MovieChat Forums > The Godfather (1972) Discussion > Judges and Reporters in the Pocket

Judges and Reporters in the Pocket

posted 3 years ago by ecarle (14979)
7 replies | jump to latest

I've always felt that a nice "throwaway reference" in The Godfather is the assertion, throughout the movie, that Don Vito has "judges and reporters in his pocket." As Hollywood approached a new kind of realism and cynicism in the 1970's , here was a reminder that the articles you read and the judgments made may....have other reasons behind them.

This was hardly new to the movies. In the 1959 mob movie "Al Capone," Martin Balsam plays a crooked reporter who writes things to Al's liking(Al being played by Rod Steiger.) But The Godfather rather made it "the accepted lay of the land."

There is also the issue that the other crime family bosses -- principally Barzini(Richard Conte) envy Don Vito for how MANY judges he owns. The implication is that only Don Vito is respectable enough in his comportment of business to have actually bought himself some officials and reporters.

[–] christomacin (4526) 3 years ago

I haven't seen "The Irishman" yet, but from what I've read it sounds like Scorsese brought this idea to it's ultimate conclusion - that the "official government" is so in bed with organized crime that nowadays there is little distinction between them. La Cosa Nostra was on its last leg during Mussolini's reign, as he had crushed them brooking no other source of power in Italy. With the help of "Lucky" Luciano, Operation Underworld was put in place on the docks in New York City to deter saboteurs from blowing up warships in harbor. Hitchcock's 1942 film Saboteur actually used footage of the damaged-beyond-repair USS Normandie (which was suspected of being the victim of sabotage) in the film. During the planning of the Invasion of Sicily (codename Operation Husky) in 1943, American intelligence services (mostly the Office of Naval Intelligence but also the O.S.S.) worked closely with some of Luciano's contacts inside Sicily. The upshot was that after Mussolini was deposed the Sicilian Mafia came back in a big way... and has had an inextricable influence on our government ever since. After the Invasion of Sicily in World War II, our O.S.S. (later C.I.A.) learned it's lessons well from the Sicilian Mafia and (maybe) uses many of the same techniques as the mob? Certainly, the mob learned from our government a thing or two about "going legitimate" (at least on the surface).

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

I haven't seen "The Irishman" yet, but from what I've read it sounds like Scorsese brought this idea to it's ultimate conclusion - that the "official government" is so in bed with organized crime that nowadays there is little distinction between them.

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I suppose this has always been an issue in American politics. The movie certainly links Jimmy Hoffa's Teamsters union to the Mafia, throughout -- and makes the point that a President or two certainly understood this to be the case. Nixon, certainly(and remember, The Godfather came out during Nixon's first term). And the film makes a point of Hoffa's seeing the JFK assassination as a good thing: he orders the half-mast flag at Teamsters HQ to be RAISED after seeing it down .
(Hoffa's beef was more directly with JFK's mob-hunting brother RFK.)

--- La Cosa Nostra was on its last leg during Mussolini's reign, as he had crushed them brooking no other source of power in Italy. With the help of "Lucky" Luciano, Operation Underworld was put in place on the docks in New York City to deter saboteurs from blowing up warships in harbor.

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Interesting history here. Was not the now-diminished Mafia recruited to help patrol the docks after 9/11 as well?

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

Hitchcock's 1942 film Saboteur actually used footage of the damaged-beyond-repair USS Normandie (which was suspected of being the victim of sabotage) in the film.

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Its an interesting shot -- historical footage of a downed ship within a fictional film(with the rodetoid saboteur Frank Fry admiring his handiwork.) I think Hitchcock took heat from the feds for using this footage and showing the villain gloating.

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During the planning of the Invasion of Sicily (codename Operation Husky) in 1943, American intelligence services (mostly the Office of Naval Intelligence but also the O.S.S.) worked closely with some of Luciano's contacts inside Sicily. The upshot was that after Mussolini was deposed the Sicilian Mafia came back in a big way... and has had an inextricable influence on our government ever since. After the Invasion of Sicily in World War II, our O.S.S. (later C.I.A.) learned it's lessons well from the Sicilian Mafia and (maybe) uses many of the same techniques as the mob? Certainly, the mob learned from our government a thing or two about "going legitimate" (at least on the surface).

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More interesting history! Organized crime was organized, evidently, to give it more of a corporate structure. Recall that when The Godfather came out in 1972, star Marlon Brando opined that the Mafia was simply another corporation, another example of Big Business. This drew some retaliatory OpEds from CEOS in newspapers llike the New York Times that American corporations did not engage in murder and physical harm to obtain their goals and were generally law abiding. I generally agree with the premise of those OpEds (Brando was being over simplistic), but surely there are "dark connections" between criminal people and government people that are kept shadowy. And spy agencies DO use murder and physical harm to obtain their goals.

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

I suppose the point of my original OP was (a) to remind us that judges, politicians and reporters CAN be bought and that (b) The Godfather was a movie that elected to make this point clear as part of an ongoing effort to "wise up" the movies and moviegoers about how "the bad guys sometimes win" in this society. Michael Corleone is not arrested at the end of The Godfather for the murders he has ordered(and commited), in terms of Old Hollywood...crime DOES pay. Except as it affects Michael's soul. Which is a different story.

[–] BourbonKing (5612) 3 years ago

He has all the Judges and Politicians in his pocket and refused to share them (as noted by Bruno Tattaglia and a view shared by Don Barzini).

The reporter part was referenced by Michael after his encounter with McCluskey when he suggested to Tom that they could use "their newspaper men" on the payroll to link up McCluskey to the drug rackets (Sollozzo).

All of these references point to the air of the Mafia having a dominant position over everybody, including the elites who appear to be legitimate while these guys operate in the background.

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

Yep...those are the parts where the subject is raised . Very important to the story and to the power of the Corleones over society.

And this,too: Buonasera in the first scene reports to the Don about how a Judge did NOT deliver true justice to the young punks who beat his daughter. Don Vito indicates "you should have come to me." THAT might have influenced the judge...

[–] Sandman81 (1501) 3 years ago

I never thought of it that way, and that could be true. But I think most people took that as had Bonasere gone to the Don first, then brutal justice would have already been served, and there would be no need for police or courts to screw things up.