MovieChat Forums > Boss of Bosses (2005) Discussion > This movie disgusts me..

This movie disgusts me..

posted 15 years ago by sethcombs
6 replies | jump to latest

I have a real problem with this movie. See, I love Chazz Palminteri as an actor.. heck he even does a good job in this movie.. great acting, especially in A Bronx Tale and The Usual Suspects.

However, as a true Mafia geek and historian.. this movie is way off the radar. If any of you have watched Gotti, the HBO movie, it depicts the same story in a much more accurate way (although Big Paul was not NEARLY as fat/ugly in real life as that movie, but still.)

This movie paints Castellano as a calculating, cool, level-headed family guy and good businessman that knows all the right moves. This could not be more devoid of the truth.

Carlo Gambino was known for his ridiculously wise and calculated moves, cunning business skills, and ruthless leadership. On his deathbed, he anointed Big Paul as his successor.. his cousin/brother-in-law. In line to take the crown was Aniello (Neil) Dellacroce. He was Gotti's capo. Neil was the overall consensus of the entire family to succeed Carlo as he was much smarter/wiser and was more fair to everyone. The family was outraged that Paul was crowned, and even more so when Paul's leadership exhibited greed.. taxing the "little guys" much more and not giving anything back. Gotti is portrayed as some young gunslinging punk who had no values of the old Mafia ways/customs, dealt drugs, and so forth. But, the opposite was true.. when Gotti was in, the Gambino family flourished and Gotti was very much old school.. except he was very arrogant and flamboyant and loved the cameras.. something old Mafia ways frowned on. Boss of Bosses got one thing right, Neil was the one who kept Gotti in line. Gotti was a bit of a loose cannon and wanted Paul dead quickly, but a lot of people did at that time.. and Neil kept him in check. Then, Neil passed and Gotti assumed Neil's role of capo. There were plenty of times that Gotti and Castellano bumped heads and Gotti was snuffed out of a lot, and Paul knew Gotti was coming, and Gotti knew Paul was coming.. it was only a matter of who would act first. Gotti allied with more disgruntled Gambino guys like Frankie DiCicco and Frankie DiBernardo, Sammy Gravano, and so forth. The fact that Castellano picked Joe "Piney" Armone and Tommy Bilotti as his consigliere/underboss (respectively) further outraged the family and thus Gotti made his move, killing Big Paul in '86.

See, the film depicts losing Paul as a big loss for the Gambinos (and for some reason, society because he was such a just and fine man.. yeah right). He did keep the Gambinos square on a lot of beef with other families, but his business ways were detrimental to EVERYONE. That's why Gotti did not fear repercussion from not having the hit sanctioned by the Commission.

The movie did get the whole "Gloria" and "not wanting his sons involved" thing right, though. And he was the one to lift the Pistone contract.

In a weird sense, I enjoyed the movie because of the acting (sans Gotti's part). They didn't build Gotti up enough as being an important piece of the puzzle - and he was. Gotti is a much better movie.. or more accurate anyway.

[–] porzstar 15 years ago

yeah having seen been films and having read/obtained a lot of background knowledge to the whole Gambino Family....Castellano/Gotti story I have to agree with you, The trouble I also had with BOB's is that the Gotti character was not given the importance to the whole story has he actually had. Also Castellano ws in fact a very greedy man a made a lot of decisions that favoured his own family and not the Gambino Family. Some of the other characters were a little off but on the whole not a bad film, although I gotta rate Gotti the film higher than this.

[–] dochielomn 15 years ago

if you want a real portrayal of what happened with the Gambino's then watch A&E's Biography of The Gambino Crime Family. Both Gotti and Boss of Bosses are tailored to make you sympathize with John Gotti and Paul Castellano. Gotti makes Paul look like an absolute idiot who doesn't understand anything and is just giving away the empire. Boss of Bosses just makes Gotti look like a renegade punk. Both of the movies portray the facts to make it look better for their respective star. The bottom line is that Castellano was a better choice for leader of the Gambino family as he did have the brains and the foresight to realize that you need more legitimate business to keep and white collar crimes ratehr than street level crimes. His problem was that he was very greedy and didn't understand the street level guys and basically disrespected them (especially by not going to Neil's funeral or going to see him on his death bed). Boss of Bosses also didn't really show that Paul was also a ruthless killer as well and part of him getting killed by Gotti is because Gotti was able to use Paul's arrest at the commission meeting as a means to say that Paul might look to testify in order to get out of jail. Now, I am a fan of the movie Gotti over Boss of Bosses but you have to realize that Gotti wasn't teh smartest of leaders either and under his reign is when stuff really hit the fan and the decline of the Gambino's.

[–] highschoolkiller 14 years ago

quote: if you want a real portrayal of what happened with the Gambino's then watch A&E's Biography of The Gambino Crime Family. Both Gotti and Boss of Bosses are tailored to make you sympathize with John Gotti and Paul Castellano. Gotti makes Paul look like an absolute idiot who doesn't understand anything and is just giving away the empire. Boss of Bosses just makes Gotti look like a renegade punk. Both of the movies portray the facts to make it look better for their respective star. The bottom line is that Castellano was a better choice for leader of the Gambino family as he did have the brains and the foresight to realize that you need more legitimate business to keep and white collar crimes ratehr than street level crimes. His problem was that he was very greedy and didn't understand the street level guys and basically disrespected them (especially by not going to Neil's funeral or going to see him on his death bed). Boss of Bosses also didn't really show that Paul was also a ruthless killer as well and part of him getting killed by Gotti is because Gotti was able to use Paul's arrest at the commission meeting as a means to say that Paul might look to testify in order to get out of jail. Now, I am a fan of the movie Gotti over Boss of Bosses but you have to realize that Gotti wasn't teh smartest of leaders either and under his reign is when stuff really hit the fan and the decline of the Gambino's.

I agree. I still need to see a&e the gambino crime family though. i;m looking for it.

You can't swing a dead cat in hollywood without hitting someone with a vampire script

[–] edimeo25 13 years ago

Also the filmmakers made it seem that Donnie brasco had infiltrated the Gambino family. Wrong. It was entirely different family, the Bonannos. That's the screwup that bugged me the most.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] joshua_carpino 9 years ago

you're sick.