Since long before the days of Francis Ford Coppola, law-abiding citizens everywhere have relied on one medium to satisfy their craving for tales of organized crime: the gangster flick. Naturally, then, we felt compelled to seek out the stories of our own gangsters within the genre: we went searching for a great Jewish gangster flick.
What would make such a movie? Besides taking a Jewish gangster as its hero, such a flick would have to embrace Judaism as an integral part of its hero’s life in crime. More than a casual “l’chaim” between shots of bootleg gin, more than a sideways glance at a shul on the way to a hit, we were looking for a movie where religion and racketeering overlap, where Judaism and gangsterism become one.
Would any of our contenders meet the criteria for a truly great Jewish gangster flick? No fire bomb or fat envelope could prevent us from finding out. For our uncorrupted verdict on the cinema of syndicates, read on.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA
KREPLACH: “Once Upon A Time in America” is the classic Jewish gangster epic, despite being directed by Italian Sergio Leone. Spanning half a century in the lifetime of David “Noodles” Aaronson (Robert De Niro), the film begins with an adolescent Noodles pulling scams on the Lower East Side. Noodles and his friends form a gang that slowly gains power, finally challenging the neighborhood’s resident crime lord in an incident which sends Noodles to jail. Not to worry, though: years later, on his return to (Prohibition) society, he finds best friend Max (James Woods) and his boys waiting to provide him with a job in crime–even his childhood crush conveniently reappears the moment he arrives. The gang members rise through the underworld ranks until a fateful night when they reach too far, creating disaster and a second exile for Noodles. The film then comes to a head when Noodles is called back to the city to perform one last unexpected job.
This movie, more than any other, bears the aesthetic marks of Judaism, setting its early scenes on the familiar Lower East Side. We get a healthy dose of that tenement setting we’ve come to expect (think hectic street scenes, bathtubs in the kitchen, thirteen-year-olds losing their virginity on the roof). This is a “Jewish” setting–indeed the area was at one time famous for spawning Jewish gangsters. Yet this Lower East Side is Jewish in the same way as Ellis Island: a stopover on the way to something better. The film ultimately fails to provide a setting that is any more unique to the Jews than the immigrant story itself.
Though unwieldy, “Once Upon A Time” tells a hearty tale. And while the film does not infuse sufficient Judaism into its characters’ actions, its scenic elements neatly encapsulate the imagery of our Jewish historical imagination. One broken thumb up.
SCHOIMIE: “Unwieldy” is putting it mildly. “Once Upon A Time In America,” like its impossible-to-abbreviate title, was two or three movies glued into one with no unifying creative impulse. Covering half a century and engaging multiple storytelling styles, the movie felt longer than its three hours and change because it never created the full vision necessary for epic status. Loose ends abounded, and not in that good postmodern way. Sloppy writing and emotional lapses characterized the whole, despite a heart-stopping opium-den opening and some strange and beautiful visuals. It did, however, feature fog extensively. One broken thumb up .
BUGSY
SCHLOIME: The story of New York-gone-Hollywood gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel is a flashy, showy flick. It featured good outfits, shady clubs with cigars, and the inevitable steam of nostalgia rising from grates. Sent to resolve a turf dispute with a “colleague” in L.A., the witty and womanizing Bugsy (Warren Beatty) becomes captivated by the Hollywood lifestyle, by the movies, and by a woman. He never truly comes home again.
Having finally left his enduring wife, “Esta,” for Virginia Hill (Annette Bening)–a starlet and something of a Hollywood legend in her own right–Bugsy’s whims lead him farther and farther from the business and common sense his partners demand. His final pet project, a gambling casino and hotel in an unknown stretch of desert called Las Vegas, leads him to financial ruin which eventually claims his life.
