Vendetta (1999)

Wonderful Movie

Simply A Masterpiece

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

As a descendant of Charles Matranga, and a former New Orleanian who has done extensive research into this historical era, I can absolutely assure that this movie, like many "Hollywood" movies, is so factually incorrect it is laughable, and somewhat offensive. My great grandfather, known also as "Millionaire Charlie" Matranga, one of the original founders of the New Orleans Sicilian Mafia (the first "family" in the USA, before New York) was most definitely not an "innocent fruit vendor turned scapegoat" as portrayed in this debacle. In fact, he was the original true Godfather very much like the fictional Don Vito Corleone, before the time of the Godfather films. Clearly, the filmmakers chose to ignore the several in-depth investigations easily accessible in libraries, although not widely known by the American public. Truth is, The New Orleans Mafia has been operating for well over a hundred years in relative obscurity, while the New York and Chicago Mafiosi have received a lot of attention. I think the fact of this lack of attention to the New Orleans mafia was probably not lost on the filmmakers, who may have purposely used it to their advantage thinking that most people wouldn't know the historical reality otherwise. While there were indeed many innocent Italians who suffered extreme prejudice and violence, the major players in the assassination of police chief Hennessey, and some of which were victims of the consequent lynching, were most definitely Sicilian-born and descended Mafiosi or associates. Hennessey himself was a corrupt cop, from a family of corrupt cops, who willingly chose the "wrong side" to align himself with in the battle over the New Orleans docks and territory between the Matranga and Provenzano families. I have never seen a film which has so blatantly distorted historical events as "Vendetta". Instead of using the opportunity to make a historically accurate film to show the rise and motivations of the first American family of the Sicilian mafia(as an accurate "prequel" of sorts to "The Godfather"), the true plight of Italian immigrants in a foreign and often inhospitable land, and the operations of corrupt political, judicial, and law enforcement systems (akin to Scorsese's Gangs of New York), instead the filmmakers decided to make a revisionist, "politically correct", fictional debacle and have the shameful audacity to say it is "based on true events". In short, the film is based on bullshit. The truth may not be what people want it to be, and I certainly don't want to believe my ancestor was a murderer and criminal, but it is what it is. He had his reasons. People did what they thought they had to do, for the survival and success of their families and themselves. Some innocent people died as collateral damage, and for this reason, the American Mafia established a "rule" that is generally followed to this day - don't kill cops, especially not the chief cop, or major crap will happen, sometimes to innocent people, sometimes to the guilty. This movie doesn't really show or suggest that, although in reality, that was probably the most important take-home message of the actual events. In short, don't watch this film if you're looking for a movie that is even remotely historically correct. It's a damn shame, because Christopher Walken is one of the finest actors of our time. Ask yourself this - if this film's portrayal really was the way it was - why was it made into a TV movie, and not a cinematic release ? Why ?...because it's malarkey, that can easily be verified as such... by reading a book.

African Americans were not the only group lynched in the US. In the 1890s, there were six lynchings of Italians, three of them in Louisiana. This is the story of one such lynching in New Orleans.After the emancipation in 1865, the power in New Orleans imported Sicilians to replace the African American. After a time, they came to regret this decision, as the Italian population grew to about 30,000 by 1890. They, particularly James Huston (Christopher Walken), set about trying to play the two factions of Sicilians (the Machecas and the Provenzanos) against each other.It should be noted that politically correct terminology is not used for the two races.Since the Sheriff (Andrew Connolly) wouldn't go along with the Mayor (Kenneth Welsh) and the other leaders, he was disposed of. Another policeman (Luke Askew) reported that "dagos" did it and riots ensued. Six men were pointed out by a "witness" that was intimidated by the police.A "trial" was held, but the results weren't what the town expected, so they took matters into their own hands, stirred up by the Mayor with threats by Huston that it will be done "with you or without you." Of course, many more were murdered in the real event that took place, but this is a movie.Huston got what he wanted.

This film is based on a real story of a century ago that probably is not in any of the New Orleans tourist brochures. Thirty thousand Italians were brought into New Orleans between the end of the Civil War and 1890 as a source of cheap labor to work on the docks and in the farm produce market. There is real money to be made and some of the most powerful men in the city resent the wealth of two Italians who have given their countrymen an incentive to be very productive. The police chief who won't go along with a takeover plot hatched by the mayor and the men who have put the mayor in power is assassinated. A group of Italians who are in the wrong place at the wrong time and the two wealthy Italian businessmen are framed. After the courtroom drama, there is an even more dramatic finale.

The story is great, and the actors are very good too. I guess I like the story more than the acting. Though it has no happy ending, but it feels real. Wonderful movie.