One of the oldest and most popular genres in the entertainment world is the gangster yarn. It started strong with films like Little Caesar back in 1931 that featured Edward G. Robinson and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and has hit high-water marks with films by Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino and many others. It has also been brought to the forefront of popular culture by TV shows like The Sopranos.
Into this world of titans, steps Barry Levinson with The Alto Knights and frankly it’s all a bit of a mess. Some of the calamities come from concepts that don’t connect and storytelling that lacks that visceral edge. Concept-wise having Robert De Niro play the two main leads with only bad make-up to distinguish between the two doesn’t work at all. It also causes a bit of confusion as to who is whom.
Storytelling-wise, even though it is based on a true story and real people, it waters down the gangster life to be one filled with domestic bliss (and boredom) and detunes their barbaric behaviour to a glimmer of the true savagery they were capable of. It also portrays a number of them as bumbling fools, they were most certainly not. Pacing is also a problem as the films build to a climax that just never happens.
It takes a convergence of many mistakes to make a gangster film as uninteresting as The Alto Knights. There are however a few moments to saviour. If you are a fan of nineteen-fifties Detroit Iron there are some absolutely classic examples of that automotive art on display and there is a scene of gastronomic excess that will make you so hungry for Italian food, that you should see an early screening so the restaurants will be open on your way home.
Rob Hudson
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