“Bugsy” is ultimately a genre-uncertain cartoon. The movie capitalizes on a classic gangster-movie trick: the man who looks beyond the money to the dream, which is realized only after he himself is destroyed. But the premise stalls in an incomplete and unsatisfying finale. All the imagery is there–the great man going bravely to his death, renouncing help, for the sake of\xe2\x80\xa6.well, that’s where it breaks down.
Bugsy is an amalgam of stereotypes: the Jew gone Mafia, the Jew gone Hollywood, the dumb schmuck who dreamed too much and nearly brought Meyer Lansky (the brilliant Ben Kingsley) down. Just for that, I give Bugsy concrete shoes to the bottom of the Hoover Dam.
KREPLACH: Yes, stereotypes abound in this movie, which is essentially a slick and shiny fantasy posing as a scrappy, gritty slice of reality. That’s why, although Virginia brings out the human side of Bugsy to some extent, we never really feel for him.
But though Bugsy’s death may generate little sympathy, what does strike a chord is the film’s “epilogue,” where we see what Vegas became after he laid everything on the line for it. The legacy still doesn’t make his death tragic though–it’s hard to be sympathetic for a guy who walks into a dark house alone and waits to die as he watches his own screen test.
Bugsy is not the active Jewish crook we’re searching for: on the contrary, Judaism is part of the conventional destiny–wife, kids, home in Scarsdale–that Bugsy must shed to fulfill his assimilation dreams. Esther, who may be the most underappreciated character in the movie, represents all of these elements for Bugsy. All but abandoned at home, she is the nice Jewish gangster wife who provides Ben with security, kids, and ultimately the kishkes he lacks to file for divorce.
Where Bugsy himself does generate some feeling is in his sole act as an identifying Jew: a gutsy–if harebrained–scheme to kill Mussolini, hatched when he meets an Italian ambassador’s wife who can apparently get him close enough to the dictator to plug him in the gut. Bugsy identifies with the tribe enough to be the sole character remotely concerned about the fate of Jews in Europe, and he demonstrates his concern by doing what he does best: plotting a hit. Though he doesn’t succeed, I give Bugsy a broken thumb up for effort.
MILLER’S CROSSING
KREPLACH: “Miller’s Crossing” was perhaps the most overtly “Jewish” film we saw. The plot follows Gabriel Byrne as Tom Reagan–one of those wonderful characters whose motives are adaptable enough never to be fully penetrable–through the turf wars of Prohibition-era Somewheresville, where city command goes back and forth between Irish and Italian gangs. The film opens with the Italian mobster asking Leo, the local boss, for permission to take out his competition–Bernie Bernbaum, a small-time Jewish bookie who pays protection to Leo. The resulting chaos leads to tests of loyalty, extreme violence, and eventually, a reinstatement of the powers that be. Loyalties are also tested and tweaked in a complex subplot involving Bernie Bernbaum’s sister Verna.
All the tussles in this movie, however, are precipitated by John Turturro’s Bernie Bernbaum, a mewling sycophant whose fear of physical violence disguises unexpected ruthlessness in the face of advantage. Bernie and his smoky-voiced, double-crossing sibling, Verna (lusciously rendered by Marcia Gay Harden) are Jews who know they are not on Jewish turf. They are out for each other, they are deceptive, and above all, they are actually Jews. When Bernie (finally) bites it, the movie’s last scene features a Jewish funeral, complete with kaddish and a kippah for Verna’s Irish fianc\xc3\xa9.
SCHLOIMIE: The script of “Miller’s Crossing” is based on an early noir film, “The Glass Key,” and was written, produced, and directed by the Coen Brothers. It takes an ironic and unpredictable look at the figure of the Jew as the whiner, the businessman who hides his skill, the one who makes trouble while keeping his hands clean. Bernie Bernbaum is the only Jew in these films who lives up to the negative stereotype that, for the most part, Jewish mafiosos dispel. Is this a complete Jewish gangster flick? No: Bernbaum’s “Jewishness” is no more tied to his heritage than Bugsy’s slick assimilation–Bernbaum lives up to “Jewish” personality traits, not heritage, customs, or religion. But he does provide a fascinating foil for the previous films’ efforts to toughen up the Jews.
