Just finished watching the movie, and I'm like o_O ...
**SPOILERS**
Why did Anselmo kill himself?
What did Pacino do wrong?
What was the convention thing?
What about the 40,000 dollars and the cop?
How were Anselmo and the mafia guy connected?
What happened to Pacino?
Overall, I found this movie as a dissapointment.
I actually saw this in the theater and when it ended somebody actually asked if the projectionist "effed up" and forgot a reel. This was one of the worst movies I ever saw.
shareI actually saw this in the theater and when it ended somebody actually asked if the projectionist "effed up" and forgot a reel. This was one of the worst movies I ever saw.I just wanted to say that I don't know whether the anecdote is true or not, but it is amusing in the context of the film's generally labyrinthine plotting.
I actually really enjoyed this movie...and I'll try to answer your questions:
Why did Anselmo kill himself?
What did Pacino do wrong?
What was the convention thing?
What about the 40,000 dollars and the cop?
How were Anselmo and the mafia guy connected?
What happened to Pacino?
thepoopsmith states:
I actually saw this in the theater and when it ended somebody actually asked if the projectionist "effed up" and forgot a reel. This was one of the worst movies I ever saw.
No way - you must be putting us on. Who the heck would have the gaul to ask a projectionist, who doesn't want to talk to anyone in the first place, if a reel was forgotten? I hope the projectionist hit that person over the head with a movie cannister and knocked him out. Who the heck on this planet would take the time to ask a silly question like that when the movie was most definitely, positively, slammo, close the door, you better believe it, over? Only that nimrod.
One of the worst movies ever?? Not even close. How can this movie be as bad as the following (it isn't!): The Pirate Movie, Speed 2, Rocky V, Caddyshack 2, Weekend at Bernies 2, Nothing but Trouble, and any Croc dundee film.
Thanks for the laughs poopsmith, but you're done. Give it up! NEXT!
City Hall: One of the greatest movies of all time.
Homophone alert: 'gall' not 'gaul', by Toutatis.
And I suspect you have the wrong end of the stick with regards the projectionist thing: the commenter you quote said that "somebody actually asked if the projectionist...forgot a reel", not that "somebody actually asked the projectionist...if they had forgotten a reel".
wow, over a yr later and I finally get around to reading this, well I'm sorry I don't agree with you but at least I didn't resort to flexing my internet muscles or trolling. City Hall may be one of the greatest films for you...but I thought otherwise.
And by the way...thepoopsmith is a character on homestarrunner (dot) com of which I manipulated my name. So you're attempt at ripping me is even more idiotic.
I'd broadly agree with most of that, except I don't think Anselmo was a 'made' man. He was a political boss with connections to the mob boss Paul Zapatti, but I don't think there was the slightest suggestion he was himself a mobster. Also, I don't think Zapatti used the phrase 'song bird', I think he called Anselmo a 'singer'.
shareYeah, and there was a bit of a double meaning - both singing in the sense of making a deal with law enforcement to testify for a lighter (or no) sentence, and in the literal sense, since we saw the character loved to sing Rogers' and Hammerstein songs.
shareI think Anselmo was "connected" rather than "made." A made guy means someone who is a full-fledged and virtually un-touchable member of the mafia. A "connected" guy can be someone who works for the mob but isn't that high up or just someone with some mob friends. I highly doubt the Mayor would be associating with him if he was a made guy.
shareThank you!
I just watched this movie, and although I get the basics -- corrupt judge on the take, politicians with careers on the line, framing innocent people, etc. -- the story is so convoluted that it practically takes a flow chart to understand. I get the feeling that someone deleted a scene that should have stayed in.
The plot made sense, but I agree that it was convoluted. I thought this movie started out great but ended up a mess.
In the credits, four writers are credited, including two pretty big names; Paul Schrader and Nicholas Pileggi. Usually when a lot of writers are credited it means that a script went through many, many rewrites and is usually a mess. I definitely think that was the case here.
The acting in this movie was impeccable, the pacing was perfect, and the dialogs were razorsharp. I didn't mind the complicated plot either, because this was for once a movie that kept me thinking for a good while after I watched it, and I haven't quite figured everything out yet.
The way I see it: Zapatti (the mafia boss) wanted to get his nephew off a potential 10-20 sentence (which was the original indictment). So he asked his political liaison Anselmo to help out. Anselmo in turn asked his friend Pappas (Pacino), to 'talk' to HIS old friend judge Stern (Landau) about reviewing the sentence. So Pappas makes the phone call to Stern, without thinking much about the consequences. If I understand it correctly Stern could not turn down Zapatti's request (via Andselmo/Pappas), because Zapatti once gave him money to finance his campaign to become State judge. He 'owed' him one, so to say.
