can’t make proper worthwhile use of the money you earn
They make connections and a lot of money compared to blue collar guys, without having to work a regular job. Drive flash cars and wear fashionable clothes. Women are interested in dangerous men. Don't say anything wrong and make a lot of money and thats how they rise the ranks. Then one day they get the big house, the wife and kids and a woman on the side, and other guys do the dirty work for them.
Are you that literal boomer who keeps blogging about the hells angels and unironically defending sons of anarchy?
Jaysus Christ
No. Sons of Anarchy was too woke for me and I don't know much about Hells Angels
Wow we have some real mob guys on Cinemaphile today. Tell us more insider secrets!
Nobody killed Jimmy Hoffa, he just went to Brazil.
Do you have some sort of moronation?
Mafia information been around for years thanks to rats and narcs revealing secrets in order to avoid getting whacked.
it's like cartel: why do people join cartels? Out of desperation and poverty and a wicked desire to be filthy rich.
Most of them get brutally killed in the next decade. Some few rise to the top and do get incredibly rich, only to live a shit life of nerve and stress, and eventually getting old and lonely in some federal prison, unless you die like a legend before that
like the mob.
>What’s then benefit of being a low end mobster?
If you play your cards right you'll get made, or someone will kill your capo and you will move up to running your own crew.
What is even the point of this question?
>What’s then benefit of being a low end mobster?
Minimum wage but with 1/10th of the hours.
you must be loyle to your capo.
for the same reason every other dipshit that ever bought into a pyramid scheme does it
>dying minor family in bumfrick jersey that struggles with internal economic and leadership struggles
>full of rats and informers
>somehow can go toe to toe with one of the most powerful families of the east coast and arrange a ceasefire
That's what really made It so unrealistic for me
In fairness that NY family was spiraling from crisis too. After Carmine died there was all out war for control that never actually got resolved. I think they're loosely based on the Colombo and Lucchese families, which have a lot of history of internal power struggles.
Al Pacino’s great portrayal of low-tier wiseguy in Donnie Brasco is possibly the best and most accurate representation of the average mobsters (past and present) that I can think of.
That was an interesting minor plot twist to see this intimidating respected mob figure was just some poor schlub.
>that scene where he is in the hangout trying to break open a parking meter for spare change
>I used to think the Mafia was an organised group based on honour, tradition and hierarchial government
lol why do you think the mafia is barely a thing anymore
Yes, the mob was originally just goons shaking down immigrants who were too scared to call the cops. They really never strayed too far from this. That's the point of Godfather 2.
>I used to think the Mafia was an organised group based on honour, tradition and hierarchial government
I think it’d be fun so long as you’re running around with your childhood friends, getting away with whatever you want and paying respect to those men higher up with no consequences.
But like Paulie, you eventually get made and you learn you’ve got to “pay up” regularly and there are major, major consequences. The stress grows. Eventually you’re living a life of regret and your self respect is based on violence and some twisted sense of honor.
Monsters were always trashy scum criminals. Maybe the really upper guys had a certain "class" to them like Costello and Luciano but most weren’t like that. Movies like the Godfather made real mobsters just boosted their ego and they pretended that they were gangsters with a righteous code like Vito Corleone. It’s a joke how over glamorized they are in American movies. They’re psychopaths with no redeemable qualities
>Follow UK ex-gangsters on YouTube
>They go to prison in their 20s
>Leave in their late 30s
>One of them is struggling mentally and lives in a hostel
>The other got sent back to prison for dealing weed
Is the gangster lifestyle not worth it?
Actual gangsters don't become gangsters because they think it's badass. You become a gangster because you and other kids from your neighborhood on welfare decide you'd be able to easily get ahead if you robbed this or that person.
No only morons become mobsters.
just living in the uk is bad enough