\tIt hardly need be said that the pacing, timing, and writing on this film are exceptional. It’s gripping, ironic, unpredictable, and memorable. Two broken thumbs up!
THE LAST GANGSTER
KREPLACH: “The Last Gangster” stars the funny-faced Edward G. Robinson (less kind critics have been known to refer to him as “frog-faced”). Robinson, a Jewish actor and veteran of Yiddish theater, was openly anti-Nazi at a time when that was equivalent to wearing a big “commie” banner on one’s forehead. He once pitched himself for a part in an anti-Nazi film on the basis that he “wanted to do that for his people.” Though Robinson is said to have based his gangster persona on notorious Murder Inc. killer Buggsy Goldstein, any overt ethnic identification was a strict no-no under the studio code. Created by men with names like Mayer and Selznick, the code was the work of Jewish moguls desperate to assimilate and to sublimate any hint of explicit Jewish identity, let alone gangsterdom.
SCHLOIME: Having turned up the thrilling information that I’m related to Robinson on my paternal grandmother’s side, and the even more-thrilling fact that he portrayed the wheeling-and- dealing Jewish slave driver Dathan in “The Ten Commandments” we felt more kindly disposed toward the gravelly toad, and settled in to view “The Last Gangster.”
“Gangster” is the story of Joe Krozac, a king of NYC crime with a pronounced Napolean complex. He has just returned from the Old Country with a beautiful new bride who doesn’t know English or anything else about her husband’s life of crime. Joe is on top of the world, but unfortunately, the feds nab him on–of all things–tax evasion, and he is sent off to Alcatraz for ten years just as his first son is born.
His wife, who follows him to San Francisco, is hounded by the papers, from which she finally learns the truth about her husband. His fury and abuse at her questions–and the fact that his affections are solely focused on their son–drive her further away. Horrified by the fact that she’s married to a murdering thief, she nonetheless marches into a newspaper office to stick up for her reputation and that of her baby. There she meets a new husband, who hides her away from all thoughts of her former life, creating an American dream life of boy scout trips and denial.
Until Joe gets out of prison that is. His old gang appears, but only because they want his stored money–and when he won’t cough up, they kidnap his son. As the ex-Mrs. Krozac and her husband frantically search for their boy, Joe and Joe, Jr. are beaten and dumped off together. As they trek across the countryside, the innocent goodwill of his son warms Krozac’s bitter heart, and by the time he gets him home, he is ready to leave his wife and son to their new life and start one of his own. But an older enemy is waiting in a nearby alley, and Joe spends his last gasp to protect those he loves.
Again, this is a story of the immigrant/gangster tie, where morality belongs to the WASPs and the educated, but there is a chance for honor in everyone. Edward G. Robinson never plays anyone Jewish enough to qualify for the Jewish gangster award; nevertheless, we adore him for always taking the part of the uncouth, the swaggering other, and for mirroring his squashed face with his outspoken ideas. He seems to stand for the best and the worst in the Hollywood gangster, and he’s so awful we love him. Also, as pointed out, he’s family.
Two broken thumbs up!
THE GODFATHER PART II
KREPLACH: It all comes down to the Godfather. In “The Godfather Part II,” Michael Corleone, the second-generation Italian-American, son and heir to the Godfather’s throne, is a grown man with children. As his crime world grows, he tests the waters with new collaborators while testing the loyalty of his nearest and dearest. Meanwhile, in extensive flashback, we watch the Corleone family history, following Vito’s boyhood, exile, and rise as a crime lord in New York City. As it becomes clear how inextricable the Corleones’ past is from their present, we begin to understand Michael’s burning desire to keep the dynasty alive.