All these seemingly small favours fire back when the incident with the boy happens, and the unhealthy connections between politicians, jurisdiction and the mob unfold in the process of solving the case.
One point that isn't clear to me yet, is the importance of the whole bank thing and the issue of the subway access. Maybe that was just a twist to illustrate Pappas' and Anselmo's connection.
Just watched this movie and loved it, although I agree that you can't let your attention waver for a second. The Judge wasn't "on the take." He simply did as the mayor asked and reduced the sentence of a mafia leader's nephew.
I felt this was a thoughtful movie of how a truly honest and well-meaning politician can sometimes compromise his principals in a seemingly minor matter to disastrous effect. No one was doing anything really "wrong" in the usual sense of big-city politics. That is, no one was accepting payoffs, or making dirty deals; even the real estate deals discussed with the businessmen vis-a-vis the subway stop were simply legit deals that would benefit even the general public. As the end credits rolled I found myself wondering how the idealistic Cusak character, who represented the Pacino character's youthful idealism, would fare in public office after several deals.
Thoughtful movie that doesn't slow down for the viewer. (And I don't see how any viewer can confuse this, as mentioned in a previous post, for an "action film.")
The Judge wasn't "on the take." He simply did as the mayor asked and reduced the sentence of a mafia leader's nephew.
It's been a little while since I saw this, but the $50,000 wasn't the a "plant" of some sort. (It was planted in a cabin or something? Maybe I'm thinking of a different movie?)
shareYou're thinking of two different chunks of cash. $40K was given to Anselmo by the mobster guy, and that was planted in the dead cop's vacation cabin, to be found so as to make the cop look dirty, to divert attention from the real bad guys.
The judge was talking about a totally different chunk of cash, the $50K that was "all it took to change my life." I'm not totally sure where this money came from, or where it went, and they never really said. Was it also money from the same mob guy, payola for the reduced sentence for his nephew? I think that's what it was.
I loved this movie, by the way. Pacino's speech at the boy's funeral always makes me cry.
I agree that big chunks may have been edited out of this film. I own the DVD, and the trailer has a scene where John Cusack and Bridget Fonda kiss, which NEVER HAPPENS in the movie. They never even get close to it; I can't work out in what part of the movie their characters even like each other that much!
The Plot: The Mayor of NYC struggles as he tries to do things the right way and the political way all at the same time.
The Plot:
1. An innocent child is shot and killed while walking to school.
2. The Deputy Mayor tires to figure out why the criminal who was involved in the shooting(with a policeman) was on probation and not in prison when the shooting occured. The Deputy Mayor did this so that he could better protect his boss, the Mayor. The Deputy did not know where his investigation would lead.
3. The Deputy Mayor eventually figures out that his boss, the Mayor, "fixed" the sentencing of the criminals case, thus keeping the criminal out of prison. The Mayor "fixed" the sentencing by calling his old friend and/or law partner the judge. In order to provide cover for the case fixing, it was arranged for a "fixed" probation report to be doctored up.
4. All the while, the Mayor struggles to do "the right thing" while also doing "the politically right thing."
In response to your questions:
1. Frank Anselmo killed himself to protect the Mafia boss. Anselmo had asked the Mayor to fix the above referenced criminal's case (the Mafia guy's nephew or something or other) and the mob guy was afraid the truth would come out if Anselmo did not kill himself. The Mob guy went to his friend and business associate Anselmo and Anselmo went to his friend and political associate the Mayor. The Mayor went to his old friend and former law partner (I think) the judge to fix the sentencing of the Mob guy's nephew (or some other relative).
2. The Mayor fixed the sentencing in the criminal case as a favor to Anselmo the Brooklyn Democratic Club Leader. He did it because they had a mutually beneficial political relationship.
3. The convention thing was just an example of the Mayor and his Administration doing city business. NYC was trying to host the Democratic National Convention.
4. The mob boss wanted to plant $40,000 on the policeman who was involved in the shoot out with the criminal (the nephew or something of the mob boss) to make it appear as if the policeman was "dirty" and thus to take the spot light off of the criminal who was involved in the shooting and put it on the policeman.
5.Anselmo and the Mafia guy were "friends," who had apparently been doing business with each other for quite a while. It appears that some of their business was legitimate and some was not, such as the fixing of the criminal's sentence thereby letting him stay out of jail and becoming involved in the shoot out where he shot the young boy.
6. We don't know what happened to the Mayor, but he was probably very, very embarassed by the Deputy Mayor's revelations of what really happened. The Mayor wanted to run for Governor and then President of the US and he probably never ran for either job.
"Just finished watching the movie".
Based on the kinds of questions you´re asking, I find this hard to believe.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan