12 December,2010 12:17 AM IST | | Anjana Vaswani
Carlos The Jackal, the French film about Venezuelan terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez was the main attraction at Rendezvous, the French film festival that was held in the city this week. Sunday MiD DAY decodes top gangster biopics
Carlos, 2010
Mobster: Ilich Ramirez Sanchez aka, Carlos the Jackal, got his nickname from the novel, The Day of the Jackal, which authorities found among his belongings. Born in 1949 in Venezuela, Carlos joined the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) after he was kicked out of University. In '75, he took 11 oil ministers hostage during his raid on the OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) HQ in Vienna, but freed them for a multi-million dollar ransom.
Director: Oliver Assayas
Cast: Edgar Ramirez, Alexander Scheer
Synopsis: The movie tries to understand the man, who managed to elude authorities for two decades. It depicts Carlos' media-consciousness ufffd Carlos wanted to project himself as a champion of the oppressed even when he organised the Vienna operation.
Goodfellas, 1990
Mobster: Henry Hill, who formed ties with the Lucchese crime family, was born in a poor family in Brooklyn.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci
Synopsis: Based on crime-reporter Nicholas Pileggi's non-fiction novel, Wiseguy, the movie has Hill (Ray Liotta) narrating his experiences. In scenes coloured with Scorsese's humour, Hill reveals, "By the time I grew up, there was 30 billion a year in cargo moving through Idlewild Airport and believe me, we tried to steal every bit of it...Whenever we needed money, we'd rob the airport. To us, it was better than Citibank." Hill eventually entered a witness protection programme and ratted on over 50 hit-men.
The Untouchables, 1987
Mobster: Al (Scarface) Capone, born in 1899 in Brooklyn, quit school to gang up with thugs, Johnny Torrio and Lucky Luciano. At 19, Capone left for Chicago to escape murder charges and there, he murdered 'Big Jim' Colosimo, boosting the rank of his friend Torrio. Capone eventually took over from Torrio and in due course had everyone from congressmen to more than half of Chicago's police on the payroll of his bootlegging empire. When he was finally arrested in 1932, it was just on tax evasion charges.
Director: Brian de Palma
Cast: Kevin Costner, Sean Connery and Robert De Niro
Synopsis: Federal agent Elliot Ness narrates the tale of how he, in the 20s, assembled a special team to bring down the Capone regime. Unforgettable scenes from the movie include one where right in the middle of a shoot-out, Ness and his men attempt to catch a baby-buggy that's rolling down the stairs, and a scene in which Sean Connery (police-officer Jimmy Malone), tells Kevin Costner (Ness), "You want to get Capone? Here's how you get him. He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way."
Bugsy, 1991
Mobster: Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel, a Jewish-American gangster who thrived in the 1940s, started off as part of a gang of small-time thieves, eventually graduating to gambling, car-theft and then to bootlegging with the head of the Gambino crime family. Hoping to legitimiSe his business, Bugsy dreamed up The Flamingo, a massive $4 million casino/hotel in the Nevada desert, which ran up such a massive debt with his mob-buddies that it eventually cost him his life.
Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Harvey Keitel and Ben Kingsley
Synopsis: Warren Beatty plays the role of the seemingly-impulsive playboy-gangster, who, inspired by the ideas of his Hollywood starlet-amour, is intent on "building something big" and thereby goes on to shape the destiny of Las Vegas, unwittingly bringing on his own collapse.