The yardstick against which most of us measure our gangster flicks, the Godfather films feature everything that most “Jewish” flicks lack: religious content, ethnic identity, interest in heritage and the family name. The film opens on a first communion. Within minutes, we’ve encountered anti-Italian prejudice on the part of the Governor of Nevada, and spliced between scenes of the present is the story of Vito Corleone’s Sicilian past (with ample shots of him eating plates of pasta in old-time NYC). Rather than being a generalized rags-to-riches story, Vito’s history has everything to do with where the Corleones are today; toughness is presented as coming out of their Italian heritage, not contravening it. And the overwhelming desire in the film is that of Michael Corleone to pass that toughness on to his male offspring.
By contrast, Michael’s Jewish “business partner,” Hyman Roth (whose character was closely modeled on Meyer Lansky) has little ethnic or religious sensibility at all. Old, ill, and impotent, he lounges around a sterile house with no discernable family or friends. In fact, dynasty is so unimportant to Roth that he claims he’ll pass his business on to Michael Corleone once he’s gone. Unlike the Italians, Roth has no real sense of a past or a future. In fact, Roth is very nearly the antithesis of Michael’s dynasty-driven gangsterdom: he not only disdains family ties but actively seeks to destroy those of the Corleones. Although ultimately vanquished, Roth manages to orchestrate Fredo’s betrayal (which leads to his death). And Michael’s battle with Roth makes him grow increasingly brutal in his efforts to control his family and secure an heir. The final disgrace occurs when his wife, disgusted and horrified, aborts his unborn son and is cast out of the family.
Meanwhile, the portrayal of Roth, like that of Bernie Bernbaum, borders on the anti-Semitic as a caricature of a stock Jewish personality: the money-grubbing businessman-turned-crotchety-Florida-retiree. Early on, Michael and his associates debate Roth’s greedy qualities, wondering whether a Jew can be “a trustworthy business partner,” (in the end, true to tradition, Michael works with Roth because his father did). And Roth, though lacking offspring to torture and grandchildren to spoil, is the ultimate Florida grandfather: his crotchety temper, frequent napping, and obsession with health (“smaller piece,” he fusses to an aide when presented with his own birthday cake)–all contribute to the persona, though they don’t make it a sympathetic one.
SCHLOIMIE: A point that did not go unnoticed by the great Lansky himself: who, one morning after the film’s release in 1974, awoke his on-screen counterpart Lee Strasberg with a phone call: “You did good,” said Lansky. “Thank you, I tried,” replied Strasberg. “But,” continued Lansky, “couldn’t you have made me a little more sympathetic? After all, I am a grandfather.”
Engrossing and brilliantly constructed, we give “The Godfather II” two broken thumbs up.
CONCLUSION
Search as we did, we found few examples of “religious” gangsters or those with outwardly “Jewish” attributes. The crooks in question were neither particularly pious nor focused on trying to help the tribe. But perhaps there’s a reason that we found so little overtly “Jewish” content in these gangsta flicks. Perhaps Judaism just isn’t overtly tied to these gangsters’ lives in crime.
Late on the night of his son’s first communion, Michael Corleone takes his wife in his arms and apologizes for the mafioso wheeling-and-dealing of the day. She replies that she’s been thinking of a promise he made to her–that within five years, the family would be legit. “That was seven years ago,” she tells him. Get out now, Diane Keaton, says the concerned viewer: Michael Corleone is never going legit.
But not so with Jewish gangstas–in one way or another, they want to leave crime behind. Even Bugsy Siegel wants Vegas to become a place for legitimate business. And Jewish gangsters don’t keep it all in the family–they want their sons to be nice doctors, not nice mobsters. Hyman Roth may be the exception in “The Godfather,” but he proves the rule in the larger world of the Jewish gangster.
\tSo what gives? Does being strong mean exchanging the tallis for the Tommy-gun? These reviewers await a film hero who is tough in his tzitzit, pernicious in his peyos \xe2\x80″ a celluloid scoundrel who’ll at least stop to say kaddish after he dumps your body in the reeds.
