Word: gangland
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...those people who believe their lives are a pitched battle for self- preservation. If he romanticizes his gunmen, he also anchors them in vulnerability, stupidity and the blinkered loyalty of men to men. But damn, they're good company. Tarantino knows them inside out, even if most of his gangland wisdom came from a life of movie watching (he worked for five years in a video store). "I've seen what I've seen, and I've met the people I've met," he says flirtatiously. "I've been in weird situations. I'm not a hood...
...trying to keep his wayward pal on a righteous path. What Carlito has instead is his friend and shyster lawyer, Dave Kleinfeld (Sean Penn, in a terrific performance). He is in too far with the Mob, and he needs Carlito's muscular help in a cockamamie plan to avoid gangland's vengeance. It goes awry, naturally, and Carlito's subsequent flight brings out the best in De Palma -- breathless, bravura moviemaking, intricately designed, but playing like a delirious improvisation...
...maximum 20-year sentence, which he will probably serve in a high-security witness-protection cellblock, Gravano agreed to testify in Gotti's trial and others to come. He thus became one of the highest-ranking mafiosi ever to turn state's evidence and perhaps the most important gangland informant since Mob soldier Joseph Valachi turned on his Genovese bosses in 1963. Prosecutors hope Gravano's testimony, along with that of other witnesses, will help get the don out of his trademark double-breasted suits and into a prison uniform for the rest of his days...
...Even though he knew that he was a target of law-enforcement and electronic surveillance, he was unable to avoid ((arrest))." Though the media have often portrayed Gotti as a new-style yuppie don with a penchant for smart suits, he is also a throwback to the gun-crazy gangland bosses of the past at a time when the Mob prefers to keep a lower profile...
...everyone believes the killings are part of an authentic gangland war. "I'm not convinced, simply because too many innocent bystanders are getting hurt," maintains Stanley Meyer, a lawyer for Persico and several other Colombo members. "It seems to be very unprofessional." But Meyer knows just how messy the Colombos can be: he prosecuted Mob cases during the family's so-called Gallo wars, which broke out in 1960 and resulted in 13 murders. In 1972 Joseph Gallo was sloppily killed by fellow Colombos in Umbertos, a crowded clam house in Manhattan's Little Italy. Several months later, his avengers...